Autumn olive, tree of heaven, English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle. Such lovely names for plants that are wreaking havoc across Virginia and beyond.
This week is National Invasive Species Awareness Week, an effort to draw attention to the non-native flora and fauna that crowd out native plants and animals or kill them outright.
Plants and animals evolved in specific locations -- some tiny and some large -- and had to figure out how to survive. Animals had to learn what they could eat, and plants had to stay rooted in ecosystems that sustained them.
When humans started moving plants and animals around, both intentionally and unintentionally, the non-natives began to overwhelm natives because there were no natural predators or diseases to contain them.
Most of us have watched our ash trees die in recent years as the emerald ash borer, a beetle accidentally imported from Asia, drilled into the bark and decimated the trees, which are still coming down across roads and power lines.
We see our yards and woods overrun with Japanese stilt grass, kudzu and oriental bittersweet. Yet 48% of the invasive plants listed on the Virginia Invasive Plant Species List are still available for sale in Virginia. The list can be found on the Department of Conservation and Recreation website.
The Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), Virginia's first Cooperative Weed Management effort, is working to educate the public about these sales.
Founded in 2014 as a volunteer-driven project of the Shenandoah National Park Trust, Blue Ridge PRISM has grown to become the statewide leader in invasive plant education, training and advocacy.
PRISM is currently promoting two bills, HB 1941 and SB 1166, in the General Assembly to require a retail establishment to post signage in a conspicuous manner near each invasive plant identifying it as invasive, educating consumers regarding invasive plant species and encouraging consumers to ask about alternatives.
This is crucial because invasive plants sold at retail locations readily spread to neighboring properties. Private landowners and state and local governments in Virginia spend millions of dollars annually to control invasive plants. This bill will support the customer's right to know about their purchase.
Fighting invasive species is no easy task, so it's counterintuitive to allow them to be sold at all. Hopefully, this common-sense approach will be a way to ban their sale completely. Contact your legislators!
Locally, a group of Central Virginia Master Naturalists has started attacking autumn olive at Ivy Creek Park. The volunteer Master Naturalists do the whacking, and the Lynchburg Parks & Recreation Department follows up with controlled spraying of herbicides to try to finish them off.
Non-native insects and animals are also a threat. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources lists eight invaders including the spotted lanternfly, feral pigs, snakeheads and nutria.
Whenever I write or think about invasive species, I always have to mention humans are the most invasive species of all. We need to restore and leave more room for other species so they can thrive.
Shannon Brennan can be reached at [email protected].
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