Case Of The Alien Invaders

This summer there has been a large effort within Sinnemahoning State Park and surrounding areas to control a nasty foreign plant invader that has gained a foothold in the First Fork Valley.

The name of this annual plant is especially sinister, mile a minute vine. Having worked to control one small outbreak area for the last three summers, I can attest to it living up to its name.

This outbreak is of special concern to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the state agency in charge of addressing noxious weed issues, because it is the only known location of mile a minute vine in this part of Pennsylvania. As a result Sinnemahoning State Park has been the focus of a multi agency effort to remove this pest.

In many ways this campaign is the first time there has been a concerted effort between so many different agencies and organizations to control an invasive plant outbreak. Unfortunately, there really hasn't been much publicity locally concerning mile-aminute vine and how to identify the nasty vine.

I wish our county's invasive plant problems stopped with mile-a-minute vine. Unfortunately, that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Invasive plant species, like this 'mile-a-minute vine, are causing concern among environmental biologists because they are taking habitat from native species.

Also in First Fork when driving Route 872 if you pay attention you can see large woody vines growing over the trees from Sinnemahoning State Park, down the valley to the village of Sinnemahoning. This nasty invasive, oriental bittersweet (not to be confused with American bittersweet) is basically overrunning the valley. It grows tumbling over the ground, forming thickets. When it comes to a tree, oriental bittersweet envelops the tree, literally strangling it.

Another large woody invasive vine has gained a foothold on a section of the stream corridor along the Driftwood Branch, at Friendly Gardens across from where the Britton Hill Road intersects Route 120. This vine, Chinese wisteria, has been spreading rapidly, almost like a wild fire, as it overwhelms the native herbaceous plants and trees that are growing along the stream. Its location is especially problematic because the stream will serve to transport seeds and spread the infection downstream.

Other invasives are not so obvious, but every bit as harmful. Garlic mustard and Japanese stilt grass are currently spreading like wild fire through our local forests. Roads, hiking trails, and streams often serve as conduits carrying these pests deep into the forest. These two plants in particular are eliminating native wildflowers and herbaceous vegetation in the areas in which they become established, thus eliminating food for many different animals including deer.

Japanese knotweed is another invasive that has already done considerable environmental harm in our county and is poised to do much more over the next several decades. It is spread when root fragments are transported in infected earth fill or along streams during flooding. This plant forms thick dense colonies of tall hollow stocked plants. With the first frost of the fall, Japanese knotweed colonies die off, leaving dead brown stalks.

There are numerous other invasive plants that are currently harming our county's wild areas. I could probably write about them every week for the next year and still not cover all that should be covered concerning this subject.

What makes these plants so harmful is that they out compete native plant communities, replacing the native plants. Most of these invasive plants have no wildlife value or only are valuable to a few species of animals in the short term, but are detrimental once they dominate an area. Once areas have been overrun by these invasives, the wildlife species that relied on the previous native plant communities are gone.

For me, I can picture how productive areas would be without these invasives. I guess that's what makes me so adamant about this issue. From seeing other areas that have been overrun by these plants, I also know what many areas will look like in the future, even though now they are now only beginning to experience infestations of these invasive plants.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Syracuse, New York. All along the way entire waterways and wetland areas were just a solid pink color from the invasive purple loosestrife. The last couple of summers I've noticed this pretty pink flower starting to pop up here and there along the Driftwood Branch. Purple loosestrife is highly invasive and is on the Pennsylvania's list of noxious weeds making it illegal to transport or to allow it to grow on your property. It doesn't take too much insight to realize that if this plant is allowed to continue to grow, in a couple of decades it will spread to dominate considerable areas along the Driftwood Branch corridor.

The best thing the average sportsman can do to help this problem is to make yourself familiar with these invasive plants. Learn what they look like and how they spread. When you see them on your property or in an area for the first time, remove them before they gain a foothold.

It's much easier to eliminate these plants before they begin to cause a problem. Once they take over an area it is not only costly and time consuming to combat them, but it may be impossible to eliminate them completely from that property.