Definitly on the talk to a local ranger band wagon.
I have come across (the aftermath) of someone who had pulled out a bunch of Calystegia tuguriorum (native), and I can only assume they assumed they were pulling out Calystegia silvatica (Invasive). People probably dont encounter the native often, so its easy enought to understand the mistake. But the native also dosent grow back as quick.
But even if 100%, what happens to the plants when pulled. Also should the roots be getting some kind of toxin applied to kill the roots.
Also health and safety, will you be on banks or other areas you may slide down, or other risks you may not be aware of, that could quickly become a problem.
I work as a land manager at a nature center in Central New York so I think I actually have some expertise in this area.
At a place that actually has stewardship staff you should contact them. Do some research and don’t just reach out to the general park/org email, talk to or email the person who can actually answer your question. Also be aware that there isn’t anywhere in the US that has stewardship staff that actually is capable of handling the stewardship of the property, everyone in this field is swamped with projects and depends on volunteers to actually get the jobs done. That’s an excuse of course but know that sometimes these things just get lost or take time. It’s even worse when a group doesn’t have stewardship staff, and may have no idea how to answer your question.
At the site I manage there are a lot of reasons I may put the brakes on someone keen on pulling. We may have a treatment plan for that area or those plants, that is incompatible with pulling. There are a bunch of plants that cannot be controlled through pulling, where pulling just makes them spread more and harder to treat. Celastrus orbiculatus is one of those plant, and pulling just leaves you with more stems than you started with. We also may have uncommon native lookalikes that we are really trying to protect that could be mistaken for the invasive. Once again Celastrus is a great example with the native C scandens being a pretty hard determination most of the year. The invasive may be in an area where soil disturbance should be minimized, places like remnants, rare habitats, or near rare plants it’s not always obvious where these places actually are or what other considerations exist. This Finally there may be active work going on currently in an area that you’re wanting to control. That could put you in contact with herbicides, disrupt biocontrol releases, or interfere with research. These are real considerations at our site.
Pulling events and pulling campaigns can be extremely useful when done right, but when done wrong they can waste time, extend the problem, and make people despair over the possibility of invasive control. And remember pulling in not a useful control strategy for all plants.
Not going to offer an affirmative or negative opinion on this one; definitely defer to park staff on this one.
That said, there is a local city park near me that doesn’t have much in the way of management and it makes my cold heart warm and fuzzy every spring when I walk by the piles of pre-flowering garlic mustard that all the dog walkers pull up and leave in piles on the paved trail. It probably isn’t making much of a dent but darnit, at least its something.
There may also be a revegation project - and you may pull or damage someone’s carefully nurtured stock of bulked up rare plants - which have been reintroduced to suitable habitat.
Garlic mustard is one of those plants where information on how to control is really changing. Pulling has gotten big over the past 20+ years but the spread has not been limited whatsoever. Garlic mustard is the symptom of other problems namely deer over abundance and worm invasion, and unless those are being dealt with (through stop the spread campaigns and deer reduction) we are unlikely to see benefits to native flora following garlic mustard removal. On top of that there is some evidence that in natural situations that garlic mustard reduces in presence after an initial boom, but constantly pulling and scarifying the soil rejuvenates the population and inhibits other competitors.
Unless you are eradicating plants in an area for multiple years and preventing seed set it’s possible that pulling garlic mustard does more harm than good. Now we still pull GM on our site, but it is in spaces where control is achievable on a multi year timeframe, and our biggest GM control is moving to deer control.
I recommend working at just one or two nice spots and removing all invasives there every year checking the site twice in the spring and once in the fall. If there are nice native plants there, they will gradually fill in and it will be wonderful.
