–Ted Elliman, Vegetation Management Coordinator

This past year the conservation team worked long and hard to fight invasive plant populations at six of our ten sanctuaries. United—Sanctuary Committee members, Plant Conservation Volunteers (PCV’s), and conservation staff—we tackled infestations at Wayne Sanctuary in Maine, Eshqua Bog Sanctuary in Vermont, and Plainfield Sanctuary in New Hampshire plus our three Massachusetts sanctuaries: Arbutus, Nasami, and Garden in the Woods. The Sanctuary Committee, comprised of Society trustees, overseers, and volunteers, determines what needs to be addressed at our sanctuaries.

At Wayne Sanctuary, seven of us worked on a Morrow’s honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii) invasion that is encroaching onto the property from an adjoining highway—after three hours of pulling and yanking, we made inroads in the population, but there is plenty more for us to do in ’09.

At Plainfield, we spent one spring and one fall day pulling garlic mustard (Alliara petiolata) at the bottom of the hill and wrenching out common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) at the top of the hill to prevent their further incusions onto the slope’s spectacular woodland wildflowers. Across the Connecticut River, at Eshqua Bog, our volunteers joined forces with Nature Conservancy volunteers in our continuing effort to rid the fen and surrounding forest of wall lettuce (Mycelis muralis), an insidious herbaceous invader that is spreading aggressively into rich northern woodlands.

Our biggest projects this year, however, centered on our Massachusetts properties, especially at Nasami Farm in Whately, MA, where staff and volunteers spent five days cutting (volunteers) and applying herbicide (staff) to dense thickets of multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) that infest the farm’s old fields. This project, supported by a grant from the state’s Landowner Incentive Program (LIP), drew a remarkable total of 34 volunteers, some of whom drove from as far away as Maine and New Hampshire to join the battle! 

With weed wrenches and loppers we continued our struggle against the glossy buckthorn thickets that choke the floodplains of Tarbell Brook at the Arbutus Sanctuary. These floodplains are home to wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) and narrow-leaved gentian (Gentiana linearis), species listed as rare in Massachusetts that thrive in grassy, open stream corridors. In 2009, we will try to secure LIP and other funding to support a multi-day effort controlling bucktorn here and restoring these riparian meadows.

This year’s final workday was right here at Garden in the Woods, where, near the boundary fence at the far end of the Ridge Trail, we wrenched and pulled out a plethora of invasives, including oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), burning bush (Euonymus alatus), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), and Norway maple (Acer platanoides)! While our intrepid weed-busting crew took a final break from our season-long labors, the horticulture staff carted off piles of invasive brush.

Looking back at time well spent

Sanctuary Committee Chair and Trustee, Rob Held, summing up the Society’s activites, states, "Our efforts show that we practice on our own properties what we encourage environmental agencies and other conservation groups to do. These experiences will enable us to become the 'go-to' source for invasive management expertise and advice, serving the conservation community and the general public throughout the region."

"I joined the Sanctuary Committee,“ says Ed Petcavage, Society overseer, "when I learned its overarching mission matched two of my passions: discovering new flora/fauna and helping to increase biodiversity.

"It is satisfying to see first hand," continues Petcavage, "that a team removing invasive plants for a few hours from one of the Society’s sanctuaries ’makes a difference.’ The thrill of seeing a rare native wildflower protected in its habitat is a natural high and a wonderful reward for a two-year volunteer like myself."