My new house is surrounded by woods and farm fields. Twice each day I walk the hound dawg around the edge of a large field and follow a small trail through the woods. I see a huge amount of invasive plants. The situation is completely out of control. I don't see a way anyone could ever get this genie back in the bottle. It would take massive amounts of toxic chemicals or an army of hands pulling to get just a few acres cleaned, and then, once you turn your back they would just invade again. No one has that much time or those resources. We've lost this battle.

One of the problems is an old abandoned grave yard in the woods. Under total neglect (there is no road to it so no way any agency could drive up to care for it) all the ornamental plants that got planted on the graves have spread throughout the woods. None of them are the nasty sort, but still.

And then there is the Microstegium running rampant throughout the shady places in the woods - the terrain is such that you can't run a weedeater through it, you can't get to all of it to hand pull and there is no way to carry a sprayer into all the valleys and steep areas. There is no way to get rid of it.

Because of how futile it all seems I have kinda ignored Invasive Species lists. I try to garden responsibly and keep all of my plants under control and I don't tell anyone what they should plant or not plant. I also find it odd that a bunch of white people get so worked up about invasive species - like we aren't immigrants ourselves! I think humans are far more damaging.

Good points, trianglejohn, and in some respects I agree with you. We'll never get rid of all of this. But I guess the following is what I think about/do:

- support efforts to eradicate populations in protected natural areas (volunteer efforts, helping state/federal employees learn about which plants are invasive); I feel it is important to try and keep some places as free of infestation as possible.

- support efforts to educate people about what plants are invasive because the average person does not know/recognize these plants; if the person does know then they can help stop the spread on their own land and in turn help to educate others.

- support efforts to stop selling the worst plants - did you know you can still buy chinese wisteria and chinese privet (as well as the japanese versions of both) plants in nurseries?

- support efforts to do a better job of screening new plants for invasive potential and for presence of invasive pests/diseases that hitch a ride.

- support efforts to make the public aware of invasives that move into new territories - like garlic mustard coming into Georgia and Cogongrass moving north and inland; we have a good chance of reducing the spread of these if we don't let them get a foothold into new areas.

And yes, you can pick and choose which invasives you support like dottie says. If more people would at least try to get rid of something, that would be better than doing nothing. Chinaberry hasn't gotten to my area yet, but I know it is less than an hour's drive from me. If people would at least cut off and destroy the berries - even if not all of them - that would help too. Maybe one day pests will arrive to take care of some of these things - mimosa wilt supposedly kills some of them, but not nearly enough!

Just got back from a trip to the French Polynesian islands, and guess what? They have major invasive problems! Visited a horticultural school and heard lamentations about lantana and one of the eggplant species...and many more. The genie is out of the bottle everywhere, but as Esh says, we can try to do our part, at least in the protected areas.

And on a positive note: I heard right before I left that a disease is killing the microstegium to the north of us. As they said on that old TV program, "Come on down!"

That's some good news indeed! Let's hope it only attacks the microstegium.

Cool! I found an article on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf Blight Disease

I skimmed through the article and saw that WVA was listed. If it does come south, I hope that it will be a positive change for us and not damage other things. "Be careful what you wish for" always makes me cautious. But I do hate that that Microstegium!! Esh, you are quick to find out details. Thanks.

Hate that microstegium too. I am cheering and awaiting the blight on it. With ust a few acres, I have been able to eradicate invasive exotics in my woods for years. Then my neighbor started a virtual forest of Japanese stilt grass, and it is all over now. I think we should all support natives. Many places in Europe can't even figure out what used to be native anymore. Australia is ilitant about it, and manages to keep out most. Florida's got python population spreading for goodness sake.

thanks for posting those tips, esh_ga. I'm not ready to give up, at least on my bit of land.