Inch-by-inch, yard-by-yard large areas of Little Bennett Regional Park are slowly being overtaken by renegade bands of invaders from the plant world.

Non-native invasive plants (or NNIs) are gradually but continuously displacing native plants and threatening the Parks delicately balanced ecosystem. Fortunately, unlike some down county parks, non-native invasive plants have not yet reached a tipping point in Little Bennett. But Friends of Little Bennett and others who care about the park need to start taking action now to keep the invaders at bay before we begin to lose control over the problem.

And this is exactly what Eagle Scout candidate Kishore Radhakrishnan of Boy Scout Troop 489, Germantown, MD has been doing.

Leading an enthusiastic group of scout and adult volunteers with GPS receivers in hand, Kishore recently scouted out Little Bennett's Wims Meadow and identified the location of over 1000 non-native multiflora rose bushes in a roughly 6 or 7 acre plot of land. Japanese honeysuckle -- another invasive plant that smothers stately trees with its insidious vines -- was also on Kishore's watch list that day and a few dozen of that plant were sited as well.

Using the data gathered by Kishore's volunteers and GIS data from the Department of Parks, Friend of Little Bennett Matt Kendall created a map depicting the incidence of these two slowly spreading invaders in the meadow. View Kishore's and Matt's non-native invasive plant map. (Please note that numerous conditions can affect the accuracy of GPS readings to within a few meters of so of the actual earth-bound location of the object measured.)

After creating the map, Kishore and his volunteers analyzed the data. They then worked with Little Bennett Park management to determine the best site for the second aspect of Kishore's project: Remove the NNIs discovered and plotted in their mapping survey of Wims Meadow.

So the volunteers returned to the meadow a month or so later and spent another day removing the largest patch of multiflora rose they had found. The site they targeted was a football field-sized area that had become an impenetrable mass of multiflora rose along a scenic stretch of Ballfield Tributary. View photos depicting the groups project, including before and after shots.

In summing up his Eagle Scout experience, Kishore remarked about how good his project had made him feel. He felt that he'd made an important, tangible improvement to the Park while overcoming some real challenges along the way. He said, "This was one of the most complex Eagle Scout projects I have participated in. We had the technology parts like learning how to use GPS systems, and learning about non-native invasive plants and how they are ruining our parks and need to be controlled. Then we also had the outside part with surveying to collect the map data, and then the whole removal part of the project. I got a lot of experience in organizing, coordinating and leading others. It was truly a great experience."

Karl Moline, Scoutmaster of Kishore's Troop 489, said that Eagle Scout projects apply leadership skills learned over the course of a scout's entire career and also further develop those leadership skills through a challenging public service project. He added, "We have had a good experience with the Friends of Little Bennett and were glad to see you are working with scouts in the Park."

What is significant about Kishore's map?

Kishore and his volunteers performed an important public service in cleaning up a huge patch of invasive plants. But his mapping effort was probably even more important.

At 3700 acres, the sheer size of Little Bennett requires that those who want to attack the growing NNI problem first need to determine the principal target areas in the Park. Plus there are 20 types of non-native invasive plants found in Little Bennett, some more threatening and prevalent than others.

Non-native plant mapping efforts like Kishore's help us identify where the worst problems are and what our priority areas of attention should be.

NNIs are more prone to open areas than heavily forested ones, and this helps focus our mapping efforts. And fortunately the vast majority of Little Bennett Park is under heavy forest cover. So initially we will focus on getting better data on NNIs in the open meadows, wetlands, and along the trails and forest edges of the park.

But we also need to recognize that earlier gypsy moth infestations in the Park killed or defoliated several tall oak and other trees in Little Bennett. These holes in the canopy allowed sunlight to reach the forest floor in places. In these areas, non-natives such as multiflora rose are beginning to get established and prevent normal successional re-forestation. So we need to be vigilant about the spread of NNIs throughout the Parks forested regions, as well.

NNI data like that collected by Kishore, when layered with other GIS data from the Parks Department, can help determine light, soil, and other conditions most conducive to the spread of these alien plants. This, in turn, can help further refine search and control strategies.

NNI mapping data can also provide useful insights when conducting follow-up surveys in areas that have been cleared of these plants by helping to determine the effectiveness of various control strategies.

Finally, when combined with photography of areas of the park that are being over-run by NNIs, mapping data can hopefully help persuade citizens and public officials to devote more volunteer time and public resources to addressing the problem.

As Friends of Little Bennett President Lou Sousa summed up, "You cannot control a problem like this until you start to measure it. Otherwise, how will you know which battle to fight or whether or not you're winning the war?"

So Friends of Little Bennett plan to explore the potential for similar "recon patrols" and "blitzkrieg attacks" on unsuspecting invaders in our attempt to win this war on weeds in Little Bennett. - posted April 26, 2008

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