(bright music) >>Most retailers and nurseries are still selling invasives.

If we can create more awareness about this problem, the ultimate goal is when the consumers stop buying these plants from retailers and nurseries, then they're gonna stop selling them.

>>We tend to do the Chinese privet in the winter because it's evergreen, and so it's very easy to spot.

Another species we have to deal with is English ivy and wintercreeper, both of which can be spread by birds, and so even if you think you have it under control, sort of new ones will pop up all the time.

>>Production funding for "Virginia Home Grown" is made possible by the Mary Roper Davis and Robert Poore Roper Memorial Fund.

And by.

(birds chirping) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) Welcome to Virginia Home Grown!

Today we are taking a look at invasive plant species.

To learn more about the threats they pose to our communities and methods to control and remove them First, Serome Hamlin went to Petersburg to learn about the work of the Friends of the Lower Appomattox River and see how they are stewarding the riverfront by removing invasive plants and restoring wildlife habitat.

Let's take a look.

>>The most challenging invasive we have here is probably the wisteria.

It's almost like following a spaghetti noodle all the way down to the ground.

It's very hard to actually find the bottom of the vine to cut.

>>The friends of the Lower Appomattox River is a community organization.

We started 20 years ago to work on the conservation and protection of the river, to really reclaim that land for people, for wildlife, for native plants (laughing).

>>We have been facilitating the creation of a 25-mile long trail, called the Appomattox River Trail.

It will meet up with the Capital Trail, and with the Fall Line Trail.

So here we are in Petersburg, in the very middle.

>>So you still got some connecting to do?

>>Yes, we do, we've got pieces to put together.

>>Can you please tell us what we have going on here at the entrance of this trail?

>>We have a native plant garden here.

They're bustling with our native pollinators, like bumblebees.

We have monarda, goldenrod.

We leave the seed heads so that they can feed the birds with the seeds in the winter.

>>Yes, the pollinators are very happy.

They're very, very busy in this garden today.

>>Yes, I love to see it.

>>And about the trail itself, can you tell me what people expect to see here when they come?

>>On this section of the trail, you'll see beautiful views of the river.

You'll see lots of birds, wildlife.

We have some historic areas.

We're standing on the foundation of buildings that are no longer around, but you'll see stone walls that used to hold up those foundations.

>>Yeah, I understand that it's been a lot of work to be able to uncover everything that we now and can enjoy.

So can you tell us a little bit about the bad, as opposed to just the good?

>>Yes, yes, we do invasive plant removal.

Invasive plants have an advantage over our native plants due to their aggressive growth, and not having any predators.

Where a native species have lots of predators that like to chew on them, the invasive plants go by scot-free, without any predators at all.

So they can take over these natural spaces- >>Quickly.

>>And part of what we do with volunteers is we remove invasive species, so that we have higher survival rates of our natives, and help the population of the native species going all the way up the food chain.

>>Now can you show me the trail?

>>Yes, let's take a look at the invasives that we're dealing with.

>>(laughing) Yes.

I see that you have clipped something, can you explain what you have in your hand?

>>Yes, this is tree of heaven.

The scientific name is Ailanthus altissima.

It is an invasive tree that is very, very common in this area, and you can identify it from its lookalikes, by a sort of a mitten thumb on the base of the leaf.

And also by its smell.

If you crush the leaf and smell it, it has a very distinctive- >>Distinct smell.

>>Sort of like unappealing food smell, something you don't wanna eat, but kind of smells like food.

>>So it is definitely a nuisance.

And I actually see along the trail too, we've got another one, wisteria.

>>There's quite a bit of wisteria along here, and that's sort of the main plant that we've been addressing with our volunteers.

It has a habit of climbing trees, and mounding over them, and completely blocking the sunlight from getting to the tree canopy.

We cut it back so that also it doesn't wrap around the trees tightly and girdle them, cutting off that tree's circulation.

We call it freeing the tree.

>>So this is your common method of how you take care of the wisteria?

