The Invasion: Are you Fighting Back? Part II

Ever have some sort of small nagging health issue? Perhaps a rash, blister or acne that just won’t quit? In the wild, that’s Japanese Knotweed!

Japanese Knotweed, Source - Wikipedia

I heard a story of a biologist that took a very small portion of the root, placed it on a windowsill, left it for a year and then replaced it in water. The damn thing sprouted roots! Sprouted roots after a year, every day in the sun!

This stubborn plant can be found along the shores of most the major rivers in Oregon. While working with the Tualatin River Keepers on the Munger Lane property this past weekend (Nov 7th) one of the TRK employees, Bob, informed me a good couple mile stretch of the Sandy River has been overrun on both sides of the river with nothing but Knotweed.

Speaking of Munger Lane, let’s side track for a bit. The property, which I estimate at around 70 acres, was purchased by Metro from voter-approved bond money. Following the purchase, the Tualatin River Keepers have been managing the restoration project. NineBark, Snowberries, Indian Plum, trailing black berry, native grasses, Oregon grape, Spirea, and various native trees have been planted at this location to aid in improved water quality of the Tualatin River, providing connecting forage along the river for wildlife and improve fish habitat. Okay-now getting back to our regularly scheduled program.

Munger Lane, Washington County

Well as you probably guessed, Knotweed is native to Japan. What you probably don’t know it’s listed in the top 100 of the worlds worst invasive species. Getting rid of it is no easy task. The method utilized by the Oregon agencies is to inject a herbicide into the stem of each plant. How tedious is that? However, it’s the most effect one time treatment. Other methods are effective but take several treatments over the course of 3 weeks.

If you recall in my last blog, I talked about working with Michele from ODFW in Tillamook. I’ve adopted one of the sites along the Wilson River I visited with Michele and I’ll begin working on invasive removal this Saturday (Nov 14th). Over the next couple weekends I’ll be removing English Ivy & Himalayan Blackberry in preparation of planting natives in their place. Provided that in late spring & late summer the ivy and berries will be suppressed, the natives will thrive & the invasive species will be forced to die back. I only hope I’m in time to save the mature trees fully encapsulated by ivy.

Feel free to come help out, click here for more information! Be sure to check out the next blog. I’ll post some pictures of work from this coming weekend.

Dominic Aiello

Founder & President

www.projectwilderness.org

www.facebook.com/projectwilderness

www.twitter.com/prowilderness

The Invasion: Are You Fighting Back? Part I

This past week was crazy by Friday I was so out of whack I’d started calling friends confirming their attendance  for tomorrow morning to the November 7th event with the Tualatin River Keepers habitat restoration. After a few seriously confused friends I finally figured out I was planning tomorrow for the wrong event!

Saturday October 31st, Yet another early morning. Waking at 5:45am to head from the Portland area through the beautiful Tillamook State Forest I arrived at the Tillamook office for Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife at 8:02 am. Today’s mission holds several elements. Lets cover the easy stuff first. Michele Long, ODFW Biologist, reached out for assistance with a couple ODFW managed riparian zones that have become overrun with invasive plant species;

Japanese Knotweed

English Ivy

Himalaya Blackberry

After some normal morning chit chat we loaded up into the ODFW vehicle and headed into the field. Our destination, riparian zones along the Wilson & Trask River. Lets look below at the picture taken at one of the spots along the Wilson River.

There is two major problems with this picture. Ivy & Blackberries: Ivy’s root system grows into the bark of trees, climbing until it essentially chokes each tree causing death from lack of nutrients, bugs or disease. When mature trees die, a younger tree should have already been growing for years ready to take it’s place. Such is a normal healthy cycle. This is where the problem with the Blackberries comes into play. They grow much faster then trees, overtake the soil, grow over the immature tree, killing it. These two invasive species together can destroy a riparian & forest ecosystem.

This poses serious risk to healthy habitat & ecosystems for wild fish, amphibians, reptiles and  mammals.

Join me next week as I talk about Knotweed & begin talking about what Project Wilderness will be doing in conjunction with Michele from the Tillamook ODFW to help solve this growing problem.

Dominic Aiello

Founder & President

www.projectwilderness.org

www.facebook.com/projectwilderness

www.twitter.com/prowilderness