AT workshop will center on invasive plants

[Tin Man]

AT workshop will center on invasive plants


By DEBBIE GILBERT
The Times <HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1>
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What: workshop on identifying invasive plant species
When: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, June 24
Where: Woody Gap High School in Suches, with hike on nearby section of Appalachian Trail
Cost: free, but registration required by Wednesday
To register: (706) 864-1540 or asc@ngcsu.edu (asc@ngcsu.edu)

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Alien plants are invading the Appalachian Trail, and ironically, it appears that hikers themselves are responsible for bringing non-native species into the forest.
"People innocently walking the trail may have seeds attached to their clothing from their gardens or other places that they've been," said Alice Sampson, director of the Appalachian Studies Center at North Georgia College & State University.
The center, in conjunction with the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, is sponsoring an invasive species workshop from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 24 at Woody Gap High School in Suches.
Participants will learn how to identify non-native plants that may be seen along the 80-mile Georgia segment of the Appalachian Trail. Then they'll walk a portion of the trail and document any invasive species they observe.
It's part of an inventory project the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club is conducting for the U.S. Forest Service.
"Most of the invasives occur within a few miles of trailheads and road crossings," said GATC member Jerry Seabolt.
Julie Judkins, resource program manager for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Southern region in Asheville, N.C., said invasive plants are rampant along roadsides.
"Mostly it's the grass seeds that tend to cling to hiking boots," she said. "We're thinking of putting up kiosk-type signs at trailheads, to remind people to clean their boots."
Judkins said the workshop will focus on 10 to 12 grasses, vines, shrubs and trees that are of particular concern to biologists.
"You don't have to be a plant expert," she said. "Some of them, such as kudzu, you will already recognize."
Other invasives prevalent in North Georgia's forests include the ailanthus or tree-of-heaven, paulownia, mimosa, Japanese honeysuckle and privet.
Cindy Wentworth, a U.S. Forest Service ecologist based in the Chattahoochee National Forest's Brasstown district, said invasive plants are a problem because they crowd out native species.
"Then you just have a monoculture, with no diversity," she said. "This affects not only the plants but also any animals that may be associated with them."
Some invasive plants seem almost willfully aggressive. The garlic mustard, for example, is capable of "ballistic" seed dispersal up to 10 feet away. It also emits chemicals that kill surrounding plant species.
Wentworth said her biggest concern is Japanese stilt grass, also known as Nepalese browntop.
"It's probably one of our most insidious species," she said.
Extremely prolific, stilt grass quickly can take over an area once it gets a foothold. It then begins to change the chemical composition of the soil, making it difficult to re-establish native species. It also has a competitive advantage over other plants, because deer won't eat it.
The one good thing about stilt grass, Wentworth said, is that it has shallow roots and easily can be pulled up by hand.
"Some of the other species have to be treated with herbicides, which requires an environmental assessment," she said.
The Forest Service will develop eradication plans after trail volunteers complete the inventory, Wentworth said.
"Then we'll prioritize which species we need to do something about right away," she said, adding that funding for eradication would have to come from the national forest's general budget.
"A lot will depend on what the inventory finds."
Contact: dgilbert@gainesvilletimes.com, (dgilbert@gainesvilletimes.com) (770) 718-3407
Originally published Monday, June 12, 2006

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[Tin Man]

Don't you just hate it when hikers don't scrub before they get on the trail? :-?

[Ridge]

I saw this article in the Gainesville, GA newspaper. Very interesting. If one could prove it , I'd bet bird droppings had a lot more to do with this problem than boots or clothing. Not sure what the "Appalachian Studies Center at North Georgia College" is selling here but this is one time I say it's for the birds. But, what do I know, my old lady just told me "I'm smart as a horse and hung like Einstein".

[Tin Man]

Birds will do it every time, so will the wind, animals that like their veggies, and perhaps even insects. But then again, hikers are the root of all evil, so they must be blamed first. :-?

[gsingjane]

Invasives are a huge and, so to speak, growing problem here in Connecticut. My daughter just completed a Girl Scout Bronze Award project focussing on the invasives around our area - she led community hikes and did education work to help people identify these plants, which in CT include multiflora rosa, Japanese barberry, autumn olive, burning bush, Asiatic bittersweet and phragmites. The 11-acre nature preserve that she focussed on has become approximately 80% occupied by invasives.

Invasives spread in all different ways. Many garden stores sell plants that become invasives or nuisances, partly because they do so well and people think they're master gardeners! And the garden industry objects to adding any more invasive plants to the state banned lists, again because this can eliminate some of their best-sellers.

There are different ways to combat invasives. Some of them involve things we can do right now, such as eradicating the plants (there are some very cool tools that are used to do this), as well as educating hikers, gardeners and other users. Once more plants are removed from the system, you can start to break the cycle and it becomes harder for them to spread via mechanical or biological vectors (which is generally something you can't do much about). Education is key.

Jane in CT

[Nean]

Birds pollute water sources too. Maybe Ridge can start a Birds on the AT poll!:D ;) I say they have no place on the trail! Whos with me?:banana

[Pennsylvania Rose]

Good luck to them. I've been involved in fighting invasives for 15 years. As soon as you let an area go for a season they take over again. There are too many seed sources along roadways and in yards and gardens to eliminate them. Many, like mimosa, honeysuckle, and various grasses are used extensively as ornamentals and spread like wildfire. So, until you convince EVERYONE that those pretty exotic flowers and grasses are too harmful to our native plants (and that will never happen), we'll be fighting a never ending battle.

BTW, it's not simply the fact that hikers trek seeds in on their boots and clothes that is the problem. It's more that the trail itself has been built. When the soil is disturbed, any seeds now have a newly tilled spot to grow without competition. Many exotics are very agressive and will outcompete the native vegetation, taking over the disturbed area. That's why a nature preserve that used to be farmland will have many more invasives than an old-growth forest.