Woodlands Management Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Martha Dwyer-Bergman, Cliff Miles, Phil
Notestine, George Jackson, Linda Spencer-Green, Jerry Uhrig
Administrative
George asked if all of us on the committee were
interested in continuing to serve. All
agreed to continue. Jerry will contact Patty Graham about her availability.
Minutes
Jerry said that the minutes for the last month's
meeting are up on the website. He posted them using a tool provided by Mark
Watrous of the Website Committee. The tool works very well. Mark deserves a lot
of credit for a job well done.
Reports
Deer
Phil
stated that two additional people from
Martha
reported that she has seen 4 does and one buck in her front and back yards over the past month and saw
deer at the corner of
There
was a question of whether there will be posting of the Tourne hunt at the paths
from
Invasives
Jerry
passed out handouts from Brian McDonnell of the Northeast Exotic Plant
Management Team of the National Park Service, located in
Jerry
had asked him about how they manage to staff their teams with enough people to
do the job. Brian explained that they
rely on the use of herbicides to augment the effectiveness of their teams,
usually a three-person crew. For
example, by treating Japanese barberry with an herbicide, they can leave the
shrub in place and provide cover for the native plants replacing them.
Ailanthus
Trees are sprayed with Garlon 4. It kills both the tree and the root system,
which prevents regrowth. However, a
licensed person must apply the chemical.
There was a question regarding the long-term effects of this chemical. Cliff said that he would do some research on
it.
Purple
loosestrife had been a serious problem in that area until they removed it by
digging out the roots with a long-bladed shovel. This worked well in their
soil, which is more or less homogeneous muck without a lot of rocks.
Unfortunately it is very different in our area.
Jane
also mentioned that the deer have been eating Ailanthus seedlings. It is not
often that we hear anything positive about deer.
They
have also had good luck finding high school volunteers who really seem to enjoy
using the weed wrenches.
Their
biggest problem currently is wisteria. Their approach has been to dig it or
pull it when they can and to use "cut and squirt" when the plant is to large. Woodlands Committee members noted that in Mountain
Lakes, smaller lots are being overcome with wisteria along Fanny Road and along
Lake Drive and Morris.
Devil's
Walking Stick Cliff said that devil’s walking
stick (aralia spinosa) is on the
Boulevard, Laurel Hill and at the high school; however, some have no thorns. At
this point it is not clear whether the ones without thorns are actually aralia spinosa or not.
Threats
Asian
Long-Horned Beetle Cliff brought samples of the
Asian Long-horned Beetle for everyone. We all agreed that it was quite a
Christmas present. He also showed us a box that contained examples of the
entire life-cycle of a beetle: a mature beetle, a piece of tree containing a
hole made for depositing eggs, a beetle larvae, a piece of tree with an exit
hole in it, and a section of tree showing the passages bored by larva. Such a
box would make an excellent information display, perhaps at the library, if we
could borrow one for a while.
Sudden Oak Death Cliff also brought copies of a
brochure "Phytophthora ramorum: Stopping
the Spread." This brochure describes the nationwide effort to keep this
disease in check, primarily by monitoring nursery stock. It also tells what to
do if you suspect that a tree or plant is infected.
One
troublesome aspect of this disease has been the different perceptions of risk.
A recent report has been made available on the Sudden Oak Death website
suddenoakdeath.org. It can be found by
selecting "Research" in the left-hand column and then selecting
"Modeling Phytophtha ramorum" in the sub-list under it. The report is
the result of a meeting of researchers at the USDA Forest Service, Southern
Research Station in
Bacterial Leaf
Scorch Jerry passed out some recent
material on this problem. I included a map which showed a considerably greater
spread than the 1999 map shown on the BLS website maintained by the NJ Forest
Service. It is believed that insects
carry it and spread it to a large selection of trees, especially Northern red
oaks and pin oaks. Several other tree species, including other oaks, mulberry,
sweetgum, and some maples are also affected but not yet to the extent of the
Northern red oak and pin oak in
Our
February meeting (the 15th) will be a joint meeting with the Shade
Tree Commission to discuss the specific topic of threats to our trees. We need
to be sure that we have a coordinated effort on this problem.
Other topics
Bears Linda asked about the bears in
town and whether the bow hunters are allowed to hunt them. Cliff said there was one that broke a lot of
ice on
Bio-Blitz Cliff brought a report on the
Lenape Park Bio-Blitz held in