South East Exotic Plant Management Team

On the 21st of October 2010 we had the opportunity to serve with the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy on an environmental wetland restoration project to convert a tomato field back into a swamp bog habitat. The primary plant they are planning to restore was the extremely rare and endangered plant called the bunched arrowhead, or the Saggitaria fascicula. This is part of the water plantain family Emergent. The bunched arrowhead is an aquatic plant with a 12 inch or smaller tall spatuate leaf with a three petalled flower and an erect spiked arrowhead shaped leaf. To help restore this valuable and endangered plant habitat we planted 150 trees with a group of 15 other volunteers in the field.

The Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy is a non-profit organization that works with land owners to set aside large or small tracts of areas that they would like to be designated non-developable. This is often for the sake of endangered plant and animal habitats. The tomato field that we planted trees in was once a wetland/bog environment that had a thriving community of bunched arrowhead living in this specialized niche environment. The next step in this site will be to repair the 8 foot diameter ditch that follows along the edge of the entire field bank. They are also planning to install 9 foot diameter clay slugs along the bank in other areas to increase the water retention in the soil and recreate the bog environment.

We planted sycamore trees, or Plantanus occidential. This tree is one of the largest trees in the eastern United States and is known for its paper-thin, silver white bark with wide spread zig-zag branches. Next we planted green ash, or Fraxinus pennsylvanica, which is a lowland growing tree species that has whiteish-gray, alligator-like rough bark. The most famous tree we planted was the tulip popular, or Liriodendron tulipifera. This tree is one of the largest and straightest trees in the forest with smooth, grey bark and a four lobed leaf. The last type of tree we planted in the swamp bog was river birch, or the Betula nigra. This tree has a reddish-brown to cinnamon red bark that has a slightly bent trunk with a helter-skelter limb structure in the canopy of the tree.

During our experience, we enjoyed planting the various trees and learning about the process of restoring a wetland/bog environment. This experience was informative because we learned about the bunched arrowhead and the trees. We hope to have another chance to help out the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy.

The Asheville Weed Team is a group of passionate people from many different professions who have joined together in an effort to eradicate the bittersweet vines along the Parkway. Their enthusiasm was evident while we worked alongside them at a volunteer event coordinated by our NPS partner, Nancy Fraley. The event took place on Saturday, September 25th. Around 22 volunteers donated their time and efforts. It was a good experience and we were able to talk to many people who have been in the horticulture and invasive plant removal business for many years.

After dividing up into groups and distributing tools and personal protection equipment (PPE), groups drove out to preselected sites and went to work on the bittersweet. Our site was densely tangled with vines and rose. Autumn olive also had an established presence. We did run into a bees nest at one point and were forced to move down the road and continue.

In the afternoon we were appointed a different site and worked by the on-ramp of highway 74-A where the slope was steep and the vines, thick. It was a good workout walking up and down the slope.

Citizen-times write up: http://www.thesca.org/newsroom/asheville-area-invasive-plant-fighters-pu...

We have been working for about three weeks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We started at the point where the Parkway passes over the majestic French Broad River, and heading northbound until the Parkway passes over Highway 25. Our primary goal for this site is to save the trees from invasive plant overgrowth. Trees smothered and killed by invasive overgrowth have the potential to fall prematurelly into the road and into traffic. Downed trees also allow for more sunlight to reach the forest floor, and encourage further invasion by non-native plants. Oriental bittersweet has been the main focus, however we have also been encountering Japanese barberry, autumn olive, multiflora rose, non-native honeysuckles, Microstegium, and privet.
We started by walking along the Parkway, cutting oriental bittersweet vines off of trees and spraying the exposed vines with a small amount of herbicide (25% Accord). We then walked the distance again with herbicide backpack sprayers (3% Accord) on our backs, spraying the leaves of invasive plants. We covered a 1.59 mile stretch along the Parkway.

This site has been a nice change of pace for us, with beautiful views into deep clear woods. On the other hand, we spend much of our time standing on steep slopes which is hard on our feet and ankles. We have found that rolling down a hill doesn’t hurt as bad as it would seem, especially when there are soft baby pine trees to catch your fall.

We have spent a couple of days working with other SCA members at this site. Kali, an SCA intern who works at our Park Service office, came out in the field with us for two days. We also spent two days working with the CWPP Sanford Team from Greensboro, NC. We all had a lot of fun learning about the pleasures and pitfalls of working with invasive plants.

UPDATE

We finished! After a couple months of working along the road it is a huge deal to finally finish.

At the recommendation of our dedicated volunteer, Diane, we have started working at a new site off of Bull Mountain Road. This is an area that is frequented by hikers and bicyclists. While we have nothing against hiking and bicycling, these are common ways that the seeds of invasive plants are spread. Thus, there is quite a bit of kudzu at this site (which is flowering and smells wonderful), as well as some non-native wisteria, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, etc.

