Taking Back the Landscape  From Thorny Invaders
Photo by Lans Christensen

Taking Back the Landscape From Thorny Invaders

“Barberrians at the Gate!”  declared Fred Balling as a group of 30 fellow Cornwallians, some gloved and armed with bypass loppers, met in front of a residential property to learn about the methods to identify and remove Berberis Thunbergii, or invasive barberry.

Organized by the Garden Club in Cornwall, Conn., with the support of the Cornwall Conservation Trust and the Cornwall Conservation Commission, the talk and demonstration were led by two Garden Club members: Heidi Cunnick and myself, Dee Salomon.

“Our Garden Club events usually center around what to put into the ground,” I said as I introduced the event. “But today we are going to talk about what to take out of the ground.”

We tried to impart a sense of urgency around barberry removal in the talk that preceded the hands-on demonstration.

Barberry not only prevents people from accessing the woods due to its needle-sharp thorns — but those thorns also act as a protective dwelling for mice from predators.

As mice proliferate so do Lyme-carrying ticks. Barberry elimination reduces tick populations by as much as 60%.

Heidi provided another statistic that appeared to make an impression amongst the attendees: Researchers have found 82% fewer native tree recruitments (the establishment of seedling trees) in barberry-infested forests.

Given the demise of native tree species such as chestnut and elm, as well as current risks to beech, hemlock and ash, we could end up with fields of barberry where there was once a forest.

And with that, Heidi identified barberry, along with bittersweet vine, burning bush and Japanese honeysuckle as stealthy invaders of a front yard garden. The group then walked into the woods, inspired to tackle the barberry on the site.

Weapons for our
war on invasives

Heidi brought a heat flame tool (Weed Dragon Propane Torch, approved by the Garden Club of America for home use), a weed-whacker with a brush cutter attachment (Ryobi) and a weed wrench. The latter was demonstrated on a burning bush, as the multi-stemmed barberry is not well-suited for the wrench.

Of all the tools, the most practical and least costly is a simple pair of long-handled clippers or bypass loppers.  There were enough loppers, and enough barberry, for many to participate by cutting the stems of the barberry about 2 inches above the soil.

Why glyphosate works

The bright yellow color of the barberry stem interior is a hallmark of its identity and made the next step of the process — the careful application of a dab of glysophate herbicide — easier to demonstrate. Tinted blue, the yellow tips turned a bright blue-green after the application of the herbicide.

Heidi stressed the importance of understanding the risks and proper use of glyphosate. She had information sheets to hand out along with a few of the applicators, called “buckthorn blasters” that were ordered from NAISMA, the North American Invasive Species Management Association.

“Dee and I have been talking for over a year about how to motivate people to take responsibility for eradicating invasives on their property,” Heidi said. “People often don’t realize the extent of devastation that a handful of invading plants can cause.

“The invasives that harbor ticks have health implications for ourselves and can drive down property values. We want people to access their land and enjoy the beauty that comes from being stewards of their woodlands.”

 

For information on identification and eradication of local invasives, go to the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group https://cipwg.uconn.edu.

Latest News

'Gather' at Troutbeck

Romane Recalde speaking about her new business at Gather.

Natalia Zukerman

Hosted by Jason Klein and Sascha Lewis, an ongoing series called “Gather” at Troutbeck in Amenia brings together a curious crowd of local entrepreneurs, artists, and others with a story to tell for an intimate midday chat. On Thursday, Jan. 16, floral designer Romane Recalde, owner of the newly opened Le Jardin in Amenia, took center stage to share her journey from modeling in Miami to cultivating flowers in the Hudson Valley. Gather is a place to share stories, swap advice, and celebrate some of the unique businesses that make our area vibrant — all with a delicious lunch on the side. The gatherings are unconventional in the best way, with no agenda beyond good conversation and community building.

Recalde’s story isn’t just about creating a flower shop; it’s about a complete reinvention of self. “I hated Miami so much,” said the French-born Recalde, recalling her time in Florida before moving to New York. She worked as a model in New York, and eventually met her husband, James. Their pandemic escape to Turks and Caicos turned into a six-month stay, which in turn led them to Millbrook and finally to their home in Amenia, where Recalde’s connection to nature blossomed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition
Mad Rose Gallery director Michael Flowers contributed to the gallery's "Assembled" exhibit with a series of collaged landscape photographs
Nathan Miller

Mad Rose Gallery’s “Assembled” exhibition opened Saturday, Jan. 18, with a public reception.

The eclectic exhibition — on view until March 2 at the gallery on the intersection of Routes 22 and 44 in Millerton — gathers together work from a group of diverse artists with decades of experience between them. The exhibition itself is true to the name, featuring photographs, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works in all shapes and sizes.

Keep ReadingShow less
The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters' is written with such verve and poetic imagination that it’s hard to fathom how it could be the author’s first novel. Ms. Lerner, 64, has worked for three decades as a literary agent, editor, and non-fiction writer, but at some point during the Covid pandemic — without any forethought — she sat down and typed out the first line of the novel exactly as it now appears in the book, and then completed it without telling anyone what she was up to.

The novel takes place over twenty years — from the 1970s into the ’90s — and is a kind of guide for that era. It reads like a memoir accompanied by some bouncy dialogue, but is actually a work of what’s called autofiction in which Lerner mixes her own experiences — including her own struggle with mental illness — with things she simply makes up. The fictional narrator is Amy Shred, the younger of two sisters in an upper-middle-class, secular Jewish family living in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

This small stream is fishable, despite the wintry conditions. It probably won't be a pleasant or productive experience, but it can be done.

Patrick L. Sullivan

When syndicated columnists run out of ideas they do one of two things.

First they collect the last couple year’s worth of columns and call it a book. These are published to great acclaim from other syndicated columnists and show up in due course in gigantic, ziggurat-shaped mounds at Costco for $4.98 a pop.

Keep ReadingShow less