Conservation Department staff have been surveying and managing invasive species for two regional land trusts in central and western Massachusetts.  For the Metacomet Land Trust, we have been documenting all the invasive species populations on properties in the towns of Blackstone and Sutton.  Assisted by Land Trust and Society volunteers, we have mapped populations of multiflora rose, Japanese barberry, common buckthorn, oriental bittersweet, and other invasive plants on the site's woodlands and wetlands.  At the end of the field season, we will develop a management plan with Metacomet to minimize the impacts of these invasive plants. 

 
In western Massachusetts, we have been fighting invasives for the second consecutive year on land owned and managed by the Minnechaug Land Trust in Hampden and Wilbraham.  Brandishing their flashing orange weed wrenches, Conservation Fellows Glenna Belton and Jordan Takvorian have spent a month of weekend days with Kathy and Bill Barz, Kate Leary, and other Land Trust volunteers muscling out invasive shrubs from the Rice and Minnechaug Mountain Preserves.  This battle will go on into October!

The Metacomet and Minnechaug projects were supported by The Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition.

For seven years, the Conservation Staff have been removing Asian water chestnut (Trapa natans) from Upper and Lower Mill Ponds in Rowley, Massachusetts.  On August 6, five volunteers joined 3 staff in canoes to pull this invasive and let it rot up in the woods, away from the water’s edge. 

In the morning, the crew was pleased to clear the entire lower pond in less than two hours.  Sitting at opposite ends of the canoe, we plucked the top rosette from the surface of the pond and plopped it into the middle.  The trailing six-foot stem behind it added to the bulk and drew more water in with it.  After some time, everyone had a pretty good mound in their canoes and we pulled ashore to carry it up into the woods. 

Unfortunately, we were not as successful with the upper pond and had to return on Monday to finish our work.  Closer inspection indicated last year’s efforts were probably quite effective, as there were hardly any around the periphery.  In no time, Monday’s team focused on those in the center and we were able to clear the pond of the invasives. The project was funded through a grant from The Entrust Fund of Gloucester, MA.

 
Next year, we hope to train a few local volunteers in the identification and removal of the Trapa as the current population is at a very manageable level.  The Conservation Department would then be able to move on to our next project to protect native plants in the region.