Native and Invasive Plants

The subject of invasive plants can be heated and misunderstood. Just because I have a plant in my garden that "takes over" does not make it invasive. That would be considered prolific. :-)
So what does make a plant invasive? Invasive species are generally non-native species that invade and alter both natural and managed areas. Perhaps they have a root structure that does this, or birds carry their seed and the plant is so vigorous it grows and outcompetes our native plants. Whatever the reason, they are becoming a problem everywhere.

The National Garden Clubs New England Region has a project involving all six of the New England States; Connecticut, Maine, Massachusettes, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, entitled "Regionally Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants." Perhaps we need to clarify the definition of a native plant. Native plants are generally thought of as those species existing here in the United States before the advent of European settlement. Since native plants occur naturally within the region or zone in which they evolve, they have adaptations that suit them to the local soils and climate. So to have an exotic non-native species come in and take over... wow! That must be some vigorous plant!

Another topic where folks disagree about invasives are growing zones. Is burning bush (winged euonymus) in Southern Maine a problem? Absolutely. But some people don't see any indication that it is in extreme Northern Maine.

Maine is the only State in New England that does not have current laws restricting the selling or growing of terrestrial invasive plants. Since there are so many issues involved in getting this into legislation, I certainly can see why! I am NER Project Coordinator for Maine so I decided to look into what the State is presently doing.

On September 5th, I attended State of Maine Horticulturist Ann Gibbs public meeting in Augusta regarding Resolve Chapter 21, new legislation to study invasive terrestrial plants in Maine. This meeting was basically a discussion of how to develop criteria to determine which plants are, or could be, invasive in Maine. Ann simply wanted input from the public on what processes should be considered so that she can have information for a report she has to present on February 1st. There wasn't to be any focus on any particular species (but of course it did lean that way from time to time!) I think the State of Maine committee will probably start by looking at what the other states in New England have done to come up with their process. The State of Maine has no funds for this sort of evaluation, so groups that now do volunteer work in the field would probably be the ones that would have the data to support the criteria.

I would be really surprised if a State of Maine list of invasive plants becomes a reality anytime soon, especially in time for a two-year New England Regional Project. However, I feel that for the purpose of this project only that we do our own list. We basically know a handful of plants we find to be a problem, and my tendency would be to keep the list small. The starting point will be to see what the other states have listed. There are numerous websites to check out for each of the states. The State of Maine has native plant list in place for the State. If legislation is eventually implemented, there probably will not be enforcement of what a garden clubber can or cannot grow or dig up and sell in their club plant sales. But hopefully there will be legislature as to what growers will not be allowed to grow and sell to the public.

It was also stressed at the meeting that there has to be a reason to implement legislation. They don't want to just tell people what they can or cannot do. Growers seem to be doing their part already. But what no one does seem to be doing is educating the public by suggesting alternatives. This is a major part of the NER Project and that's where I believe we can do the greatest good to the public.

My goal is to implement a plan by ‘suggesting’ that people not grow or share certain plants by telling them they are ‘potentially invasive’ and recommend they try a plant from a list of native plants that we supply them. And the list I plan to use has many Maine natives we can suggest.

I've definately got my work cut out for me. I plan to rely on the University of Maine, the State of Maine and many other learned people in the Garden Club Federation of Maine as well as Master Gardeners.

I will have more information on this topic in future posts.