5/20/2013
First of all to understand what happens with invasive plants, you gotta understand who invasive plants really are. By definition an invasive plant is one who causes economic, enviromental harm, or harm to human health or safety. Think of it this way, Invasives are a form of biological pollution. The thing about invasive plants is; They don’t pay attention to boundaries. Using different means plants will find there way to the front of the ‘rat race’ for more sun and nutrients. Different plant parts (seeds, stems, shoots, etc) are dispersed throughout the world by wind, water, wildlife, and humans. After going over the importance of eradication, we went on to learn to identify these horrid plants.
Towards the beginning of our Invasive plant experience we were provided with the opportunity to attend a useful info-session with our site contact with DDOE (District Department of Enviroment) where we were first introduced to the plants we’ll be working with this summer by way of slideshow. While awaiting the last preparations that would allow us to begin work in the field we took part in a shared assignment where we visited parks in our own neighborhoods to find a sample of assigned invasive plants, than share our findings with our crew. Now that we’re familar with our vegetable enemies we’ll find out how it is we’ll eliminate them.
Through the use of different mechanical/chemical means we’ll do our best to show these plants that this is our land! Using things like chainsaws, machetes, loppers, pruners, bow saws, sprayers, and flamethrowers we’ll save our community’s native plants. Maybe not that last one though… As of now we have utilized mechanical methods. Using machetes, loppers, and hatchets we have taken care of vines and patches of different plants.
Stay tuned for more details!