What invasive species does your unit remove?

[RememberSchiff]

Some of our outdoor service projects involve removal of invasive species.

 

Around here we pull the aquatic water chestnut from local rivers and ponds each spring. Wait later and the work gets messier with the summer algae bloom.

 

Personally I like the project more than roadside cleanup or any trash cleanup.

[Sentinel947]

My area is filled with Invasive Honeysuckle.

[RememberSchiff]

Bittersweet may be next on our cut list. Removal is another matter.

Edited August 2, 2017 by RememberSchiff

[Stosh]

My Mrs. is a Master Gardener as a hobbyist and a forester by trade.  Invasive species are an arbitrary entity.  Like trash alongside the road, eradication is nothing more than temporary cosmetics. 

 

For all those out there who buy into the Theory of evolution, it's survival of the fittest and the invasives will dominate.  90% of what we have out there are invasive to the environment as it was 100 years ago.  No one is going to spend time eradicating 90% of what we have today.

 

It always reminds me of Australia.  It was originally a British penal colony. In order to deport criminals there they brought them in by ship.  Well a few ship rats got ashore as well and over ran the continent.  So in it's myopic brilliance they introduced cats to control the rat problem.  Now they have a cat problem TOO.

 

In the midwest flowage system there has been a problem with invasive carp species.  Instead of tapping into the market of turning that resource into something useful, they bemoan the fact and do very little about it, as if doing anything would be productive at all.  Maybe the Americans of European descent don't eat carp, but the Americans of Asian descent are fishing like crazy around here.  Maybe we ought to import more Asians to handle the carp problem, or maybe that's not the lesson we want to learn from the Austrailians.  Maybe we should just figure out how to deal with an ever changing environment.

 

I pull a ton of weeds out of my garden every year.  They are all invasive.  But I just mow the crab grass and dandelions and ignore them for the most part.

 

An added note: The Lamb's Quarter, Dandelion, Plantain, and Purslane I pull out of the garden are equal in nutritional value as the vegetables I grow.  They might even be more nutritional than some of the hybrid varieties I grow.  Adapt to the environment.

 

By the way, the Mrs. collects Bittersweet to make really pretty wreaths in the fall to sell.  Might do well to consider that as a fundraiser while you "clean up" the environment.  

 

By the way, I've been trying to eradicate Poison Ivy (a native) from my yard for a long time.  It's a never ending task!

Edited August 2, 2017 by Stosh

[eagle90]

We have removed garlic mustard and buckthorn in service projects in the past.

[wdfa89]

obnoxious parents...well we try

Edited August 2, 2017 by wdfa89

[blw2]

I thought this was going to be a thread about the girls coming into BSA

 

Seriously, in my yard my nemesis is "torpedo grass" aka "bullet grass".  It's an invasive, and I'm pretty sure it will survive a nuclear holocaust...  If it were softer underfoot I'd be happy to have it for a lawn.

 

To my knowledge though the troop hasn't ever done anything like this as a project

but if they were to, no way could it be against bullet grass.

[T2Eagle]

We've helped chop back multiflora rose in one of our metro parks, seems to have been useful as the area cleared has stayed cleared.

[qwazse]

Our lake at camp had an imbalance of bullhead catfish. Scouts were instructed to leave any such fish that they caught on shore to die. This lasted for quite a few years.

[jeanvaljean]

we remove garlic mustard, spotted knapweeds and giant hogweed, all in the midwest region ...

[Stosh]

I eradicate dandelions from my lawn every spring.  They make good wine.

[Stosh]

By the way one plant that is invasive in one part of the country isn't always invasive elsewhere.

 

Most of the non-native plants were brought over from other countries because of their edible and herbal qualities.  They have since gotten out of their garden confinements and spread.  The chicory that grows as an abundant weed along our roadsides was once farmed and processed as a coffee substitute.  Dandelion flowers make the wine, the leaves make the salad, and the roots roasted like chicory make a coffee substitute.

 

One also has to be careful of the nomenclature use here.  There are noxious plants and  invasive plants.  Both have native and non-native plants in those categories.  For example Poison Ivy and Ragweed are both native plants that are noxious.  Invasive vs. non-invasive is a term used to describe the speed and severity by which it spreads. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Stosh

[Stosh]

Our lake at camp had an imbalance of bullhead catfish. Scouts were instructed to leave any such fish that they caught on shore to die. This lasted for quite a few years.

 That's gotta stink up the neighborhood.  We used to take them home a give them a burial in the backyard cemetery, aka garden.  it's a technique used by the native Americans.  Maze (corn) is a heavy feeding plant and the practice is "organic", too.