Invasive Species Bias

[jharkness]

@kaipatiki_naturewatc

Then the operation becomes one of love for the habitat, not of hate for a species. In almost all situations a sensitive and selective approach aimed at nurturing the existing or potential native species gets much better results in terms of ecological restoration, ie increased area, diversity and density of vegetation native to that site and likely to succeed in becoming self sustaining.

This is how I have begun managing invasive species on my land. I started doing it this way after I asked myself why I was trying to wipe out invasive species at the cost of native species; often I would destroy native plants by mowing, cutting or pulling invasives, and simply not knowing they were there. As a result, I managed to ruin nesting habitat for the towhees, chestnut-sided warblers and yellow warblers in a shrubland/meadow on my land). My strategy changed largely to simply cutting back invasive plants around natives to reduce competition, and the result of this is that after repeating this a couple of times, the native species will usually become dominant over the invasives and function as a control method themselves, now I have these birds I mentioned nesting here again. Removing the native species too, as often happens when someone mindlessly tries to destroy the invasive species without awareness of what else is growing there, usually (at least where I live) does nothing other than favor the regrowth of the targeted species, as many of the plants that have become invasive here are frequently able to stump and root sprout prolifically. Never have I seen an invasive species ‘monoculture’, a thicket of multiflora rose, or autumn olive, or ‘pure’ stand of garlic mustard, or even a species as aggressive as phragmites, truly exclude all native vegetation, but it concerns me how few people I meet realize this, especially those who attempt to control invasive species. It really bothers me when I see people tackle oriental bittersweet, but also cut (and sometimes treat with herbicide) all of the native grapes and Parthenocissus - it only results in killing the native plants and mature bittersweet while a new generation is given the opportunity to take their place.