HEY are everywhere, climbing trees, creeping along the ground, covering fences and buildings. I am talking about invasive vines. We know them by name: Scarlet Gourd, Chain of Love, and Velvet Bean. They are taking over our island and not in a good way.
These vines are killing our forests and trees, and turning them into grasslands.
What can we do?
Despite our best efforts to eradicate these species, they may simply be here to stay. But does that mean we do nothing? No, we can begin to control and reduce them to some manageable level. The Micronesica Bird Conservation has started a volunteer vine-control group. The aim is to identify important areas of native forest, seabird nesting colonies and larger trees that are at risk of being smothered, and begin controlling the vines in these areas using manual techniques. We can cut the vines using machetes or hand sickles. The plan is to control, not eradicate, the vines in these targeted areas.
The Micronesica Bird Conservation recently conducted a vine-control at the intersection of Middle Road and Isa Drive in Lower Base. This intersection is home to some large trees that were beginning to struggle under the vines. A group of volunteers began cutting the vines growing up the larger trees. We did not pull the vines from the trees or pull them up from the ground. We simply cut the vine near the base. We will monitor the area to see how long it takes for the vine to grow back. We hope it will take a while, long enough for the tree to recover and become healthy again. Photographs taken eight days after the vine control show the vine has completely died and the tree canopies are already recovering. We will continue monitoring the progress in this area and do follow-up control efforts as needed.
The Micronesica Bird Conservation will be conducting vine control one Saturday a month from 8am to 10am. Ace Joeten Hardware graciously donated hand sickles to help our volunteers in their efforts. If you would like to volunteer please contact us at micronesicabirdconservation@gmail.com or visit our website at micronesicabirdconservation.org to check out our calendar of events and track the progress of the vine-control program. You can also help by controlling the vines in your yards and at your farms. Every little bit helps and can make a big difference.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!