Planting the seeds of change by uprooting non-native plants
Weed Wrangle is coming up! What in the world is Weed Wrangle? It’s is a one-day, area-wide, volunteer effort to help rescue public parks and green spaces from non-native invasive species through hands-on removal of especially harmful trees, vines and flowering plants.
Stop. Wait. Pull weeds for someone else? Are you kidding? Nope! Stay with me and learn. Non-native plants have a huge effect on the health of our forests by spreading into the understory and suppressing native plants and the wildlife that depends on them. These species will destroy or replace native food sources, making the ecosystem less diverse and more susceptible to further disturbances like disease.
Exactly what is a native plant? In North America, a native plant is defined as an indigenous grass, shrub, vine, tree or herbaceous flora species present in a habitat or ecosystem prior to the arrival of European settlers on the continent.
“Native plants are the ecological basis upon which life depends, including birds and people,” explains experts at the Audubon Society. “Without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive. Research by the entomologist Doug Tallamy has shown that native oak trees support over 500 species of caterpillars whereas ginkgos, a commonly planted landscape tree from Asia, host only five species of caterpillars. When it takes thousands of caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees, that is a significant difference.”
Bees are in trouble and are critical pollinators—they need native plants to pollinate. Native plants may utilize a variety of pollinators, but many are most successfully pollinated by bees. Without bees, native plants would set fewer seeds and would have lower reproductive success. This would drastically alter ecosystems.
Native songbirds depend on native plants to provide food and shelter—cardinals and rose breasted grosbeak need elderberry and serviceberry, just to name a few.
You see, everything is coupled together and when one piece of the forest is sick, the rest will become sick. Now do you see why it’s so important to eradicate non-native plants?
Byron Brooks, Invasive Species Specialist at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center excitedly reminds us, “Privet did not co-evolve in this system and out-competes natives for light, food and space. They create mono-cultures and reduce plant diversity which reduces wildlife diversity. Our goal is to remove non-natives, expose the native seed bank and plant natives.”
Reflection Riding is one of the many places you can volunteer for Weed Wrangle 2020 this Saturday morning. Others include the City of Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain Conservancy, McCoy Farm and Gardens, Waterways and Enterprise South Nature Park, Signal Mountain Stewards, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. If you plan to volunteer, be sure to wear long pants, closed toe shoes and gloves. Bringing water and snacks is always a good idea too.
This family friendly event hopes to create a movement that will have the greatest impact on the invasive plant population and to challenge neighbors to take action in their own spaces and neighborhoods.
Weed Wrangle’s mission is to establish partnerships that connect volunteers and public lands for the purpose of education and eradication of non-native invasive plant species followed with the planned restoration of native plant communities.
For every non-native plant you eradicate, you are providing significant habitat improvement for not only native plants but the wildlife that depends on them. Could you imagine not hearing the songbird morning chorus or not seeing the red fox slink through your native woods? Let’s make sure that never happens.