Keeping Pace With A Mile-A-Minute Vine

By Kendra Bobowick

A problem with the Mile-A-Minute vine is growing quickly in town and conservationists are trying to stop it.

“It’s part of an army of invasives, and this is one fairly forward soldier,” Newtown Conservation Officer Rob Sibley said. “It has advanced and is aggressive.” Like all invasives, he explained that the vine crowds out the native species.

“It competes with natives with more fruits and vigorous growth and that’s how it displaces [other plants],” he said.

The Mile-A-Minute vine (MAM) (Polygonum Perfoliatum) has set its roots in Newtown soil and recent sightings have volunteers and officials tearing it out yard by yard.

“We have had crop-ups everywhere,” Mr Sibley said. Word of an early-July sighting is spreading as quickly as the vine, which reportedly can grow nearly inches in a day. This week, Mr Sibley said, “When a story breaks we either get a lot of false reports or we find it in earnest.”

In fact, they found it in several locations.

The vine was originally spotted along Hattertown Road in July, but calls from Riverside Road and Deep Brook Road had teams pulling vines in those areas this week. Reinforcing Mr Sibley’s eradication effort is help from an organization devoted to eliminating the invasive plant. Shoulder-deep in the brush filling a backyard off Deep Brook Road Wednesday morning, Amanda Weise, an intern for the Mile-A-Minute control program initiated by Mad Gardeners Inc, reached through the brambles and gripped a vine that literally unraveled from surrounding growth. The Housatonic Valley Association officially employs Ms Weise.

Also reaching into the vegetation was Pootatuck Watershed Association and Land Use Department intern Alicia Messier. Volunteering for the day were Larry Whipple and Bill Pieragostini. Mr Whipple’s wife Linda Whipple had called to alert officials about some vine locations recently.

The long, thorny vine may only be an annual, but appears daunting to environmentalists. Joining the effort to combat the vine is Kathleen Nelson, chairperson of the Invasive Species Advisory Committee, Mad Gardeners, Inc. 

“Invasives choke the native [species], and those are what feed our native animals in our ecosystem — insects,” Ms Nelson said. The vine takes over spaces where food sources once grew, she explained. “If native species are wiped out, and insects are wiped out, it disturbs the well-balanced web of life. The plants are like fast-growing plastic and they don’t feed anything; they remove a food source.”

The Seeds Of Concern

Seeds are the problem. “You have to monitor the area to make sure it doesn’t reappear,” Mr Sibley said. The original hope as of two weeks ago during the first efforts to uproot the plant was to pull it from the ground before the vine produced seeds. Ms Nelson has seen some seed-baring plants this week, however. The effort may be too late.

Residents can still raise a fight against the plant, however. “Check next year, it may have established and you basically have to monitor [its growth] and basically exhaust the seed stores on the site.” Unfortunately, the effort is difficult. Stressing the need to remove the vine, Ms Nelson said, “The seed lasts in the soil for  a number of years.” She said residents could see the plant reemerge in their backyard gardens for at least five years to come if seeds have gotten into the soil. “If any one of them goes to seed, it’s another five years to clear that up.”

Offering her words of advice, Ms Nelson said, “If you have a group of plants you can be pretty sure there may be enough seeds in the soil for next year. If you prevent it from going to seed you will eventually prevent germination.”

Mr Sibley warned, “We have to monitor for a few years to make sure it doesn’t reappear. Check next year because you may basically have to exhaust seed stores on the site.”

Disturbed soil is the vine’s favorite place. Mr Sibley described the likely locations as disturbed soil for new plantings or fresh tilled ground where the soil is typically moist. With a piece of good news, he said, “It’s not prone to the deep forest. You won’t find it in the woods growing up a group of trees.” Forest soils are typically not the nutrient rich beds the vine prefers. The plant will likely be in plain sight.

Backyards are the most likely locations for the vine to flourish. Homeowners will have the best luck spotting the vine along the edges of lawns and fields or on the edges of property growing in the shrubbery, Ms Nelson said.

In coming weeks the vine will be most noticeable. Ms Nelson and Mr Sibley rely on property owners to check their yards and call the conservationists. “It’s very important to report. We can’t fight it if we don’t know where it is,” she said. Mr Sibley also noted that the eradicating teams need property owners’ permission to inspect backyards. “It’s always a partnership with the landowner,” he said. So far, the public has been a help in locating vine locations, and both he and Ms Nelson complement the volunteer efforts from Ms Weise and town intern Alicia Messier, who have been participated in vine removals. “They have done an amazing job,” Ms Nelson said.

Topsoil or plant nursery stock are probably responsible for transporting the vine, Mr Sibley speculates. “The hypothesis is pretty to the point,” he said. “It’s transplanted through nursery stock or through topsoil. Maybe someone says they need topsoil and it’s imported.” The vine travels from one point to another, Mr Sibley said.

The vines may be hardy in Connecticut for a reason. Plant life adjusted to a certain location will flourish in areas with similar soil and light conditions, for example. Mr Sibley said, “Any organism can become specialized and something may become tolerant in a certain climate and if it’s transplanted somewhere similar it thrives.” Approximately a decade ago the plant was recognized in Pennsylvania and has moved east and south since, Mr Sibley said.

Conservationists and the volunteers prepared to pull the vine need homeowners’ help. Mr Sibley asks residents in the Deep Brook and Riverside Road location especially to contact his office at 270-4350 so teams can inspect yards in the area where the vine has already been found. Ms Nelson asks residents to report sighting to knelson151@sbcglobal.net, donna.ellis@uconn.edu, elizabethcorrigan@yahoo.com, or contact the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group at 860-486-6448.

The Invasive Species Advisory Committee formed in New Milford in 2004 when the vine emerged in town. Ms Nelson she and consulting biologist for the Northwest Conservation District Betsy Corrigan “decided to do something,” she said. The Mile-A-Minute control program was initiated by Mad Gardeners, Inc and funded by  donations from individuals and organizations, including grants form the Connecticut Community Foundation, the Meserve Memorial Fund, and the Ellen Knowles Harcourt Foundation.

Mad Gardeners is a 16-year-old regional organization of more than 500 professional and amateur gardeners that launched a program to eradicate the Mile-A-Minute vine found in towns of new Milford, Bridgewater, Roxbury, and now Newtown. Activities of the program organized by the Invasive Species Advisory Committee include working with the towns and public to eliminate the vine, tracking its population, studying various control methods, and working with professionals for the vines removal and population control. Most importantly, the committee is able to raise funds  to pay a handful of interns, contacting homeowners, inspecting properties, and distributing information.