Current Projects

Connetquot River State Park Invasive Species Prevention Zone

Alternatives to Ornamental Invasive Plants Demonstration Garden, Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center, Riverhead

Ludwigia peploides removal on the Peconic River

A Reed Grows in Brooklyn…

Cedar Point County Park Invasive Species Prevention Zone

Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt - Vineyard Field Grassland Restoration Project

Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) - Invasive Plant Inventory and Control Program

Connetquot River State Park Invasive Species Prevention Zone

New York State Parks biologists began implementation of an Invasive Species Prevention Zone (ISPZ) plan last summer at Connetquot River State Park Preserve in Oakdale. Wineberry, Japanese barberry and Japanese honeysuckle were some of the species removed from a wetland area along the Connetquot River. Connetquot is New York State's first ISPZ.

With help from The Nature Conservancy, the preserve's 3,500 acres of pine barrens habitat were surveyed and mapped for invasive plants and the few invasives found there are being actively monitored and removed. The goal is to remove all invasives from the park and monitor to guard against new and recurring invasions.

Alternatives to Ornamental Invasive Plants Demonstration Garden, Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center, Riverhead

The characteristics that tend to make a plant invasive also tend to make a good ornamental plant. In response to recent legislation banning the propagation and sale of many invasive plants, a list of replacements for invasive plants that are also ornamentals has recently been developed specifically for the Long Island region.

Creating a local demonstration garden consisting of these alternative plants is an important component of public outreach needed to maintain the vitality of Long Island’s greenscapes and native biodiversity. The demonstration garden will be used to increase local nursery growers’, landscapers’, and homeowners’ awareness of plants that can function as alternatives to ornamental invasives. The garden will also be used to demonstrate the ability of less common alternative plants to grow, thrive, and enhance Long Island landscapes.

The Alternatives to Ornamental Invasive Plants Demonstration Garden is located at the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center, in Riverhead at 3059 Sound Ave. Donations of plants will be accepted beginning Spring 2009. If you are interested in donating plants, please contact Alexis Alvey, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Nursery & Landscape Specialist, for more information:
Phone: 631-727-7850 ext. 213
E-mail: aaa34@cornell.edu

Ludwigia peploides removal on the Peconic River

Ludwigia peploides, more commonly known as water primrose, is a South American species that was first detected in the Peconic River in 2003. The Peconic Estuary Program and its partners have embarked on a multi-year monitoring and volunteer driven eradication effort in an attempt to rid the species from the Peconic River and prevent spreading to other Long Island waters. Since the initiation of the eradication effort in the Spring of 2006, over 350 volunteers have spent over 1500 hours hand-pulling over 126 cubic yards of Ludwigia. Frequent monitoring suggests past and current efforts have been successful in controlling the invasive plant and project partners are hopeful that only small scale maintenance pulling will be required in the future.

For more information on invasives in the Peconic River and how you can help, go to http://peconice.ipower.com/Invasives.html.

A Reed Grows in Brooklyn…

For the past decade, land managers in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park have been taking bites out of the lakeside Phragmites australis population. Their efforts have been multi-faceted: both through large-scale capital projects and in smaller scale in-house efforts of their Natural Resources Crew.

As part of a capital restoration project of the shoreline, Phragmites was removed using a coffer dam to draw down the water level and bulldozers to dig up rhizomes for complete removal of Phragmites from the site. The shoreline was re-graded to reduce Phragmites habitat, and planted with native aquatic plants.

In other areas, the staff has been covering stands of Phragmites with sheets of black plastic to kill it through solarization in situ.

The cover is left on the Phragmites for one to two years (with occasional patching to maintain effectiveness). This technique has been quite successful, with entire stands being wiped out. These areas will be planted with native aquatic plant species to replace the invasive reed.

Cedar Point County Park Invasive Species Prevention Zone

Cedar Point County Park, a 630 acre park located in East Hampton boasts many rare plant and inverte- brate species as well as barrier beach habitat that is rare outside of the south shore of LI and important to the endangered piping plover. Invasive plant surveys conducted in 2005, 2006 and 2008 revealed that Cedar Point is not only of high recreational value but also of high ecological value (few invasive plants were found within the park; those that were discovered were generally confined to highly disturbed areas).

Cedar Point County Park became Suffolk County’s first ISPZ. During the summer of 2008 a Student Conservation Associate (SCA) crew worked with Suffolk County Parks to remove nearly all of the barberry and wineberry growing in the park and management of a number of other species was begun as well. These efforts will be continued by Suffolk County Parks in 2009.

Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt - Vineyard Field Grassland Restoration Project

Since 2005 FLPG has been implementing a native grasslands restoration project at Vineyard Field, a 38-acre property in the Long Pond Greenbelt preserved by Southampton Town in 1998, located in Bridgehampton.

Through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) grant and with the support of the Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation District, a three-stage, ten-year restoration plan was devised. Stage One targeted the extensive autumn olive and Japanese knotweed populations. Arborists using brush hogs, and chippers removed close to 30 acres of the autumn olive and Japanese knotweed stands were dug and covered with tarps, using both volunteer and paid labor.

During Stage Two, efforts are focused on controlling the resprouts of autumn olive, knotweed and mile-a-minute vine through brush hogging, mowing, and hand control activities. Stage Three consists of monitoring and maintenance mowing to control new infestations and reduce natural biomass accumulation.

For further details on this restoration effort, visit http://longpondgreenbelt.org and click on Vineyard Field Achievement Report.

Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) - Invasive Plant Inventory and Control Program

In 2002 Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) began to inventory and map invasive plants, which served as a baseline for our current invasive plant management program. In 2007 the park initiated a three-year Invasive Plant Inventory and Control program that will help identify the scope of the invasive plant issue by cataloging species found within Fire Island National Seashore lands, apply various control methods, and identify which treatment efforts were successful and should be utilized in the future.

In 2007, FIIS staff inventoried the Otis Pike High Dune Wilderness Area (OPWA) and the William Floyd Estate (WFE). In 2008, park staff then initiated control and management of those areas and conducted inventory of other areas in and adjacent to park lands on Fire Island. The 2009 effort will be geared towards implementing control in areas inventoried in past years, re-surveying areas that have been previously treated, and finish inventorying areas that have not been mapped. In addition, the relatively unimpacted OPWA has been designated the newest Invasive Species Prevention Zone.