Food! Prizes! Exercise! Great company! Satisfaction! If you can, we hope you'll join the Lincoln Conservation Commission this Saturday for our roadside invasive-exotic-pulling party.
Food? A lunch of Vaneasa's legendary meatball subs or veggie alternative after weed pulling (we need to know which you want when you sign up).
Prizes? From Cubbers gift certificates to homemade pie to Maple Landmark wooden toys. You choose--if you're lucky enough (and cover enough ground) to find one of our treasure-hunt-style prize markers!
Exercise? You'll be pulling out poison parsnip and wild chervil along Lincoln's roadways. It's still at the containable phase--not yet lining every roadside and field as it does in some parts of Vermont. While we'll mostly be pulling by hand, you're welcome to bring along a garden fork if that helps you with pulling.
Great company? Your neighbors!
Satisfaction? Individually none of us can really make great inroads in the expanding presence of poison parsnip and chervil. Together we can. What's the big deal about these species? They've got very pretty flowers after all. In fact they've got some remarkable qualities. Amazing ability to reproduce. Remarkable tenacity to establish themselves and spread far and wide.
And there's the problem. While many non-native plants have taken up residence in Vermont, a small number of those transplants are invasive--spreading rampantly in the absence of the ecological checks and balances of their home range. When poison parsnip overspreads a field, it's displacing native species. And for insects, which feed so many native wildlife species, the particular make-up of plant species on which they can dine really matters.
Entomologist Doug Tallamy, who researches the effects of non-native plants on native ecosystems (see his great book, Bringing Nature Home), looks at the question from a bird’s eye view. Ninety-six percent of North American birds feed insects to their young. One protein-packed subset of insects—moths and butterflies—makes up the lion’s share of the diets of insect-eating birds. These native butterflies and moths have lived and evolved with the native plants of their particular regions for tens of thousands of years. Over countless generations, their leaf-eating larvae—caterpillars—have evolved in ways that allow them to digest the particular biochemical compounds their host plants have concocted to limit the chances of being eaten.
As a result of that coevolution, native oak trees in the eastern United States hosts some 534 native caterpillar species. Native willows and birches support more than 400 caterpillar species. Asian ginkgo? Just one. It's like serving up plastic food. (Sorry, I don't have stats for wildflowers on hand--just trees! But it gives the idea.)
Add to that ecological issue the fact that poison parsnip is a real nuisance in its ability to cause a rash when its juices meet skin in the presence of direct sunlight (which is why we're asking participants to wear long sleeves, pants, and gloves), and you can see why we're making the effort to stem the tide of these invasives.
June is the perfect time to pull these plants--the soil's moist from all the spring rain, and they're flowering--easy to spot but not yet gone to seed. And pulling really makes a difference with these species. They are biennials, so if you pull them they will not come back. It will take a few years to deplete the seed bank (the seeds can persist for 5 years in the soil), but we can make a real difference.
How to take part? Meet at the pavilion at the sports field at 9:00 AM to pick the section of road you're going to work on. Wear long sleeves and pants and close-toed shoes. Bring gloves if you have them, but gloves will also be available. We'll have ID sheets, plus live plants, so you know what to pull. A delicious lunch will be provided free in partnership with the Lincoln Store between 12:00-1:00 PM. Prizes then too! PLEASE let us know you're coming so we know how many lunches to make. You'll find sign-up sheets at the General Store and Library, or you can simply respond to this post. Thanks, and see you there! Sponsored by the Lincoln Conservation Commission.
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