>>Yes, we would cut within six inches of the ground, and we would apply herbicide to that cut at the root, so that it would kill just the root of that plant.

We'll leave it on the tree, so that we don't pull down those branches with volunteer effort.

The volunteer effort is already good once the vine is cut and the root is dead.

We just wanna see that plant gone, but it can stay in the tree- >>Yeah, you don't want it- You don't wanna damage the tree, so it would just die off naturally and eventually fall off.

>>Yes, yes, exactly right.

>>And I'm noticing another invasive?

>>Yes, we have another invasive here, privet.

It is an evergreen plant, very common in gardening.

People love to use it as a hedge plant in gardens.

However, it is an invasive species.

It invades woodlands like this, taking up space, which would otherwise be used by a native plant to grow in that area.

They can become as big as trees as well, so they really take up a lot of room sometimes.

>>Nice, let's go see what else the trail has to offer.

>>Oh, here, look at this.

>>Oh wow, look at these sunflowers.

>>We have an opportunity for natives like this to come back into this space because of our invasive plant removal.

You see these perennials that would've been here naturally, that haven't shown up here in a long time, but they still had their seeds in the seed bank here.

And once that sunlight came back and hit them, they were ready to go, and we love to see it.

>>So it's like a new lease on life?

>>Yes.

>>That they finally got the space to breathe and rise again.

>>Yes, and it's covered in pollinators, I love to see that too.

>>Awesome.

I'm actually starting to see another thing of beauty.

You can start to see the river here.

>>Yes, a lot of the work that we do has that extra benefit of opening up the spaces for people to enjoy it more.

When the invasives encroach, they can shroud the area, block out the sunlight.

But here we have these beautiful views of the river where you can see river otters, you can see blue herons, green herons.

You can see eagles, beautiful wildlife, and beautiful water to sit by and relax.

>>Yes, it's definitely more inviting instead of having a wall that's blocking everything, and just making a dark canopy.

But this is incredible, so I do appreciate the work that you guys are putting into clearing, not only the views, but for what you're doing for the natural ecosystem here.

>>Yes, it is a labor of love.

It's an ongoing maintenance task to clear invasive species, because they love it here just as much as the natives do.

But we, by removing them, we are continually providing for the ecosystem, for the bugs, and then the birds that eat the bugs, and all the way up the food chain.

Those plants are providing for the wildlife that would be here.

>>Thank you for the tour, and I think I'm gonna spend some time and explore this trail a little more.

>>I love that, yes, please, it's a beautiful day.

>>One thing I would ask people is to not plant new invasive plants.

And if they do have invasive plants on their property, to remove them because all of these plants are prolific re-seeders.

And so if we reduce the amount of invasive species in Petersburg, or in any urban area, we can reduce the invasive species pressure in natural areas like this.

>>We've seen so much growth and interest and understanding of the importance of conserving our river, and the natural surroundings to it.

It is a big job, but the community is behind it.

And we know actually from experience that when you have access to the river, you learn it, you love it, and you wanna protect it.

While the work FOLAR does is challenging, the benefits are so rewarding as that green curtain of invasive plants is brought down, providing the opportunity for native species to thrive.

Next, Shana Williams has tips to share for growing mint in your garden.

It is not invasive, but it is aggressive and spreads quickly.

With some work, you can enjoy growing it safely.

(bright music) >>I love growing mint, from inviting pollinators to my garden, to allowing me to have some of the best fresh tea and adding some different spices and minty flavors to some of the dishes that I cook.

But the key thing that I also have to remember is that can't just put it anywhere in your garden, because it can take over, and it'll grow faster than some of your other plants, and it'll start to smother 'em out.

Here's mountain mint, and it's tons, meaning hundreds of seed pods on top.

I have lemon balm over here, and there's so many seeds in there.

If I don't want the seeds to blow all over the garden and re-root themselves, or re-seed themselves in other locations, I need to make sure that I snip off this whole head.

I'm just going for now snip off just this one, and I need to make sure that I drop it down into the soil.

As I drop it into the soil.

