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...
Tackling Invasive Plant Control in Vermont
Seed catalogs have long been abandoned, as many of us are grabbing onto our shovels and rakes, waiting for the weather to warm and the ground to thaw. If invasive plant control is on your “to-do” this spring, here are some recommendations for useful tools, and resources for how to use them.
Ever tried to grub up a...
Snow lined fields, seed catalogs in the mailbox, and Punxsutawney not seeing his shadow bring thoughts of spring. A popular pastime in Vermont is to plan a walk through the woods just after snowmelt, and catch the brilliance of our spring ephemerals (short-lived wildflowers).
Walking through the woods in Chittenden County, you may run across someone studying a plant and photographing it with her cell phone. The Mapping for Healthy Forests pilot project has found success in the hands of a superstar volunteer, Meg McEnroe.
From New Jersey, now making her home in the Green Mountains, Meg was drawn to this project after seeing the type of damage invasive plant...
More detailed information about the results that were featured in a News item in mid-January, link to previous news item: http://vtinvasives.org/news/big-picture-view-invasive-plant-problem
"U.S. Forest Service...
"DURHAM — After fighting the invasive glossy buckthorn for decades, Tom Lee, University of New Hampshire associate professor of forest ecology and NH Agricultural Experiment Station researcher, and Steve Eisenhaure, UNH Office of Woodlands and Natural Areas land use coordinator, have planted an entire orchard of the shrub at UNH's Kingman Farm.
Using this orchard, their team is looking...
"Invasive plants are increasingly altering the structure and function of our natural environment, and now researchers have determined how far-reaching the problem has become.
"Miconia trees with their ginormous green and purple leaves are invading botanic gardens all around the world. While the plant is aesthetically pleasing, it is also called the "green cancer" for its ability to claim and overwhelm new territories, according to researchers from the University of Alcalá.
A recent study revealed 91 countries that are at risk of being colonized by these...
"BOISE, Idaho —
Finding a way to stop fire-prone cheatgrass and other invasive species is unavoidable if sagebrush ecosystems in the West are to remain viable for native plants and animals, experts say.
More than 200 federal and state land managers and scientists trying to figure out how to do that took part in the three-day 2015 Western Invasive Weed Summit that wrapped up...
"Going for a walk the other day along a public trail I was struck by the number of invasive shrubs I saw. Most trees and shrubs have shed their leaves, but burning bush (Euonymus alatus), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) still have leaves on their branches. Holding leaves and producing food by photosynthesis gives them extra energy to take over the world...