Girl Scouts To Fight Invasive Plants

The Girl Scout Council of Southwestern Connecticut is taking the lead in helping to educate people about the threat invasive species pose to biological diversity. By creating an Invasive Plant Patch, the Council hopes to inspire Girl Scouts and all others who come in contact with them or the patch to learn about this worldwide problem and to take positive action in their own yards and local open spaces.

To inspire attention across the nation the patch requirements were written in very general terms that apply to any state. While the terms fulfill certain Girl Scout patch criteria and traditions, the requirements can be modified to apply to other youth groups.

The species of plants and animals that are considered invasive vary across the nation according to climate, predators, and other conditions. Invasive plant species, however, have several common characteristics: they are usually not native to the area where they are multiplying; they are extremely hardy and tolerant of a variety of soil, light, and growing conditions; they are prolific reproducers whose seed is widely dispersed by wind, water, or animals; and they have few or no natural enemies in their problem location.

Many are familiar with the devastating, still-lingering results of Dutch Elm Disease on the American Elm or with the Chestnut Blight, the Oriental fungus that changed the forests of the Northeast by withering mature American Chestnuts. Many more can remember the havoc caused by the Gypsy Moth to local hardwoods and the present danger posed by the Wooly Adelgid to Canadian Hemlocks, those evergreens trees which used to be a staple for screening and wildlife.

The greatest number of non-native invasive species are plants. As invasives take over habitats, they displace native vegetation, which are frequently more nourishing and a prerequisite for successful reproduction by other native species. One such invasive example is Black Swallow-wort. When the Monarch butterfly mistakenly lays her eggs on Black Swallow-wort, rather than milkweed, the young hatch cannot complete their development and die. The balance and beauty of nature are altered by other plants, too.

Gloriously beautiful Purple Loosestrife, the Invasive Plant Patch symbol, invades wetlands, displaces rare wetland plants, is more tolerant of pollution, provides very little nourishment value to other creatures, and actually helps to dry out wetlands. With wetlands constantly under pressure from development, it is necessary to protect the remaining ones to store and purify water while providing essential habitats to species that are important parts of the food chain and of biological diversity.

There are watershed and river groups, nature organizations, land trusts, botanical associations, universities, and government agencies – all frantically trying to control different invasive species, to come up with solutions, to inform the public about the problem, and to make people care and act. The Girl Scouts have joined those activists.

Tenets in the Girl Scout Mission, Promise, and Law refer to responsibility, resourceful citizens, wise use of resources, and making the world a better place. Girl Scouts traditionally respect the environment and try to take care of it. Trying to control invasive plants and educating others about the problem and ways to manage it are important ways that Girl Scouts can help.

The Girl Scout Council of Southwestern Connecticut urges all individuals and troops within its 15-town jurisdiction in Fairfield County (Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Stamford, Weston, Westport, and Wilton), as well as the other councils in Connecticut and the rest of the nation to log on to www.gscswct.org to download the patch requirements. Then they should contact local environmental organizations to find out what educational and workday opportunities exist so people can partner efficiently in these critical efforts.