News

"Ohio is taking a swing at nature’s bullies.

Under new rules that went into effect Sunday, the sale and distribution of 38 destructive, invasive plant species will become illegal.

In its list, the state agriculture department included various types of honeysuckles, Bradford pear trees, autumn olive shrubs and fig buttercup flowers that line freeways, coat forest floors and choke wild spaces across Ohio.........................."

Author Credit: By Marion Renault, The Columbus Dispatch

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The growing season for 2017 saw many projects across the state tackling the forest, field, and wetland health issue of non-native invasive plants. Below are highlights of some of these amazing local efforts. Huge thanks to everyone who is working toward making our Vermont landscapes healthier and more resilient, and protecting them for generations to come.

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Japanese barberry

A long-term study of managing Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) shows that clearing the invasive shrub from a wooded area once can lead to a significant reduction in abundance of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) for as long as six years.

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Monitoring for and treating invasive terrestrial plants are some of the more important things you can do to take care of Vermont’s working forests and natural areas. Effective July of 2016, yard and leaf debris were banned from landfills, including material from invasive plant control.

For any questions regarding invasive plant disposal, contact the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Waste Management & Prevention Division at: (802) 828-1138, or vtrecycles.com.

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Despite the discouraging discovery of an invasive species near Lake George, the Adirondacks have also seen some recent bright spots in the fight against invasive species.

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The Japanese barberry tree, a popular landscaping shrub with attractive flowers, was banned from sale in the state of New York in the spring of 2015. The Japanese barberry tree is one of the 11 plants on the state’s banned invasives list, but it will soon be returning to nurseries because of research done by the University of Connecticut. The return will likely take place in the next year.

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Management can have as much of an impact as the invasive plants. Removing invasive plants at Button Bay State Park in the “natural area” involves thoughtful control work, to protect rare, threatened, or endangered native plant species.

This is part two in a three-part series on how to create an invasive plant management plan. This section will guide you through outlining the description, purpose of management, desired condition, and current condition of each site under consideration

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Science Daily reports--

Date:  May 18, 2017

Source: Cambridge University Press

Summary: It is easy to assume that getting rid of invasive plants will allow a local ecosystem to return to its natural state, with native vegetation flourishing once again. However, the impact of weedy invaders can linger for years, a new report outlines.

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The USDA Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team has released a  Field Guide for the Biological Control of Weeds in Eastern North America. This guide includes a quick search by flower color (non-flowering are gray), discusses basic plant and biocontrol biology, and has a symbol-driven efficacy quick guide (status for individual biocontrols: high-low priority, caution with redistribution, illegal to redistribute, no establishment, failed to establish). 

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The Stowe Land Trust is working on a multiyear effort to restore native diversity and habitats to 50 acres of conserved land on the DuMont Meadow property at the end of Adams Mill Road.

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This is part one in a three-part series on how to create an invasive plant management plan.

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Some are disarmingly named, like the cutesy Chinese mitten crab. Others have names more indicative of their undesirable nature, like rock snot, an algae that slimes up cool forest streams.

They are some of more than 100 invasive species that conservationists must battle in New York State, which teems with a growing number of plants, birds, fish, insects, mosses, molds and fungi that actually belong somewhere else.

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WINOOSKI — Elizabeth Spinney and her crew walked through Gilbrook Natural Area armed with their weapons of choice, protected by thick gardening gloves and work boots. They were on the hunt for invasive plants, and their recent battle was just the latest in a war that seems never ending.

The invasive species problem continues to get worse as more plants find the Northeast to be a...

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"500 trees planted in the Burlington's newest park"

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Chickens are so last year — Brooklyn is all about the goats now. In fact, the Prospect Park Alliance just coughed up $15,000 to bring a heard of hungry goats to Prospect Park, where they will eat their way across the aptly named Vale of Cashmere.

The goats are part of a scheme to help undo some of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy and other storms that have battered the park in...

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