How to be helpful in the overwhelming world of invasive species control:
1. First, it’s important to know what plants and animals have lived together over hundreds of years in the Catskill Mountains. These native species depend on each other in order to thrive. Understanding our natural surroundings makes it easier to identify what things do not belong. To begin getting familiar with Catskill native plants, please see this native plant guide provided by the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program.
2. In the Catskills we have several plant species like Oriental bittersweet or Japanese barberry that may seem native, because they cover such a large area, but they are actually non-native, invasive plants. While it is important to know these established invasive plants, it is also critical to learn about early detection species or non-native plants that may only be found in limited quantities in the Catskills. It is much easier to control a small population versus an extensive, established population.
This pdf includes a few slides of early detection plants that have demonstrated negative impacts elsewhere in New York but have not yet taken a hold in the Catskills. The Nature Conservancy has also compiled a list of invasive species in or near the Catskill region and developed a useful guide to preventing the spread of invasive insects and disseases.
3. Once you’ve become familiar with early detection species and if you find one of these plants on your own property, please make a voucher specimen.
4. Talk to neighbors if you notice that they are planting non-native, invasive plants or if they are moving soil that previously had an invasive plant growing in it. Japanese knotweed (seen to right) has colonized miles of streambank throughout the Catskills and was originally brought to the United States for its aesthetic qualities. Now it often creates new colonies when soil with small plant fragments are moved as part of bridge maintenance or gardening projects.
5. Create a neighborhood team to help each other control invasive species in your area. In the hamlet of Oliverea, the Foxfire 4-H club, wrote to neighbors living along the McKenley Hollow creek which flows in the Esopus Creek. After receiving permission from all of the landowners, the children mapped Japanese knotweed locations and worked together to stomp it out and cover it.
6. Lastly, the Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership (CRISP) consists of many agencies and organizations working in throughout the Catskills but is also welcome to concerned citizens.
Links and Resources
Click on the links below for more information:
TNC Inventory and Assessment
Catskill Mountains Garlic Mustard Trailhead/Trail Survey Report
USDA Forest Service Invasive Species Program
Invasive Plant Council of New York State
Invasive Plant Atlas of New England
Experimental Management of Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) on the Batavia Kill, Greene County, New York, Hudsonia, 2009
National Invasive Species Council
NYSDOT Invasive Species I.D., Management and Control (2.89 MB)
GCSWCD Knotweed Brochure
DCSWCD Knotweed Brochure
References
Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group maintains a website on invasive plants and their control, as well as announcements of conferences and other events.
Guide to Invasive Non-native Aquatic Plants in Massachusetts C. Barre Hellquist and Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Management, Lakes and Ponds Program, Boston. 14 page booklet with line drawings, color photos and brief descriptions. For a free copy, contact Michelle Robinson, (617) 626-1382.
“Wisconsin Manual of Control Recommendations for Ecologically Invasive Plants,” edited by Hoffman and Kearns, and published by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Copies are available by sending $3 to the Endangered Resources Fund, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7921.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has produced a “Noxious and Nuisance Plant Management Information System-PMIS” (Version 4) on CD-ROM, that discusses 60 plants, and includes pictures, range maps, control information, and information on pesticide regulations in 26 states. The Aquatic Plant Information System-APIS@ includes the identification and management of over 60 species of native and introduced aquatic and wetland plants. Single copies of each of these CD’s are available free from Michael J. Grodowitz, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CEWES-ER-A, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180 (grodowm@mail.wes.army.mil). Not all of the plants included are problems in New England.