I can possibly ensure that it's not being carried by the wind or taken in other places and throughout the garden.

But also my peppermint, the root systems are so resilient that they just travel throughout the soil, and I have to dig them up in order to control their growth.

So when you wanna grow some mint, consider a potted plant that allows the water to leach out of the bottom of it.

Another key thing is I like to harvest my mint.

And as I harvest my mint, I'll put it in a container, keep it fresh, and I'll strip off all of these leaves.

And as I'm stripping off these leaves to use in whatever my dish is, I can't just throw these vines anywhere in the garden because when they touch soil and they're still moist, they'll start growing again, and they'll grow that nice deep root system.

And unfortunately, I'll end up having some of these peppermint plants growing all over the garden.

Often in late winter and fall, you'll find that your mint starts to die back, and it'll look like the vines are completely dried out, and you'll be tempted to throw your plants away.

Don't do that because you'll throw it somewhere in your yard or maybe in the compost bin, but what you'll find is early spring, it'll start to grow back, and it'll grow in some places where you didn't intend for it to grow.

So always be vigilant, snip off your seed heads, harvest your mint continuously.

If you find it growing somewhere, dig it up, repot it in raised beds, and you'll find that you'll be enjoying mint for a long time and it doesn't take over your garden.

Happy gardening.

I love the fragrance that mint adds to the garden and its flavor, too.

And now I visited Ashburn Village in Loudon County, one of many neighborhoods that have joined together to form the Loudon Invasive Removal Alliance and talked with Mike Littman about organizing a collaborative community action plan to raise awareness about invasive plant species.

Let's get going.

>>Most people don't realize that invasives don't just infect the environment, but they're bad for the economy.

We've actually had for the first time this year one of our wineries report that the spotted lanternfly was really, really damaging their crop.

So if you are Loudoun County, Virginia, or Charlottesville, Virginia, or anywhere that has a great rural economy with wineries or things like that, that's going to negatively impact your economy as well.

And so we started this effort here in Loudoun County, but we're certainly hoping that through all the environmental organizations, they kind of come in and help us, and other counties that have the same kind of economy come in and help us as well.

>>This is an HOA that has 5,000 homes and about 15,000 people.

Ashburn Village and a lot of the HOAs in Loudoun County were built up in the late '90s and 2000s.

And the developers innocently found plants that were cheap, pretty, and grew quickly.

And unfortunately, it turns out a lot of those became invasives.

>>You have been spearheading or involved with an organization that has done a tremendous amount of work up here.

So tell me about that.

>>So an alliance of HOAs throughout Loudoun County that represents now over half the population of the county.

And why do we even get into this stuff?

Well, it's really threefold.

A lot of folks, when they hear invasive plants, they think about the environment and the impact it has.

And that's a really big deal.

And we've got invasives around this lake behind us that will crowd out all the other plants and the native flora and fauna.

So Bradford pears, there's one right here, matter of fact, they tend to fall down in storms.

>>Yes, very weak-wooded, poor crotched plants.

>>Very weak-wooded.

Barberries, they tend to attract not just ticks but ones with Lyme disease.

And even the non-native grasslands, like the ones that set the fires in Hawaii, we have one called Japanese stiltgrass that has already started a fire here a couple years ago.

So invasives, health and safety, the economy, and of course the environment are the reason we all got into this thing called LIRA, Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance.

That's why we formed.

>>So what is the goal of LIRA?

>>Yeah, so the goal of LIRA.

So we have formed a partnership with the county.

So we're really excited that the Board of Supervisors for Loudoun County are now working with us.

They've actually funded a study throughout Loudoun County to see what is the problem, how do we address it, and so forth.

And they've even funded a grant program.

So HOAs would apply for a grant with the county.

And to do so, they'll go through the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District.

They oversee the program from the county.

And part of the application process, one of the first things they'll do is work with an organization known as Blue Ridge PRISM.

And they'll come into the community and do an assessment of what the worst offenders are and where you should focus first.

