User:Leuschner.C/sandbox

There are very common misconceptions for invasive vegetation management. One is that people think all invasive plants are bad for the area, which in most cases is true but there are some which it is not the case. For example Barberry a prickly bush can supply habitat for rabbits and turtles. Also the same goes with the dense growing of Japanese knot weed. That’s one case of how it’s good for habitat, there is another case where its good is for humans because of aesthetics, you can color barberry and Japanese knot weed looks nice. These are some of the few benefits of these invasive plants, now there are a lot of negative effects. One is monoculture which is just that one plant in a given area, which is bad for diversity. Another negative effect is that it can shade out or kill other plants or trees. Asian bittersweet is a vine that will grow around and strangle a tree and cut of the trees phloem which supplies the trees nutrition. Some invasive can shade out other native plants for instance the black locust is considered an invasive tree according to the DEC. These tall trees can shade out underground vegetation and prevent growth in the understory. I will leave you off with this, not all exotic plants are invasive, and even some native plants can be invasive. Invasive plants are plants that dominant an area that will decrease the overall health of the ecosystem there. So how do you remove them? It all depends on which plant it is. For example if it if mile-a-minute vine all you have to do is grab it and pull and put it in a container right away. If it is Asian bitter sweet just cut the stem and it will eventually die then you can remove it from the tree or whatever it is growing around like a fence or house panel. If it is Japanese knot weed this one is trickier, there is no one correct method to “contain” this, it is hard to completely remove. Unless you have a lot of money, because you can do a complete root system removal which is very costly, but one way to contain it is by doing two cuts during the growing season on the outer perimeter in the beginning then do it again near the end of the growing seaon and then cut the remaining of the knot weed. These are just some of the north eastern invasive species and how to manage them.