[MAIPC] Lespedeza cuneata

Fri Sep 30 09:39:07 PDT 2016

Thanks! Anytime anyone wants a tour of this area, I walk in SGL 110 several times a week. I see everything mentioned in the article and more. Tracks and scat are meaningless indicators as there is still extensive undisturbed woodlands. (I saw bear scat in the middle of a road near SGL217 earlier this week - guess it means bears prefer roads as toilets so more roads need building because they make good bear toilets?) The apple and pear trees are in bad shape. Whereas, the native (non-hybridized) American chestnuts along the ridge are heavy in burrs.

The number of PA Game Commission introduced plants in this area is huge - Autumn olive and sawtooth oak among others. Then there are all 4 species of non-native honeysuckles, Oriental bittersweet, spotted knapweed and a hybrid knapweed, phragmites australis, possibly angelica, Ailanthus altissima, garlic mustard, Japanese stilt grass, Giant knotweed and many more plants to a total of at least 30 species. A lot appear to be hitchhikers on game commission vehicles and hunter vehicles and the result of extensive logging since none of these vehicles are ever washed. The one saving grace in this area is that the Appalachian Trail runs the length of SGL 106, 110, 217 and others. This gives us a 200 yard buffer each way (400 yards total) from logging and other actions by the game commission along the Appalachian Trail.

                                                                                                                                                  Richard Gardner

Our dog Sir Isaac Newton for president. Clearly, the people's choice!

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 9/30/16, Stephen Hiltner <stevehiltner at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [MAIPC] Lespedeza cuneata
 To: "Richard Gardner" <rtgardner3 at yahoo.com>
 Cc: "maipc at lists.maipc.org" <maipc at lists.maipc.org>, "John Ambler" <john.ambler at verizon.net>
 Date: Friday, September 30, 2016, 11:57 AM

 Found your
 email in my spam folder. Here's a link to a 2002 Morning
 Call article describing the planting of Chinese bushclover
 (sericea lespedeza) by the Pennsylvania Game
 Commission. 

 http://articles.mcall.com/2003-11-02/features/3508485_1_lands-management-game-lands-appalachian-trail
 Dave
 Mitchell, the commission's Lehigh Valley land manager,
 said clover fields provide excellent forage for deer and
 bear and attract hordes of insects important to wild turkeys
 and other birds. Once planted, clover fields are also quite
 easy to maintain, said Mitchell, explaining that they need
 only be limed and fertilized once a year. Commission workers
 limed and fertilized more than 6,200 acres of food plots
 during fiscal 2002.

 During the same period, the commission mowed
 more than 14,000 acres of game lands to maintain
 high-quality grasses and legumes. One such field was clearly
 marked on Game Lands No. 110 with a sign sericea lespedeza,
 the scientific name for Chinese bush clover. This perennial
 legume, native to eastern Asia, is resistant to drought and
 insects and can grow in poor soil. It has high levels of
 crude protein and is an important source of winter food for
 deer, quail, small rodents and other animals. Its tall,
 bushy stalks also provide important cover and nesting
 habitat for species such as cottontail rabbits and
 quail.
 On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at
 7:02 AM, Richard Gardner <rtgardner3 at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 L.
 cuneata is apparently one of the gifts of the Pennsylvania
 Game Commission. I have given up trying to pull it up as it
 is almost everywhere I walk. I heard that it was planted as
 "game food", but the shell of the seed is too hard
 to digest. So, birds can have full crops while starving to
 death. I am still trying to figure out why the PGC is
 planting apples and pears in land it controls. Neither is a
 native food.

 There is a large portfolio of disasters like this gifted to
 us by the PGC in SGL 217 just "north" of the
 Allentown shelter on the Appalachian Trail along the border
 of Lehigh and Schuylkill counties. Among these disastrous
 gifts are hybrid chestnuts (part of this year's
 research) and sawtooth oak. It is an easy walk from the
 parking lot at the top of Blue Mountain where Blue Mountain
 House Road becomes Fort Franklin Road. (Last year I
 obliterated a perilla infestation here by pulling up all the
 plants I could find.) There is an upland bog in this area I
 can send GPS points for if anyone is interested.

 After leaf drop I will be doing a vernal pond survey along
 the Appalachian Trail and nearby trails from just south of
 Rt. 183 (Bethel Twp.) to Northkill Road (Upper Bern Twp.) My
 expectation is a minimum of 6 to 10 vernal ponds will be
 found.

 I have begun collecting burrs from native Castanea dentata
 (not the hybrid disasters) on trails near home. Suggestions
 for how to plant these are welcome. I am also in the process
 of doing a physiological comparison between native, hybrid
 and non-native chestnuts.

  Richard Gardner

 Our dog Sir Isaac Newton for president. Clearly, the
 people's choice!

 ------------------------------ --------------

 On Wed, 9/14/16, John Ambler <john.ambler at verizon.net>
 wrote:

  Subject: [MAIPC] Lespedeza cuneata

  To: maipc at lists.maipc.org

  Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 2:22 PM

  In Lancaster County (PA)

  Central Park a series of native wildflower meadows were

  planted some years ago with seed collected from the

  county.  In one meadow apparently Lespedeza

  cuneata (Chinese bushclover) was included in the seed

  mix when seed was collectedalong the Susquehanna River,

  probably at Lock 12, near Holtwood Bridge on PA372.  One
 meadow has a large patch

  (maybe 100x200 ft.?) of Lespedeza cuneata growing

  vigorously among other plants.  There is some spread
 by

  mowing along the edge of the meadow, and it has been
 found

  in two of the other meadows at some distance from the
 main

  infestation.

   Ideally it would

  be controlled by cutting with brush blade in August
 before

  seeds mature followed by treatment of the cut stem. 

  Brushing stem with glyphosate concentrate in early June
 when

  the stems are easily found also is effective.  However,
 volunteers are not

  allowed to use power tools or herbicide.  The park

  wishes to mow the meadows for woody plant control in
 the

  fall, a time that works into their schedule and the
 ground

  may not be too wet.  (Others recommend cutting at the

  beginning of April to minimize damage to overwintering

  butterflies.)

   Mowing will

  rapidly spread the Lespedeza cuneata, which will

  seriously degrade the meadows.  Also it will favor

  wider spread, e.g., downstream via the nearby Mill Creek
 (a

  small river).

   Could anyone

  with experience with Lespedeza cuneata comment on its

  invasiveness?  I see from EDDMapS that there are a lot

  of reports of it in New Jersey, so someone must be
 worried

  about it there.

   John

  AmblerLancaster,

  PA

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