[MAIPC] invasive plant removal

[John Lampe]

Here are my two cents on dealing with the woody plant debris:

In the last 5 years or so we have generally stopped piling up buckthorn, honeysuckle, etc.  The piles don’t break down quickly and start getting bigger and bigger.  When the invasives grow through the piles, you have a real mess.

 

We cut the woody plants into smaller pieces with loppers while they are green and let the debris lie on the ground.  If you are in a wetter part of the country, it will break down rapidly.  Here’s video of this process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqBKi8CpabQ  Although we use cut stump treatments, I think the same technique could be used with mechanical processes.   For industrial scale projects, perhaps this won’t work, but if you have volunteers who like to use loppers or smaller tracts, it can work well.

 

John 

 

 

John K. Lampe

651-245-4682

 <mailto:john at greenshootsonline.com> john at greenshootsonline.com 

 <http://www.greenshootsonline.com/> www.greenshootsonline.com 



 

 

 

From: MAIPC [mailto:maipc-bounces at lists.maipc.org] On Behalf Of Richard Gardner
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 1:23 PM
To: Pia van de Venne; maipc at lists.maipc.org
Subject: Re: [MAIPC] invasive plant removal

 

My feelings are that carrying out garlic mustard and Japanese stilt grass from places like the Appalachian Trail is not feasible.  We are doing a garlic mustard removal in early May along the AT near here.  With 14 miles of trail and no vehicle access along the stretch we will be doing I do not see taking out bags of garlic mustard as possible.  Instead, we will be leaving easily monitored piles as far apart as possible.

 

Multiflora rose in our area is going extinct due to 2 diseases and a mite.  The bush honeysuckles are having serious issues here.  Part of my summer research will be to monitor and try to transfer the diseases between plants.  I will be looking for mites as the vector and trying to transfer aphids between plants.

 

  I found that last fall when I tried to pull bush honeysuckles out they came without much effort.  We left the plants we pulled out in place with the roots exposed.

 

Ailanthus altissima in on the list.  I am going to try to see if I can find a volunteer friendly way to transfer the diseases between trees.

 

                                                                                              Richard Gardner
 

 


  _____  


From: Pia van de Venne <pia.parkprotector at gmail.com>
To: maipc at lists.maipc.org 
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 11:37 AM
Subject: [MAIPC] invasive plant removal

 

Hello,

 

During the 16 years that I have assisted in the removal of invasive plants, I learned that garlic mustard should be certainly taken out of the woods because of the amount of toxins in the plants. So we bag garlic mustard and most of the stiltgrass.

 

I do believe that none of the non native plant residue is beneficial to the native woods; we have masses of oak leaves and other native debris, so I just hope that piles of multiflora roses, burning bush, barberry, and honey suckle bush will decompose together with the native plant debris without causing too much harm or slowing down the growth. Our piles are 5ft tall and I lean on them to condense them.Since we have few volunteers we have left behind a lot of pulled out invasive material in the woods in piles.(They make very good bird and animal shelters.) I pay attention to not allow privet to touch the forest floor. We also compact the ground, disturbed by the digging and pulling, with our feet. I know that some people prefer to cut the stem and paint, but that is not the issue right now

 

My aim is to leave as much natural area between the piles to give native vegetation the right environment, since we still have tons of small saplings and herbaceous plants growing and exploding when we remove the invasive plants.

Question: does it make a difference whether we make these concentrated piles or whether we just spread all the removed branches and roots of invasive bushes over the entire area.

 

Question: will planting new saplings between cut multiflora roses without removing or killing the roots make sense? Will the competition of the cut roots not prevent growing of the newly planted saplings?

 

Thank you very much for responding. 

Pia van de Venne, Volunteer coordinator Murrysville Parks 724 733 2770


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