[APWG] FW: removing periwinkle at Monticello

[Marc Imlay]

Hi Peter,

 

I am excited about your removal of Akebia at Monticello. Perhaps you could
leave the smaller amount of periwinkle that was there historically and
remove the rest that would not be historically accurate. It took 114
volunteer hours to eradicate a one acre patch at Swann Park so 40-50 acres
would take about 20 people a day for 40-50 days.  If you back pack spray,
the Jack in the pulpit, false soloman's seal, black cohosh, Stellaria
pubera, Geranium maculatum, that seem to coexist with the Vinca in this area
would have to be carefully avoided. What was the colonial density of deer?
Could you justify deer control for historic as well as natural heritage
reasons? Cheers. 

 

Marc Imlay, PhD 

Conservation biologist, Anacostia Watershed Society 

(301-699-6204, 301-283-0808) 

Board member of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council, 

Hui o Laka at Kokee State Park, Hawaii 

Vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society, 

Chair of the Biodiversity and Habitat Stewardship Committee 

for the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club. 

 

  _____  

From: Peter Hatch 
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 5:29 PM
To: 'marc at anacostiaws.org'
Subject: removing periwinkle at Monticello

Dear Marc,

 

Thanks for your interesting suggestion that we wipe out the naturalized
Vinca minor in the woods along the cemetery/Shuttle Station Trail. I realize
periwinkle is an exotic invasive, and it has smothered native populations of
plants in this area, just in the 30 years I've been here at Monticello. On
the other hand, in 1771, Jefferson himself (Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book,
Betts, ed, pp. 24, 27) recorded the desirability of planting "Periwinkle" as
a "hardy perennial flower" or naturalizing ground cover in this very western
side of Monticello mountain. In addition, and this is an aesthetic
judgement, I find periwinkle one of the least offensive of the exotic
invasives that plague us. It's a tidy plant that doesn't spread as fast as
the other horrors we deal with in our forests: wineberry, Akebia, Japanese
stilt grass, Japanese honeysuckle, privet, Russian olive. We've recently led
a campaign to wipe out acres of Akebia from an old forest on the south side
of the mountain, and I'm very much on the watch for a few plants that are
spring up around the cemetery. Finally, some highly desirable native
herbaceous plants -- Jack in the pulpit, false soloman's seal, black cohosh,
Stellaria pubera, even Geranium maculatum, and others -- seem to coexist
with the Vinca in this area. Finally, we really don't have the guns (time,
labor, money, staff) to do something like that -- we probably have 40 - 50
acres of naturalized periwinkle at Monticello.

 

Anyway, I agree with you. I'd prefer to have a pure stand of indigenous
plants here at Monticello, but you also need to carefully choose your
battle. Pure forests, at least those visited by humans, are becoming a thing
of the past. It's my opinion that it'll get worse every year -- that
Japanese stilt grass and white tail deer disruption are impossible to thwart
except in small, discrete, fenced in, heavily monitored and maintained
areas. It may have been someone associated with your forest, or near you,
that I heard speak about the effect of exotic earthworms eliminating the
leaf litter on forest floors, thereby changing the constituency of the
native ground cover. Talk about scary stuff.

 

Thanks again for watching out for us. I'm most sympathetic.

 

Peter Hatch, Director of Gardens and Grounds

Monticello 

 

 

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