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Together we can help make Glastonbury a more beautiful, greener place to live.
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Battling Bittersweet
and Other Invasive Plants |
When "It's a jungle out there" went from an
expression to reality in many parts of Glastonbury where
aggressive Oriental Bittersweet vines are killing trees and
taking over the landscape, GPIP decided to take action and
asked the Town to help.
After GPIP’s lengthy proposal was accepted by the Parks and
Rec. Department in July 2013, a site at Riverfront Park, 200
Welles St., was designated for the first Battling
Bittersweet Work Day.
 GPIP solicited nearly 80 volunteers,
while the Parks and Rec. Department assisted with preparing
the site allowing volunteers to safely approach and cut the
bittersweet vines. Later in the day, a crew of several town
employees carefully sprayed the cut vines with an herbicide
to prevent further growth. If it hadn’t been for the town’s
support, it would have been very difficult to accomplish
such success.
The success of the first annual Battling Bittersweet Work
Day led to a much smaller endeavor in November called
Save A
Tree work day. 15 Bittersweet Battlers succeeded in cutting
several hundred bittersweet vines as well as strands of
multi-flora rose growing along the CT River path in
Riverfront Park. Again, the Town will remove much of the
debris left behind.
In the future we hope to have at least one annual public
Battling Bittersweet Work Day that encourages residents
throughout Glastonbury to help us. We also hope to have
smaller Save A Tree work days (for experienced, vetted and
approved bittersweet battlers) throughout the year as
weather allows.
Our goal is not to achieve total victory, but to avoid total
defeat. |
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BEFORE:
A close up of one of many thick bittersweet vines attacking
the trees at the work day site.
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The Town cleared many paths into the work site so that
volunteers could safely reach and cut the many bittersweet
vines that were strangling the trees.
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AFTER:
The cut bittersweet vines will hopefully save the
tree and cause the infestation of berries to die so they
will
not germinate next year.
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What
was once a dense jungle is now a healthier natural
environment thanks to 75 dedicated Battling Bittersweet
volunteers.
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Save A Tree:
An extreme invasion of
bittersweet chokes several trees along the CT River.
One of the volunteers attempts to cut the tangled
vines.
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Another volunteer makes her way into a dense thicket
of bittersweet vines to eradicate the invasive
plants.
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More information is available
on our Blog |
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