I worked for 20 years removing garlic mustard in particular but also other invasives. This note is about Garlic Mustard removal. You need to be careful not to step on the native spring wildflowers - groups will trample plants. Removal twice before ferns leaf out will help you find every plant and so quickly suppress the population. Tiny plants can set seed. You must suppress it for many years for eradication. Bag plants in a strong Contractor bag (those from Lowes will not rip open). Plants left in piles will grow and set seed. Don’t set bag on plants. Don’t shake soil off the roots, bag it too. There are dormant seeds in that soil! I piled and composted the plants in a large garden plot. Later I would always find a garter snake in the pile.
You have obviously incorporated much effective methodology into this effort.
If, over the years, soil is being removed without its being replaced, there may be a significant net loss of soil at the site. After an accumulation of compost has aged sufficiently to destroy the seeds, perhaps the material should be returned to its place of origin. You could maintain separate accumulations of compost of varying ages and return a pile after it is several years old.
I agree wholeheartedly with the “ask permission from the landowner” solution. I’ve volunteered at all sorts of parks and preserves over the years. They all have their own preferences wrt which species to target for removal, allowable removal methods, and preferred disposal methods. When I want to decide all these things myself, I apply my own methods to my own land… Diversity of approach is a positive, if the methods and results are shared publicly.
People often dub a plant as “invasive” because they want an excuse to destroy it, after deciding they don’t like it for independent reasons. In short you don’t know enough to remove it, but you want to remove it so you come up with an excuse.
And read more about the matter. WILD URBAN PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST is a good place to start
The plant is there. It didn’t get there without a struggle. Leave it alone.
Want to do some good? Convince someone to NOT use pesticides, or insecticides, or fertilizer. Or to not plant something like a Burning Bush. But by removing or destroying the plant YOU are not doing good. Stop kidding yourself.
Pesticides, insecticides and fertilizer are not necessarily bad. They are just frequently misused.
And yes, “invasive species” is a human construct, but it’s not meaningless, either. Removing them does promote biodiversity, which I would argue is good.
Those articles talk about how wonderful honeysuckle is because it gives food to birds, but fail to mention how they only eat honeysuckle because it’s the only option they have, since the honeysuckle has smothered the native plants that they’ve eaten for millennia prior to the introduction of invasive honeysuckles. It also leaves out the fact that pretty much everything other than those birds is negatively impacted by the introduction (bees, lepidoptera, etc). I don’t think it’s a good idea to sit by and watch the wintercreepers smother the trees and the burning bush and multiflora rose smother the entire understory without taking any action to stop them. Removing the plants can help solve the problem, albeit only if it is consistently kept up with. I do agree though that you also need to convince people to stop planting the invasive species in the first place to slow the flow of seeds into parks. I don’t want to remove the wintercreepers and other invasive species simply because “I don’t like them,” I want to remove them because they are destroying and compromising otherwise productive habitat.
We can turn it around and say, “People often dub a plant as “not invasive” because they want an excuse not to destroy it, after deciding they like it for independent reasons.”
I asked a land manager once, why do people plant Oriental bittersweet when we have a native bittersweet? Why not plant American bittersweet?
The reply was that people prefer Oriental bittersweet because it grows faster and produces more fruit. In other words: people prefer it because it’s invasive.
Customer at a garden center: “I’m looking for something low-maintenance that will fill in this gap quickly.”
Translation: “I’m looking for something invasive.”
I work at a garden center, which sadly sells very few natives (going to try and fix that) and some invasives like english ivy. I wince every time someone asks for a shade ground cover and they recommend that wretched plant. I’ve noticed Ohio’s illegal to sell invasive plant list very much caters to garden centers, and things that are still commonly sold like water iris, english ivy, pachysandra, lily of the valley, wintercreeper, and burning bush are not on it. They only add something to the list (making it illegal to sell) once garden centers stop selling it when they realize it’s invasive, but by then the damage is done. They probably don’t want backlash from garden centers or gardeners by making popular plants illegal.
