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Tom Zetterstrom shows the height to which a bittersweet vine can grow during a talk on the invasive at Sharon Town Hall March 29.
SHARON — As a young boy, Tom Zetterstrom remembers his father stopping by the side of the road to pick bittersweet to hang as a decoration at their home. He even crafted a lamp out of the bark of the plant. Sixty years later that son, a conservation expert, is crusading for the extinction of the oriental vine that is wreaking havoc with trees.
Zetterstrom gave a talk to a packed house at Sharon Town Hall Saturday, March 29, on “Defeating Invasive Bittersweet and Reversing Forest Collapse.” This is part of an ongoing series on managing invasives put on by Sharon Land Trust, Sharon Energy and Environment Commission, Sharon Audubon and Sharon Conservation Commission.
The presentation was basically focused on the work that’s been done on Sharon Land Trust’s Hamlin Preserve at 19 Stone House Road. Later that day, there was a guided tree walk and invasive control demonstration at the preserve.
The 180-acre preserve is rich in diversity and aesthetically appealing, said Zetterstrom, who described how he and Roger Liddell of Sharon Land Trust tried to walk the area in September 2022, only to find they were almost immediately engulfed in a sea of invasive bittersweet. “With trees down from the effects of invasives, we were seeing a collapsed forest. This, unfortunately, is a sign of our times.”
With a determination to help clear the area of the harmful perpetrators, a legion of volunteers invaded the property the next spring. One area was not very approachable, so a group of Hotchkiss School students were recruited. Zetterstrom described how the teens cut the vines down to the stubs so that the remainder of the offenders could be treated later. “We made a dent in the problem and declared the site the ‘Hotchkiss Grove.’”
The bottoms of the vines were treated with the chemical glyphosate, which Zetterstrom acknowledged has a controversial reputation. “We’re a little less apprehensive of that chemical than others,” he said. “It bonds to soil particles and doesn’t migrate to water. When put on a cut stem, a year later the vine is gone.”
He then demonstrated using what he called a “blaster” to squeeze the chemical onto a stem. One audience member asked what a blaster is, never having heard the term. “It’s a bingo dauber,” Zetterstrom explained, much to the amusement of those gathered.
Photos of the preserve, from both the ground and Brian Wilcox’s drone shots, showed the audience how it looked when it was first approached and the clear lush meadow now visible.
Early detection is key to eradicating invasives, with the aim of zero growth in order to have a resilient forest. “We’re looking at prevention,” he said. “We want to get it out before it seeds. Seeds can be viable for 12 years.”
While advances in eradication have been made, Zetterstrom was realistic, saying, “We won the battle, but haven’t won the war.” There are aspects of invasives that some people find appealing, such as bittersweet’s red berries. He stressed the need for vigilance, prevention, timing and mapping when dealing with their encroachment. Management plans are highly recommended.
Zetterstrom praised Sharon Land Trust members for their stewardship of the preserve.
The next session is on Saturday, April 5, at 10 a.m. at Sharon Town Hall, when Bethany Sheffer of Sharon Audubon and Mike Nadeau, native landscape expert, will present a talk on invasives and answer questions on plant identification and control.
NORTH CANAAN — Following recently implemented international tariffs, Becton, Dickinson & Company’s Connecticut plant has reported an increase in demand for its domestically made syringes and needle products.
“Since we manufacture these products in the U.S., the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada that went into effect on March 4th do not apply to the products we manufacture at the Canaan facility,” BD spokesperson Fallon McLoughlin said.
“Given prior FDA actions and quality concerns along with tariffs put on certain Chinese imports, we saw an uptick in demand for domestically made syringes and needle products that continues.”
BD, the largest manufacturer of medical devices in the United States, based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, employs about 500 workers at its North Canaan facility.
The North Canaan operation “plays a critical role in providing essential needles and syringes for the U.S. health care system,” according to company officials.
It recently added three additional manufacturing lines and hired approximately 140 people in the last year to keep up with increased demand, “while driving operational efficiencies to help increase capacity, adding hundreds of millions of units annually.”
Given these dynamics, “we don’t anticipate any additional significant impact to our Canaan facility from the more recent tariffs implemented by the Trump administration,” Mcloughlin reported.
The Connecticut plant manufactures small-size syringes and syringe and needle combination products. Operations take place around the clock and are sold in every region worldwide.
SALISBURY — The Board of Finance will hold a public hearing on the 2025-26 budget proposals from the Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen on Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m.
At the finance board’s March 27 meeting, Salisbury Central School principal Stephanie Magyar said the proposal had been trimmed a bit thanks to some savings on health insurance costs, and that a couple of teacher-requested items had been added back in, for a total reduction of $3,893.
First Selectman Curtis Rand said there were no changes in the selectmen’s budget proposal. “I think we can bring this to the public.”
The Board of Education’s proposal is for $6,897,148, a 5.53% increase of $361,209.
The Board of Selectmen’s proposal is for $9,205,120, an increase of $585,530, or 6.7%.
HVRHS seniors Ellie Wolgemuth, left, and Tess Marks were panelists for “Students as Historians: A Community-based Approach to History.”
MILLERTON, N.Y. — High school history teachers Rhonan Mokriski and Peter Vermilyea demonstrated how they “let students lead” in studying history at The Moviehouse in Millerton Thursday, March 27.
The demonstration took the form of two documentary films made by students at Salisbury School and Housatonic Valley Regional High School, plus one from Yale University’s Beinecke Library.
“Coloring Our Past” from Salisbury School follows the story of the Cesar family, Black residents of Salisbury and Sharon. It also shows how the students conducted research, including field trips to the places the family lived and worked, and an interview with a descendant.
“Faces of Adversity” from HVRHS deals with the story of how two Black girls came to the high school for the 1958-59 school year.
The girls were from Little Rock, Arkansas, which was the epicenter of the fight over school desegregation.
The documentary uses a mix of archival footage and a contemporary interview with one of the Little Rock students.
From Yale came Michael Morand’s “What Could Have Been,” about an 1831 proposal to establish what would today be called an Historically Black College or University, or HBCU, in New Haven.
Supported by abolitionists and prominent citizens, the proposal was nonetheless soundly defeated at a town meeting. Many of the opponents were also prominent citizens.
Morand was scheduled to attend the screening but was unable to make it. Salisbury School’s Mokriski and Vermilyea from HVRHS spoke after the films were shown, highlighting how the tactic of letting students take control of such projects yields considerable results.
“This is students getting their hands dirty as historians,” said Vermilyea.
The teachers noted how the students took advantage of modern technology to get access to source material.
“It’s a game-changer,” Vermilyea said.
Mokriski added “We can use this as a template.”
HVRHS students Tess Marks and Elinor Wolgemuth, both seniors from Salisbury, presented at the America 250 conference “Shaping a Commemoration Rooted in Belonging,” held at the University of Connecticut on March 21. Marks and Wolgemuth were members of a panel discussion entitled “Students as Historians: A Community-based Approach to History,” along with Mokriski, Vermilyea, and Charlie Champalimaud, owner and operator of Troutbeck in Amenia. The students spoke about how student projects presented at last year’s Troutbeck Symposium could serve as a model for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
This year’s Troutbeck Symposium runs from April 30 to May 2. The student-led forum includes students from 14 regional and independent schools who will “listen, present, and discuss findings of their research projects uncovering little-known local histories that tie to our national fabric,” according to the Troutbeck website.
