Prioritize Removal of Invasive Plants

 

Georgia roadsides are a mixed bag of vegetation but increasingly they are being swallowed up in invasive plants. In Georgia, we’ve all seen mounds of kudzu, stands of bamboo, thickets of privet, choking wisteria, and trees transformed into English ivy monsters. Joining them now are the large-leaved Princess trees, colonies of tree of heaven, thorny ornamental pears, chinaberry, mimosa, tallow tree. All of these are Category 1 invasive plants in Georgia. These plants are literally overtaking native plants, reducing the productiveness of our natural ecosystems, resulting in fewer pollinators, fewer birds, as well as other critters that depend on these.

Roadside English ivy, spreading towards neighbor

In this post I present 3 ideas that we could implement to help slow up these invasive plants.

I used to think that development would at least help clean some of this up. But that is not always the case; several newer neighborhoods near me kept all those road edges intact. New homeowners there appear to like the buffer that these thickets of privet and tree of heaven provide. The fruits and seeds from these plants continue to infest new areas, creating an even bigger problem.

Building approvals that should require developers to remove Category 1 invasive plants as a condition of the permitting process. With a smart phone in every hand, identifying invasive plants is not hard to do and should be part of the cost of development just like water management, roads, and utilities.

Kudzu, despite our knowing how bad it is, is actually worst now that before. Infested areas are spreading rapidly to new properties and seeds are dispersed even further. Why should property owners have to deal with the neglect of others? I am aware of one Georgia community that is drafting a ‘control of vegetation’ ordinance to require owners to manage invasive plants, especially when they move into adjacent properties due to lack of control: “An invasive plant owner shall not allow an invasive plant that is capable of spreading by runners, roots, vines, stems, bulbils, or rhizomes to spread from the invasive plant owner’s property to any public right-of-way or any adjoining property not owned by the invasive plant owner.”

Municipalities that manage their roadsides are capable of exerting the effort to actually remove invasive trees that grow into utility lines; unfortunately my personal observation is that they just prune them, ensuring that they will need another round next year while also allowing them to set seed and shade out native plants.

In summary: 1) require developers to remove invasive plants during construction; 2) create ordinances that require owners to contain any spreading invasive that they have; and 3) remove invasive plants in the right of way as part of regular roadside maintenance.

Kudzu overtaking a wooded park (those trees all have kudzu)