Join the Jericho Invasive Plant Posse

     

     Our sense of place, as well as our health and well-being and that of nature, are in danger of disintegrating.  The Paul Revere of our day is alerting us - The invasive plants are at our doorstep!

     Take the pledge to maintain an invasive-free yard, field, and forest on your property. And join the Jericho Invasive Plant Posse.

     Invasive plants are filling in, displacing, and replacing Vermont's historic habitat while upsetting the ecosystems we are all reliant upon. Some (like knotweed) are extremely difficult to manage. Honeysuckle at least gives us a fighting chance. We can at least diminish its chance to spread by cutting it down and preventing it from going to seed.

     From now through June 7 is an ideal time to focus on cutting down invasive honeysuckle in Jericho as they are leafing out ahead of most plants, making them easier to spot. 

     Contact me if you would like to add your name to those pledging to maintain an invasive-free property or if you would like to join the Jericho Invasive Plant Posse in cutting down invasive honeysuckle on the town's, and other Jericho properties. 

     Read what Barb Shaw had to say after three of us worked together including a volunteer from Underhill (Russ Barnes), for 6 hours (over two days) to cut down invasive honeysuckle near the pond in Jericho (two-thirds completed as of 4/23). 

     “Thank you both for your efforts. I got some great positive feedback from the neighbors… No offers to help but at least they are appreciative. But appreciation from people isn't why we do this work. We do it for the highest good of… well all there is. I hope what we do today inspires the next generation to be better stewards of our planet/ all life forms and the earth.  When the weather is nice I’d like to have you all (and families) over for a BBQ and share some food and ideas and share how we are growing and preserving food and brainstorm.”

     I also felt good seeing all the native trees (saplings and beaver cut sprouts) that we were freeing up out of the honeysuckle shadow.

     Will cutting it down destroy it?  The answer is no*. It will surely re-sprout. However, cutting a bush ten or twelve feet high and just as wide will stop it from spreading seed for a few years, and make the maintenance of cutting it back much easier in the oncoming years. *Repeated cuttings (once or twice per year) may be effective in killing the plant over time.

     The keyword here is maintenance. It is too late to expect to be able to eradicate this invasive on a large scale. However to do nothing is to allow it to spread, and spread it does (by seed) at a very fast pace. 

     As my mentor, Sean Beckett, Director of Natural History Programming at North Branch Nature Center reminds me "It's imperative that we protect our biodiversity. Ecologically, we are indeed waging a war to remove plants that are devastating our local ecology.”

     An Ohio study showed that within 2 years following invasive honeysuckle removal, bee abundance and species richness increased. Cunningham-Minnick MJ, Peters VE, Crist TO. Bee communities and pollination services in adjacent crop fields following flower removal in an invasive forest shrub. Ecol Appl. 2020 Jun;30(4):e02078. doi: 10.1002/eap.2078. Epub 2020 Feb 26. PMID: 31971650.

     World Environment Day is celebrated annually on 5 June and is the United Nations' principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. What will you do to help protect our natural world?

     Let Native Plant Freedom reign in Jericho. Read my Paul Revere related story at https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/06/paul-revere-rides-again-this-time-in.html

   Here is an excerpt, "Perhaps a single lopper pruning shear or saw might be set out in the Jericho Community Green to mean the invaders are marching "by land", to alert us to their silent approach and prompt us to get out our cutting tools and take up the call to action."

View photos of the invasive honeysuckle removal effort at the Jericho pond site on this post:  https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/04/invasive-honeysuckle-removal-jericho-vt.html

Bernie

Laugh, Dream, Try and Do Good

Connect Community with Nature