Invasive Plant Suppression
Invasive Plants Damage Our Watershed
When is green not good? Much of what we see along roadways, river banks, parking lots, and even in our back yards is often an invasive plant. Once an area is overtaken by an invasive, the native plants cannot compete and slowly die out. This upsets nature’s balance, depriving wildlife of food and shelter, both on the land and in the water.
Controlling Invasive Plants Around Raccoon Creek
What is an invasive plant and why is it bad? An invasive plant is one that evolved elsewhere, often in Asia, was brought here deliberately and/or by accident, and grew out of control without its homeland competitors and predators to keep it in check. Once an area is overtaken by an invasive, the plants that do belong – the native plants – cannot compete and slowly die out. This upsets nature’s balance, depriving wildlife on land and water of food and shelter.
At Rocky Bend Nature Preserve, Independence Conservancy is actively reclaiming acres of shoreline from dense stands of Japanese knotweed. Where it was once impossible to walk or enjoy the view, Conservancy crews have suppressed or eliminated knotweed. Freed from competition, native wildflowers and shrubs are sprouting up in the places they had grown before knotweed arrived. These native plants – the plants that evolved here – are once again nourishing and sheltering the wildlife we enjoy seeing and hearing – songbirds, butterflies, waterfowl, fish and amphibians.
Japanese knotweed is just one of many invasive plants common in Western Pennsylvania. Ailanthus, or “tree-of-heaven,” oriental bittersweet vine, bush honeysuckle, autumn olive trees, glossy buckthorn shrubs, Japanese barberry bushes, Callery pear trees and Japanese stiltgrass are all problematic plants of the green-is-not-good variety.
Learning to identify invasive plants is the first step in halting their progress in your own back yard or woodlot. Read our full story, and learn more about how you can help eliminate Japanese knotweed and other invasives on our Resources page.