[APWG] [ma-eppc] questions on invasives control and natural area management.

[Marc Imlay]

Let's help Fred.

  _____  

From: ma-eppc at yahoogroups.com [mailto:ma-eppc at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
MALawler at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 4:53 PM
To: ma-eppc at yahoogroups.com
Cc: fredatwood at yahoo.com
Subject: [ma-eppc] questions on invasives control and natural area
management.

 

Here's a question from the Virginia Native Plant Society listserve, which I
hope some of you can answer.  Mary Ann

Dear Plant enthusiasts,
Here in Oakton in Fairfax County my students and
I have spent many many man-hours at our campus
and the adjoining Oak Marr/Tattersall
Park(FCPA)removing invasive aliens and trying to
plant native species that are good for wildlife.
It has been a very difficult battle and as we
prune back and tear up russian olive, asiatic
bittersweet, wineberry, wisteria, japanese
honeysuckle, bush honeysuckle, and japanese
barberry year-after-year, several questions keep
coming to our minds. 

1. In places, such as this one, where the deer
are grazing the greenbrier and other shrubby-type
growth so it is unusable by things like towhees,
thrashers, ovenbirds, kentucky warblers, and wood
thrushes, is it better to allow some of the
invasive shrubs to continue to exist in small
patches for bird-use? I know that many of these
shrubs and vines are spread far and wide in bird
droppings, so they would continue to be a
nuisance-source of invasion, but it seems that
all the other sources that we cannot control
outside our management area will continue to
invade anyways, so why not leave a few patches
for the undergrowth-birds to nest in. By removing
the only shrubs that can grow where deer
populations are high, are we also removing the
only places come bird species can nest and forage
for food? Does anyone know of any studies done
on this? 

2. Most of the "deer-proof" plants that we have
planted have been decimated by the deer. We have
been cutting Wisteria off the forest trees
because of its death-grip which has killed
several, but the ground for at least an acre is
interlaced with the roots so it has been a losing
battle to try to control it in the undergrowth. 
Is it possible to use a cover of invasives such
as shoulder-high wisteria understory, that the
deer don't eat, planting some of the other native
shrubs etc underneath and among them, using them
as a sheild? Similarly could some other native
herbacious plants be planted among the
ground-cover of japanese honeysuckle as a
protection against deer-grazing? HAve any studies
been done on this?

3. IN our area the deer are eating the multiflora
rose, seeming to keep it under control. I have
seen some amazing thickets of this plant along
Difficult Run downstream from here that have been
totally eaten by the deer. For this reason we
have not bothered removing the rose, hoping that
the deer will fill up on it instead of eating
some of the other native plants. What do you all
think of this?

4. We are also finding to our surprise that the
primary battles against invasives are closer to
the road in the pinewoods. The oak-hickory-woods,
perhaps because of its thick leaf litter(?) or
its distance from the road(?) or its shadier
summer interior (?) has far fewer invasives and
requires much less maintenance, especially in
areas away from trails and streams where the
japanese honeysuckle, japanese barberry, and
occasionally russian olive are most likely to
occur. As a result we still have some nice
patches of wind-flower, trout lily, toothwort, 
violets, jack-in-the-pulpit, paw-paw and even a
little may-apple (unless the deer find it). Have
you all noticed similar things or are we just
lucky? 

5. It is also fascinating to see that of the tree
saplings that are sprouting naturally in the pine
forest, the ones that seem to avoid the deer
grazing are the ashes. 

Thanks for your input
Fred Atwood

Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood at yahoo. <mailto:fredatwood%40yahoo.com> com
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675 
http://www.agpix. <http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood> com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthil <http://www.flinthill.org/> l.org
http://tea.armadapr <http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html>
oject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html





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