Invaders are everywhere

Invasive plants have been getting a lot of well-deserved attention.

Once introduced into the wild, they spread rapidly, outcompeting native vegetation. They displace native plant communities and the animals that rely on these plants, disrupting natural ecosystems and destroying wildlife habitat. Generally these plants produce large volumes of seeds. Many of the worst invasive plant offenders also spread clonally by sending up root suckers.

Not all non-native plants are invasive. Many are unable to grow in the wild. Others are able to spread into the wild, but they do not reproduce prolifically and displace native plant communities. A good example is the domestic apple tree.

Among those that are the most environmentally and economically harmful are multiflora rose, Canadian thistle, bull and musk thistles, purple loosestrife, giant hogweed, mile-a-minute vine, and Johnson grass. It is illegal to propagate or transport these plants, or even to allow them to grow on your property.

Other invasive plants are not controlled by the state, even though they can be just as harmful: oriental bittersweet, exotic bush honeysuckle species, Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, autumn olive, winged burning bush, Chinese wisteria, and Norway maple. Some nurseries are still selling these environmentally harmful plants.

Some invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed, tree of heaven, phragmites or southern reed, Japanese stilt grass and garlic mustard are spread throughout the wild accidentally, often through the transportation of fill dirt containing their seeds, or by road maintenance practices. Once they establish themselves adjacent to a stream, they are spread downstream throughout the stream corridor by flood waters.

Landowners should consider using native plants in their landscaping and wildlife plantings. For almost any nonnative landscaping plant, there is a native counterpart that has similarly desirable characteristics such as brilliant fall colors, good berry production, or fragrant flowers. A simple Internet search consisting of the plant's name and the word "invasive" will bring up loads of information.

Many of these plants are easy to control if they are eliminated while their populations are small. Familiarize yourself with these plants and make it a point to walk your property and eliminate any invasive plants that begin to grow by pulling and cutting, or through herbicide use. By controlling these plants while there are only a few, you can eliminate habitat damage and costly control efforts down the road.

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I was recently involved in two local efforts to control noxious weeds. In Little Kettle Creek, southern Potter County, I helped with an Agriculture Department effort to control giant hogweed.

That is a cousin to our native cow parsnip. It is a perennial plant that grows to 10 feet tall and has enormous white flower clusters. When a person comes in contact with the plant, plant fluids react with sunlight to cause chemical burns on the skin.

Later, I participated on milea minute vine control efforts along the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning Creek in Potter and Cameron counties. That's a thorny annual vine that has nearly perfect triangular shaped lime green leaves. Mile-a-minute vine produces shiny blue berries and grows at an astonishing pace.

At some point in the last decade, mile-a-minute vine seeds carried into the First Fork watershed below Wharton. The infestation spread downstream like a cancer, with the heaviest infestations occurring just south of Wharton and in Sinnemahoning State Park.