SMETHPORT — The McKean County Conservation District encourages all citizens to leave “Footprints of Stewardship” as we care for our natural resources in responsible ways.
Understanding and minimizing the damage invasive plants do to the environment is an important part of stewardship.
You may have read about invasive plants and wondered what they are and if they are in our area. Although McKean County does not have the prevalence of unwanted species as many counties to the south, many plants have taken root that do not belong here. Invasive species are spreading into even pristine remote areas.
An invasive plant is a species that has become a weed pest, a plant which grows and spreads aggressively and invades existing ecosystems. These aliens take over areas where native species should grow and out-compete them. These are mostly plants that were introduced at one time, as a landscape or ornamental planting. Some of these plants are not only a nuisance, but are considered a PA or Federal Noxious Weed.
The primary reason not to landscape with invasive plants (and to remove them whenever possible) is that they are degrading our native environments. They are a major factor in the decline of native plants. They displace native plants and degrade habitat for wildlife. Invasives also spread, escape, and cause landscape weed problems for years to come.
A few common invasive plants in McKean County are Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, Canada thistle, jimsonweed, dames rocket, purple loosestrife, Johnson grass, Japanese barberry, autumn olive, winged euonymus, tartarian honeysuckle, multiflora rose, goutweed.
Learn to identify these problem plants, and others found in nearby counties so that early scouting can prevent them from taking hold in McKean County.
Counties to the south have populations of buckthorn, Japanese stiltgrass, and mile-a-minute. The PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) website has useful fact sheets on many invasives and their identification.
What can you do?
Minimize landscape disturbance. Invasives thrive on bare soil and disturbed ground where the native plant community has been displaced.
Choose landscape plants carefully, with a preference for native species. Protect native plant communities to prevent take-over by invasives. Scout your property for invasives. If found, prevent them from going to seed and remove them by mechanical, or at last resort-chemical means. Remove when their densities are low-before they overtake an area. Replace with a native plant species, which will take the ecological place of the invasive in the disturbed soil.
Spread the word to others about the harm invasive plants can do to the natural ecosystem.
This informational article is provided by the McKean County Conservation District.
