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A member of the buckwheat family and native (as its name implies) to Asia, Reynoutria japonica<\/em> arrived in the U.S. in the late 1800s, imported to adorn gardens. In pretty short order, the plant signaled it had no intention of remaining within well-tended beds. By the 1930s, it was deemed a pest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its rapid march across the landscape, it crowds out native species, disrupts wildlife habitat and, as in the case of Madam Brett Park, obscures beautiful views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, Japanese knotweed and its equally harmful invasive cousins giant knotweed (Reynoutria sachalinensis<\/em>) and Bohemian knotweed (Fallopia \u00d7bohemica<\/em>) received the dubious distinction of being added to New York\u2019s list of Prohibited and Regulated Plants, meaning it\u2019s illegal to \u201cknowingly possess them with the intent to sell, import, purchase, transport, introduce or propagate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to spreading far and fast and thriving in just about any kind of soil and climate conditions, Japanese knotweed defies eradication. Its bamboo-like shoots grow up to 15 feet tall. Researchers estimate the root system of a single plant can span up to 32,000 square feet\u2014more than half a football field. Short of covering an area overrun with Japanese knotweed with unsightly black plastic and leaving it until the roots die\u2014which can take up to 5 years\u2014the only other, albeit temporary, remedy is to cut the plants back. At Madam Brett Park, Kiernan and her crew have to trim the marsh-side patch of Japanese knotweed \u201ca couple of times a month\u201d during growing season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Could there be an easier, more effective and less labor-intensive solution? Maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, Scenic Hudson Land Stewardship Coordinator Dan Smith read an article<\/a> shared by the Lower Hudson Partnership for Invasive Species Management<\/a> \u2014 or PRISM \u2014 a collective of environmental groups (including Scenic Hudson) working to limit the toll invasive species are having on the region\u2019s biodiversity and ecosystems. Written by a state biologist in Vermont, the article recounted her adoption of a new, experimental technique for combatting Japanese knotweed. \u201cI thought it was a really interesting idea, and I wanted to try it,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developed in England, where Japanese knotweed cracks roads and building foundations, the simple procedure involves cutting a patch of the plant to the ground and covering it with a metal wire mesh. The hope is that stems of new plants growing through the mesh will be girdled, or strangled, causing them to die. The plant will try to put up new stems, with similar results, until it uses up the store of energy in its roots. At that point, if the process works, no further growth should occur. End of Japanese knotweed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith secured Kiernan\u2019s eager cooperation to test the technique. (\u201cI\u2019m always trying to find ways where I can work together with the natural resources team,\u201d she says.) In June, he staked down mesh over a 400-square-foot plot of Japanese knotweed at our Esopus Meadows Preserve, while Student Conservation Association members Carly Shenold and Holly Clark did the same over a slightly smaller plot at Madam Brett Park. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several years on, evaluating the quantitative success of the project is difficult. The original two sites, along with an additional trailside site at Madam Brett installed in 2021, receive different amounts of light and have different slopes and soil types. Steeper slopes and rockier soils make it difficult to get the mesh tight against the ground, and knotweed will readily sneak through any gap it can find. The first Madam Brett site also has a different-sized mesh due to being purchased from a separate source. Together these differences make it difficult to collect comparable data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visually, the results are not as impressive as Smith had hoped. \u201cI\u2019ve poked my head into these stands and found individual girdled stems, but I haven\u2019t noticed mass die-back,\u201d he says. He can tell where the mesh sites are from the different size knotweed, but the half-inch mesh still allows the knotweed to grow to a size and density that shades out any competition, and likely continues sending energy back to its roots. Smith speculates that the mesh may corrode from contact with the ground before the knotweed\u2019s roots run out of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe black plastic is ugly\u201d he says, \u201cbut it seems like it\u2019s more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I first started working here, I didn\u2019t realize this could be such a beautiful view,\u201d says Scenic Hudson parks and trails manager Carley Kiernan. She\u2019s referring to a place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9953,"parent":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","footnotes":""},"vf-en-espanol":[],"vf-tags":[389,514],"magazine_category":[307,344],"class_list":["post-9803","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vf-tags-invasive-species","vf-tags-knotweed","magazine_category-plants-and-animals","magazine_category-invasives-101"],"acf":{"subtitle":"","english_translation_url":"","spanish_translation_url":""},"yoast_head":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.scenichudson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Slope-View-before-inital-trim-May-2020-1400x1050.jpg\")
Mesh to the Rescue<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Reed Sparling is a historian and retired staff writer for the Scenic Hudson. He is also a former editor of Hudson Valley<\/em> Magazine and writer for Reader’s Digest<\/em>. He co-edits the Hudson River Valley Review<\/em>, a scholarly journal from the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"