Jericho's Kudzu: Combatting Invasive Honeysuckle

   

   Are you aware of the plight of towns with kudzu? Read on to see how it relates to Jericho.

   If you’re reading this anywhere in the Southern United States, you’re bound to be familiar with kudzu. This plant, which is native to Asia, was introduced to the United States as an ornamental plant in 1876.  It was distributed widely as a garden plant, as food for livestock, and as an erosion control aid for many years, until being declared a noxious weed by the USDA in 1976. Today, the vine covers more than 7 million acres of the South, draping itself over trees and power lines, blocking sunlight from forest floors, and generally overtaking any area where it can become established. It can grow up to a foot a day during the summer and take up to ten years to completely eradicate, making it very difficult for land managers to control.

   Now go back and change Southern US to Jericho, change kudzu to Invasive Honeysuckle, and you have an idea of the infestation that is rapidly spreading here in Jericho both on town property and home and landowner's property. 

                       Photo of invasive honeysuckle along the sidewalk on Browns Trace.

   Honeysuckle outcompetes native trees and shrubs. By leafing out earlier and retaining leaves later, honeysuckle has a competitive advantage and easily forms dense thickets. This reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor, decreasing the abundance of native vegetation. This competition can inhibit forest regeneration.

   Let's not wait until it overruns the town. 

WHAT TO DO:

   Take action now to save time and money, and reduce ecological damage. 

•    Contact Bernie to volunteer on the Jericho Honeysuckle Posse. I need help with an area I am clearing currently. Help is needed through May. 

   Help cut down invasive honeysuckle for habitat restoration. Save Jericho from the blight the South has experienced with Kudzu. Most people can do this. Tools used are loppers and hand saws for the most part. Even help with moving cuttings to a pile is helpful to a removal project.

•    Contact the town select board asking for a town invasive Honeysuckle management plant. Ask them to address this now before it becomes prohibitively expensive to tackle. A good first step would be to map out the areas of infestation on town property and right of way. Prioritize the greatest conservation or management value. Apply for cost-share funding through NRCS. Seek volunteers (ideally every April-May). If resources are available, hire/consult invasive control professionals.

•    Walk your property to ID where and how much invasive honeysuckle you have. Develop a plan to start cutting it down.

• Record a photo of your invasive plant(s) on iNaturalist. It will automatically be shown on the Jericho Invasive Plants project page.

WHY: 

   To restore biodiversity and natural communities. Protect pollinators, birds, native fauna, and trees. 

   Invasive honeysuckle release chemicals into the soil that preclude native plants from regenerating so no new trees, no new forests. 

   Invasive species change not only the way natural systems look but also the way they function. Infestations can disrupt forest succession, species composition, water absorption and circulation, nutrient cycling, or even create toxic growing conditions for other plants and animals. They eliminate the biodiversity of our cherished lands. Want to help pollinators and birds? Removing invasive honeysuckle helps both pollinators and birds as well as many other native species. Want healthy woodlands and forests? Removing invasive honeysuckle helps.

HOW TO IDENTIFY INVASIVE HONEYSUCKLE   

   Identifying invasive honeysuckles is easy. They are among the first to leaf out in the spring. Oval-shaped leaves with smooth edges emerge on opposite sides of the stem, unlike those of native honeysuckles, which have serrated edges.

   But the unmistakable sign of invasive honeysuckles is a hollow pith (the tissue inside the stem). A clean, cross-sectional cut with pruning shears on a one-inch-round stem will reveal the pith. A brown, hollow pith identifies invasive species while native honeysuckles have a solid white pith.

   Our method of choice for management is to completely cut the branches to the base of the stump. This is called basal pruning and usually results in vigorous growth. If you repeatedly continue to prune the sprouts, they will not be able to photosynthesize without their leaves. At a minimum, the first cutting drastically reduces seed spread. The primary method of spread is by seed. 

HABITAT RESTORATION

   By removing, controlling, and managing invasive species, we can help preserve our sense of place here in Jericho, and help protect native species that (as Doug Tallamy said) have evolved in this place in a period of time long enough to develop that essential relationship for life.