I can get it with the same herbicide used for Multiflora Rose and Autumn Olive, and other brushy plants – if I watch carefully and am persistent. Runners underground make it tough, though. It starts flowering when very young, and you often find several stems about 3 feet apart.

Another neighbor is a retired timber man. He said he has cut some “Tree of Heaven” for timber, but it is very low grade.

The Interstate highway, right of way for local roads and drilling clearances do spread lots of undesirable plants, including thistles.

Tom Bond, Lewis County
Central West Virginia

Concerned citizens have long been sounding alarms about the effects of pollution and misuse of land on our native plant and animal communities. Recently, increasing concern has been expressed that non-native plant species are invading and changing natural areas. These aggressive “weeds” are non-native invasive plants, sometimes referred to as exotic pest plants.

How do they differ from native species?
Generally, the native plant species of West Virginia are those that were part of plant communities when North America was first settled by Europeans. Change in plant communities is a natural part of life. As Dr. John Randall (The Nature Conservancy) and Janet Marinelli (Brooklyn Botanic Garden), point out in their handbook Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden (Brooklyn Botanic Garden Publications, 1996), “New species move in as the climate changes and as soils build up and become richer, or erode and become less fertile. In the normal course of events, the arrival of new species may be the result of a single catastrophic event like a hurricane, or of gradual change over thousands of years. Humans have vastly accelerated the movement of plants, carrying thousands of species that could not have crossed natural barriers like oceans, mountain ranges and deserts, to new areas. Species that have flourished and spread on their own, only after people transported them across barriers they could not otherwise surmount, are considered non-natives. In many areas these plants have overwhelmed the native plants and animals.”

We value Natural Areas!

Natural areas are generally areas of limited development where natural occurring, functioning ecosystems are supporting the greatest amount of natural biological diversity the nonliving resources (soil, sunlight, minerals, etc.) of that area can support.

Healthy natural areas have seemingly endless interrelationships among animals, plants, fungi, microorganisms, and the nonliving part of the ecosystems, providing habitat for these species.

Natural areas often support rare, threatened and endangered species of plants, animals, and fungi. The natural communities themselves are often rare enough or of such quality that society recognizes the value of conserving them.

The impact of non-native invasive plant species on natural biological diversity, in numerous examples around the world, have reduced available habitat for native species and/or eliminated associated native species altogether.

Examples of non-native invasive species:

Garlic mustard, Japanese honeysuckle and kudzu,
which invade moist forest edges, even those without disturbance.

Purple loosestrife,
an incredibly invasive exotic now blanketing emergent wetlands along the Ohio River, and increasing along other major rivers throughout the state, in some cases replacing native vegetation, threatening rare plant species, and destroying small wetlands.

Mile-a-minute,
a spiny vine found climbing 10-20 feet into trees, often smothers native shrubs and shades out herbaceous plants along the Ohio River and in the rivers of the Eastern Panhandle.

Japanese knotweed and sachaline knotweed
are two stout perennial clonal herbs that can out-compete all other vegetation in certain areas.

Spotted knapweed, barren brome and tree of heaven
are invading shale barrens, limestone glades, and barrens, and native grassland communities.

To receive additional information about invasive plants, please contact:

http://www.wvdnr.gov/Wildlife/InvasiveWV.shtm

West Virginia Division of Natural Resources
Wildlife Resources Section
P.O. Box 67
Elkins, WV 26241