So it may be that residents see Bradford pears, and say, "Oh, we gotta get rid of all our Bradford pears."

Well that's expensive, and it may not be the best invasive to go after.

Whereas there's others like a purple loosestrife or Japanese honeysuckle or others that might be a much bigger problem.

So they'll do that assessment.

That's included in part of the application along with a quote from a landscaper who's expert in invasive plant removal.

The HOAs will go off and do the work, assuming it's approved.

And when it's done, Soil and Water will come back and determine, "Did you do what you said you were gonna do?"

And that's when the reimbursement happens.

>>So it just sounds so amazing.

So how did you start LIRA?

>>It started with basically HOA board members and general managers speaking to one another and sharing.

It started here in Ashburn Village.

We were the first board to pass the motion.

And next thing you know, half of Loudoun County was on board.

So it really was word of mouth.

It's a true grassroots initiative, unlike one I think Loudoun's had in a long time.

>>Fantastic.

So one HOA at a time just all joining in.

>>One HOA at a time.

And then along came, you know, some partners like Blue Ridge PRISM and Loudoun Wildlife and others.

The wineries have joined in, Farm Bureau.

Everyone's coming together on this issue.

>>What about the surrounding counties?

Is anybody copying this?

>>Actually, funny you should ask.

(Peggy laughing) Fairfax is now doing a very similar.

FIRA, the Fairfax Invasive Removal Alliance is now alive and well in Fairfax.

I've heard it's going on down in the south in Greene County and other counties.

So it's starting to catch on elsewhere.

>>I think it's a great way to directly impact our communities and to bring on board and also to educate people about, you know, the species of that wall of green, we'll call it, and what species are in there and how it matters, what plants are there.

>>You just nailed it.

To me, that's the key, awareness.

This is all about awareness.

If I stop 20 people in the street, my guess is one might know what an invasive plant is today.

It's just not something people know about.

I liken it to the Surgeon General stamp on the cigarette packs.

Once people knew it was bad for you, they're like, "Oh, I probably shouldn't smoke this stuff."

I mean, people need to learn that the invasive plants are not good for the environment, are not good for their safety and health, or the economy.

>>So awareness is really the first step.

How do you accomplish that?

>>Certainly through the HOAs and just getting the word out.

And we have that organizational structure.

But we also do some special events.

Like in April, we tend to do what's called the Scrape for the Grape campaign.

400 volunteers go to 14 locations to scrape spotted lanternfly eggs off of trees, the tree of heaven brings them in, and also to tag the tree of heaven.

It was a great awareness campaign.

And it gets the word out that tree of heaven is a problem.

>>Yes, and that spotted lanternfly is a problem too.

>>Spotted lanternfly is a bigger problem.

And we.

actually, in that campaign removed 2 million spotted lanternflies from the Loudoun environment in that one campaign.

>>That is awesome.

>>Unfortunately, there's many million more.

>>I know.

>>But it created the awareness.

>>And it started, yes.

>>It started.

>>And once you create awareness, people start looking to their own backyard.

>>I only learned two or three years ago, okay?

And now, I go into the woods in my backyard and I remove nandina.

I remove multiflora rose.

There's so many.

I mean, I think I took out 70.

Now that I'm armed and dangerous on what the bad guys are, I wanna do it myself.

And that's the hope is that when we create the awareness, individuals will wanna do it on their properties.

>>It's really exciting to hear about this momentum going in Loudoun County and how it's spilling over into the other communities.

But here at Ashburn Village, you've got some good news to share as well.

>>We have 500 acres of common ground in Ashburn Village.

And on that, we've now gone 100% native.

So when we plant on common ground, it's only gonna be natives going forward.

We stopped planting invasives.

And we've even gone back to some areas where we recently did a removal of invasives.

And now we've put in all kinds of natives.

And it looks beautiful.

We only do it on common grounds because we're not gonna go into people's backyards and tell them what they can plant and change it.

>>No, you can't do that.

>>But at least we can show them, hopefully by example, that this is what we're doing.

