by Katie Irish Collins
Stewardship Coordinator, Daniel Bishop is quoted in the article surveying a number of land trusts in the state about recent ruling to ban sale of 33 invasive plant species.
Daniel Bishop, the stewardship and trail volunteer coordinator for Portland Trails, said, “Controlling invasives is a long term and very laborious task,” but one that “is important to enhancing the habitat value.”
He said Portland Trails has begun to develop a comprehensive invasive management plan, which involves manually removing, cutting and preventing further spreading.
“It is important to both control and ultimately remove these invasives to increase biodiversity,” Bishop said. “Biodiversity is a key indicator of habitat health. In some areas, such as wetlands, (the spread of invasive plants) can dramatically change how that wetland functions.
“Invasives can also have greater impacts on sensitive or threatened habitats and species due to how easily they spread. (And) other invasive species can adversely affect human health.”
For instance, Bishop said, “it’s been proven that some invasives harbor significantly more ticks per acre then native (plants).”