Purple Loosestrife, Autumn Olive, Norway Maple and Multi-flora Rose may sound like plants you'd want in your garden, but actually, they're four of the 423 invasive plants currently in New Hampshire. These non-indigenous weeds, trees and shrubs, grow with a great ferocity strangling and starving the native species. Now some are fighting back against these green villains and making some progress as well. Today we begin a two part series on invasive species in New Hampshire, starting with weeds, trees and other non-native plants.
Guests:
- Amy Smagula - Limnologist/Exotic Species Program Coordinator, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
- Heidi Holman - Wildlife Diversity Biologist, NH Fish and Game Department.
- Scott Ollinger - Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at UNH and Associate director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. He is taking a leave of absence from UNH to serve as director of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which will monitor ecological change across the U.S. One of the 60 NEON sites being built will be here in NH.
We'll Also hear from:
- Beverly Nelson - President of the Lees Pond Association Manager in Moultonborough, and manager of its Weed Watch program, where they also work on preventing invasive species.
Click here, to view the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England.
Click here, to see a customized map for each New Hampshire town, showing priority areas where removing invasive plants will have the most immediate impact and most effectively protect native natural resources in the long-term.
