Invasive Decorative Plants Targeted - AP

Source: Associated Press

Invasive Decorative Plants Targeted
By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press Writer

June 29, 2007, 5:28 AM EDT

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Bamboo-like plants that grow taller than
adults have choked out native plants in a marsh that once
teemed with life at Maumee Bay State Park along Lake Erie.

Wild flowers at the park have disappeared. Migrating birds
have gone elsewhere. The parkland has changed so much
that naturalist Dana Bollin no longer leads tours past
the common reed grass towering along Maumee Bay's
boardwalk.

-snip-

Environmental groups hope to slow the spread of
decorative but invasive plants by persuading nurseries
to stop selling them and instead promote native species.

Big-box retailer Meijer Inc. announced in March it is
removing two invasive trees -- Norway maple and
Lombardy poplar -- from its stores in Michigan, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

In California, a partnership of nursery owners and
environmental leaders is working on a campaign called
"Plant Right" that will help gardeners find native plants
suited for their regions.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-plant-invaders,0,2931284.story

http://www.cnps.org/

In LA we have the Theodore Payne Foundation, a great source for natives:
http://www.theodorepayne.org/

Invasive ornamentals are taking over in Goleta, CA. I have seen this personally.

Link for PlantRight:
http://www.plantright.org/

Invasives are far too established. There are a number of local studies taking place in NJ with a long-range goal of controlling these plants.

Many are staples of our garden shops and landscapers. Others are growing wild with no natural control. Many are thought to be "natural" because they've been here so long.

I was shocked to learn that our friendly earthworm is an invasive species.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to see how the Earth's ecosystems can be prevented from becoming completely homogenized.

Drive through the Great Plains and west to the Pacific, knowing which plants are native and which aren't, and it will become obvious very quickly that eradication, or even control, is not truly possible for some exotics.

I work on Buffalo Gap National Grassland, near Badlands National Park, and every time I head into the field, it seems like the smooth brome and cheatgrass and sickleweed and mountain ironwort and sulfur cinquefoil and on and on cover more acres and crowd out more native stuff. Then I see that the Forest Service office where I work has no weed-spraying crew this year because their budget is largely consumed by a John Thune driven push to complete an EIS to poison tens of thousands of acres of prairie dogs in the black-footed ferret recovery area just south of the Park, and I see where the budgeting priorities lie.

We could be spending that money to control and eradicate the ones that have not yet got away from us, and there are several of those. We should be pouring funds into screening these materials BEFORE they are allowed entry for any purpose, far more funds than go to those programs currently. It would be cheaper in the long term to prevent establishment in the first place...imagine a North America without Canada thistle, leafy spurge, spotted knapweed, hydrilla, water hyacinth, and a couple of the other biggies. Of course it goes beyond plants...zebra mussles, all the carp species, ruffe, a couple gobies, and a couple water fleas are wreaking havoc on the Mississippi River watershed and the Great Lakes.

arundo, Pampas grass, Scotch broom, yellow star thistle, mustard, ripgut brome, and about 10 others. :(

Hydrilla- "aquatic Kudzu" courtesy of the aquarium trade.

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/plants/weeds/hydrilla.html

I've heard kudzu referred to in that way.

Once cellulosic technology is beyond the pilot plant stage, some of this stuff could be used as feedstock. I understand that the "ghetto palm" population in Detroit is going strong.

I wonder how much oil could be pressed out of those damned gobies, etc.