So far, we have mainly used foliar treatments (applying herbicide to targeted leaves using backpack sprayers) to treat the invasives. We have also used a hedge-trimmer to clear the kudzu vines off of trees.

We had some of our property stolen from us at this site. One of our team members had her backpack stolen; and we had an herbicide backpack sprayer stolen. A few days later, both backpacks were found at the site, minus 18 dollars.

UPDATE

We revisited Lower Bull Mountain to foliar spray and to hedge trim the remainder of the kudzu area. We could see the plants that we were successful in killing, however there were some that the foliar had not killed. We also took photos to keep up with our progress of the site.

A project we have in the works is the eastbound entrance/exit ramp of Highway 70 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. There is an invasion of English ivy which covers much of the ground and has already claimed dominance over many of the trees. Other invasive exotics include oriental bittersweet, tree of heaven, autumn olive and honeysuckle. The vines have been very thick and the slope fairly steep. It has been good preparation for the upcoming French Broad River site

UPDATE

We returned to this site with the other SEEPM team, headed by Toby Obenauer, while Calicoe was away. Once again we worked to remove invasive bittersweet and other exotics in the area. Toby and his crew of Will and Cory worked with us to treat these sections while our leader was on time off.

When we were satisfied with the SE ramp, we relocated to the NW entrance ramp. This ramp was very similar to the other ramp and we treated it using the same methods.

July 15, 2010
Our team along with Nancy Fraley, NPS Coordinator Southeast Exotic Plant Management Team, and other SCA interns working in our office, attended the America’s Great Outdoor Initiative at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

The conference was in response to President Obama's request for a report by November 15 with ideas for managing our national parks. He is interested in how to get the American public back into the “great outdoors”. Asheville was the eighth stop on a 20-city tour planned around the country for both youth and adult sessions. We volunteered as facilitators and transcribers for the morning’s youth session to record concerns, ideas, and interests for the initiative's report back to the President.

Overall, the suggestions in each of our youth groups were fairly similar:

-we need better education in public schools K-12 about the National Parks and the outdoors with an emphasis on getting young people outdoors and away from the indoor classroom

-improve funding at local and state levels of the Park Service to provide ways for more Americans to experience the outdoors

-make it easier for young people to get involved and find a career within the NPS and other government jobs without having veterans status overrule

During lunch, our team was able to meet with the Director of the National Park Service John Jarvis and Superintendent Phil Francis. After lunch were were able to hear Director Jarvis, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, and the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Tom Strickland speak at the adult session. This was attended by private and public interest groups, local land owners, other members of SCA teams, and concerned citizens.

In the adult sessions an interest was expressed in reaching out to the American youth. There was, however, a concern about funding. Another focus in the afternoon was the collaboratively with federal agencies and private groups, nonprofits, and other entities.

Off to our first site!! We were all trained and eager to work. When we got there we wanted to turn around because it was so nasty and full of invasives.

We started off using hedge trimmers to make paths through the multiflora rose to get to trees covered in oriental bittersweet. Once we established our paths, we cut the bittersweet vines in the hope of saving the trees which were being strangled by the exotics.

Our next step was a foliar treatment. We hopped in a line and started killing all the invasives. Our focus was mainly on rose and bittersweet but we were also able to take care of some Japanese honeysuckle, privet, and autumn olive. Now we must wait for the herbicide to take effect so that we can check for resprouting later in the season.

UPDATE
The team returned to this site in an attempt to retreat the exotics missed in our first attempt. The area is still very dense and overtaken, however. The weather was not in our favor and we were only able to spray for about 15 minutes before the wind picked up and ended our efforts. Anna was able to cut down a tree of heaven using her favorite weapon: the chainsaw.

We’re back! Our team traveled this past week to McCall, Idaho for training with other SCA teams. We are now all certified in CPR and Wilderness First Aid!!! The training was challenging at times, but very rewarding. We all feel very accomplished.

The setting was in a beautiful mountain by a scenic lake in McCall, Idaho (Payette Lake). We stayed in a little camp and slept in cabins nestled among old ponderosas. It was rather chilly but a good experience.

Attached are some pictures of us in our off-time. We visited some hot springs in Idaho one night. We also took an evening walk along the lake and had a lot of fun throwing rocks at other rocks.

During our chainsaw training we looked up and saw a black bear cub. While in awe, taking pictures, we saw a mama bear out of the corner of our eyes. Since then Mama has come to our office nearly every day to pay us a visit. We haven’t seen the cub since that first day. However it has been over a week now with no sign of Mama. We guess she’s off to bigger and better things.