Battling The Bittersweet—

Removing An Invasive Plant One Cut At A Time

By Kendra Bobowick

“If you cut it, does it regenerate?” asked resident Gretchen Bauta.

“Yes,” answered Deputy Director of Planning and Land Use Rob Sibley.

“So, you’ve got to pull it by the roots?” Ms Bauta asked.

“That’s not easy to do,” said Conservation Commission member Mary Gaudet Wilson.

Gathered for an informal meeting Tuesday afternoon, a group of environmental-minded officials and town staff considered Conservation Commission member Pat Barkman’s proposal for a townwide Bittersweet Blitz — an appeal to residents to check their backyards for the invasive plant.

Reaching and winding upward around trunks and threading its way through branches toward sunlight at the tops of trees, the vine chokes out native trees. It is pretty, but it is also a problem, the group agreed. Depending on its thickness, severing the vine may suffice — for now.

If the bittersweet vines are small enough they can be uprooted, Ms Barkman explained. “I can pull them out by hand,” she said, but only to a point. Some vines are thicker. Cut a portion out, separating the roots from the lengths stretching through the trees. Larger severed vines must have a gap; she said, “otherwise, they will marry the two cut pieces and keep on growing.” Leave the vine in place for a year and allow it to dry and come down more easily. Apply Round Up to the fresh cut to prevent the root regrowth.

Vibrant yellow and orange clusters of the bittersweet’s berries cling to the season’s bare tree limbs while autumn leaves blow away on the ground. Commenting that the eye-catching bursts of color are popular Thanksgiving decorations for those basting a turkey and setting out silverware, the vine often makes its way into wreaths or bows laid across a fireplace mantel.

Check your back yard, Ms Barkman asks, and help reduce the one of many invasive species choking out indigenous plant life. Educating and engaging the public’s help combating invasive species strewn throughout Newtown’s natural habitat is just part of an overall plan that the Conservation Commission members and Land Use officials hope to coordinate. “We have to consider the ultimate strategy of the town on invasives,” Mr Sibley said Tuesday. The Conservation Commission is a “great place to launch” those plans, he said.

Entering the meeting with aggressive ideas to blitz the town’s bittersweet, for one, Ms Barkman also carried with her a list of other plants that mar the landscape: Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, autumn olive, burning bushes (split bark euonymous), Japanese knot weed, garlic mustard, and more.

Noting that the blitz approach introduces some “great ideas” for drawing the public into plans for eradicating certain plants, Mr Sibley looked ahead to next year: “We should find a strategy. We need to be sure we clearly lay out what we’ll do in order to move forward.” Suggesting again that the Conservation Commission is an important starting point for plans, he said, “A clear line of attack is critical.” Ultimately, plans need to be instituted annually, making invasive species removal a regular and organized effort between town staff and residents.

See the following websites for additional information about invasive species. The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England at http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/, or visit the Department of Environmental Protection’s site at http://www.ct.nrcs.usda.gov/invas-factsheets.html.