Hello! Ohio was where I grew up and stayed until my husband was promoted to NC. We’re from the Mason & Anderson Township areas. Stansberry park in Mt Washington was a favorite of mine when very young. That huge hill to sled down from the swingsets (if still there) was a thrill of many years! I’ve seen pictures of a stone structure shaped like an egg that’s built in the park, yet I’ve never been back for numerous decades. We’ve also rented cabins at Houston woods, Shawnee state park in Portsmouth if I remember correctly, Stonelick, and Land Between the Lakes in Ky. I have no idea what location in Ohio you are talking about and you could be completely opposite of where I was such as in the Lake Erie region. I agree with those that mention getting permission first. I know that sometimes when I’m bending down to take pictures, I’m always thinking people are thinking I’m picking or removing plants and moss. Good to know that someone has an interest to benefiting the native plants in Ohio!!
The neighborhood we live in Matthews, NC is surrounded by a park, so we’re able to make frequent visits there. There’s a lake and it’s within walking distance from our home. After moving here we quickly removed a canopy of periwinkle, Japanese honeysuckle, and English ivy that had covered 3 native trees - a lovely native dogwood and 2 small red cherries. I grabbed the edge of that tangled mess and walked backwards. The whole mess came off and the trees now had all the sun they wanted! We also had 24 very large Sweet Gum trees, mostly the invasive variety, that were taller than our 2-story by another 12 feet or so. 2 tree companies, one with a large crane, took 13 hrs to remove those, a large double trunk Tulip tree, one trunk hollowed out and about 4 ft tall, obviously broken at some point. The other was a large pine tree that was damaged by a colony of black carpenter ants. When the tree was cut at the base after being secured to the crane, a column of black fell from the middle of the tree when it was lifted. Tons of black ants were falling out! Definitely not pleasant for the guy who had cut the tree. With 2 dogs and a steeply sloped driveway, the sweet gum balls had to go. We noticed that we were the first and only one to have that many trees removed, yet we still have plenty of native white oaks, southern red oats, hickories (one ringed so many times by sapsuckers, I’m not sure how it still stands!) 15 native dogwoods (love them!) wild cherries (where the large moths have cocooned there) Other smaller native trees are growing in “the natural area” between homes. Many of the trees removed had double trunks starting at the base. One Sweet gum had 6 trunks from the base. I didn’t realize the danger of double trunked trees until a fat branch fell off a neighbor’s tree while I was sitting at a window facing their yard. The house was sitting empty at the time and it fell straight down pointing towards our home and barely missed the fence there. It was a very loud “BOOM!” Shook the house too! Only thing I could do was put Caution tape around the area while realtors brought clients to view the home. It’s when the tree company came that he told me why it fell and the danger of branches up high with a tight V attaching the limb to the tree.
Your state native plant society and other environmental groups in your areas are used to doing this kind of work. Groups with experience get more attention than individuals.
This is a mistake I’ve made in the past. Getting approval to remove a particular species (honeysuckle) and then removing wayyyyyy more of it than those giving approval thought possible. Having them understand that the initial removal of the honeysuckle would result in an explosion of other herbaceous layer invasives requiring quick decisions about how to deal with those. And having them ultimately decide not to deal with them. It was so frustrating that I now only work on property I own. It is profoundly difficult for any hierarchy to be nimble, no matter how well intentioned.
I worked as a park ranger at several national parks, and I’d like to reemphasize the necessity of contacting the managing organization/agency before doing anything to remove or control invasive plants. No matter how well intentioned your actions might be, permission is a must. Parks or preserves (whether federal, state, local, or private) often have policies and plans to control invasive plants developed through the consideration of many factors. They are also likely to know how your efforts can make the biggest difference. For example, staff might have higher priority places to quash infestations. Or, they could be in the process of evaluating the extent of infestations and therefore your observations can help them formulate a plan. Or, your efforts could become more effective and efficient by joining them for a plant removal day or other volunteer event. They also need to be sure that you can correctly identify the targeted plant. Finally, yanking up plants can also disturb archeological sites that you might not be aware of. I understand that the wheels of bureaucracy can turn frustratingly slow. However, working with the land managers and establishing a trusted relationship with them can pay the biggest dividends over time.