And it's making for a better environment, making your area safer, and it's actually good for the economy.

>>Such good, positive things to celebrate.

And raising awareness is, to me, one of the most primary goals that you have so that people can understand and start following suit in their backyard, wherever it is.

So thank you, Mike.

Thank you for sharing.

>>In the end, we wanna see two things happen.

One, we wanna make sure that the General Assembly is aware of this and that they take up an effort to discourage developers from planting invasive trees.

And we wanna make sure that some of our stores, especially our larger stores, stop selling the invasive trees and bushes.

Because in the end, they're really unknowingly hurting the community that they're selling to.

This is one of these moments that local elected officials learned so much from our constituents.

This was a grassroots-led effort from LIRA.

And we would not be this far along if it wasn't for them.

So lean into your constituents who know what they're talking about, and they can help you.

Because truthfully, they live there and they want to have a healthy ecosystem and a healthy economy.

We tend to think about the environmental impacts of invasive species.

But to factor in the economic and safety aspects further heightens the effects they have on our communities.

In response, we're fortunate to have the programs of LIRA and Loudoun County as templates to follow on both the private and county level.

And now Amyrose Foll has tips to share for dealing with a common invasive plant problem.

When English ivy climbs and strangles a tree.

(bright music) >>The next time you're at your local hardware store and you're shopping for plants, don't be tempted by this.

This is just English ivy.

It used to be very in fashion, but now that we know better, we can do better.

It's very invasive, and it can do things like strangle and kill your trees.

This property sat vacant for quite a while before we acquired it, and this grand old maple tree has, unfortunately, suffered from the English ivy that is growing here.

The problem with English ivy is twofold.

Not only will it kill your tree, but it's also incredibly hard to eradicate, and it can take many years to do fully.

It's both parasitizing this tree and sapping nutrients from it, but it also grows out into the yard, and to fully eradicate all of these roots here that we have is incredibly time-consuming.

It can take many days the first go round, and you really need to be vigilant year after year to look for regrowth.

This is where you would start.

Try to get down to the base in an area where you're not going to have too much trouble working, and you're going to really try to make sure that you are cutting off all of the aerial roots that have grown up around this tree from the roots at the bottom at the base, and as you're cutting, you don't want to girdle the tree.

So we don't want to just haphazardly cut all the way around.

That can kill the tree in and of itself when you cut the bark all the way around.

An example of that would be when you are weed eating all the way around very young saplings that are only a couple years old.

That's something that is actually quite common for groundskeepers to accidentally do and inadvertently hurt the trees.

It'll cause those trees to suffer and die.

If you can see here, there is a really, really big cluster of vines from this English ivy.

(ax thunks) That is almost a job for a sawzall, (ax thunks) but you want to be careful not to damage the bark of the tree underneath here.

(ax thunking) Making sure that you have really good quality sharp tools is very important.

Statistically, you're more likely to be injured using a dull knife or a dull tool, so we make sure that we've got really nice sharp hori horis, pinking shears, and this will make your job easy in the long run compared to struggling with dull tools, so don't be tempted by English ivy.

If you do need to buy some English ivy, bring it home and pot it and use it as a house plant, but never plant it around the base of trees as ground cover because inevitably, no matter how hard you try to control it, something like this will happen, and it will just be completely out of control.

That being said, you can go to a local nursery and pick up things like wild blue phlox, green and gold, or running cedar, which will be great ground cover, and they won't destroy the trees in your yard or crowd out other plants.

I hope this helps and happy gardening.

English Ivy, like many other invasive species, is challenging to remove.

But be persistent and your work will pay off.

We hope that you consider the effects of invasive plants in your area.

If you're unsure how to get started, then Blue Ridge PRISM and the Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition are excellent resources.

See you soon.

And until then, remember gardening is for everyone.

We are all growing and learning together.

>>Production funding for Virginia Home Grown is made possible by, the Mary Roper Davis and Robert Poore Roper Memorial Fund.

And by... (birds chirping) (lively guitar music) (lively guitar music continues) (gentle music)