BAD ACTORS
PLANT SPECIES THAT DON’T PLAY BY THE RULES
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I do not believe that there is one single Mohican person or community member who would support a proposal to eliminate the reservation forest resources within the next seven generations. Further I do not believe that a single person would stand by and knowingly allow this to happen.
Well, this is already happening outside our reservation in thousands of acres of forests across the nation, and the world. As certain non-native plant species spread they can eliminate an entire forest over a number of years. Although there are dozens of non-native species of plants that are on the reservation, most play “by the rules”, and do not out-compete or crowd-out their neighbors. Some are even useful or used as food and medicine. The Stockbridge - Munsee Environment Department has identified five species of plants in our area that have the potential to be “invasive”. Two of these invade the woodlands, two invade the fields and one invades wetlands.
These species are called invasive and are considered undesirable because of their ability to crowd out native species and prevent the “good” plants and trees from reproducing. These invasive plants will eventually, if gone unchecked, dominate the landscape. The balance of nature will be gone, numerous species of plants, animals, fish, birds and all other life will be affected.
Many years ago, in the town I was raised, De Pere, I watched from 1965 to 1975 as a beautiful forty acre cattail marsh was destroyed by purple loosestrife. A productive marsh was turned into pretty purple death, no more fish spawning, no more ducks nesting, no more winter home for pheasant and muskrat. It might as well been paved over with concrete.
Common and glossy Buckhorn and Garlic Mustard can do to a forest what purple loosestrife did to that wetland. We have Buckhorn on this reservation. Most of it is located on a newly purchased parcel of land on Elm Road, but it also grows by the new Clinic and the old Museum. These small trees must be destroyed before they gain a foothold in the commercial forest lands. Garlic Mustard has been found on the Menominee Reservation along Highway 47 between Neopit and Zoar. That tribe is combating this infestation before it gets too large. Both of these plants will grow in shade and form a dense under cover that crowds out and eventually kills spring wildflowers and prevents the maples and oaks and all other native trees from starting new seedlings. Without baby trees to replace the mature trees as they die or are harvested, the forest cannot sustain itself, and there will be no trees for seven generations from now.
In the fields are spotted Knapweed and Wild Parsnip that crowd out other native field plants and grasses. The knapweed promotes soil erosion by having a loose root system that doesn’t hold the soil together. It also eliminates the other plants through a chemical put into the soil. The Parsnip, a big problem in South-west Wisconsin, is poisonous if bruised or broken and then touched and then the area of skin is exposed to sunlight. There have been some cases of this on the reservation this summer. This painful skin rash and blisters last for up to six weeks.
The environmental department will be teaching people what to look for and how to report infestations of these weeds, and we will seek funding to rid our reservation of these invasive species.
Click Here to Visit Pesticide Use on the Reservation
invasive species Web Links:
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/invasive/factsheets/buckthorns.htm
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_and_wildlife/exotics/buck.html
http://www.cws-scf.ec/habitat/inv/p7_e.html
http://ext.agn.uiiuc.edu/wssa/
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/herbarium
