land grant Noho CPA final report 12 18.docxFinal Report and Request for Reimbursement Dec. 19, 2018
Report submitted by
Barbara Walvoord, Chair, Land Conservation Committee, Lathrop Communities, Inc.
100 Bassett Brook Dr., Easthampton, MA 01027
walvoord@nd.edu 574-361-3857
Title of Grant: “Removing Invasive Plants on Lathrop CR Land along Bassett (Parson’s) Brook”
Dates: Proposal submitted Jan. 18, 2017. Agreement signed Aug. 9, 2017.
Amount of Reimbursement Requested: $3,000
Make check payable to Lathrop Communities, Inc., with note: Land Conservation Committee
Mail to Frank Sansome, Finance Office, Lathrop Communities Inc., 100 Bassett Brook Dr., Easthampton, MA 01027
Status: All conditions of the grant have been met. This will be the final payment and will end this grant.
Location of the Project
Lathrop’s east campus on Florence Road has about 140 acres of undeveloped land, including about 50 acres in the city of Northampton. The site of our project was the 11 acres on the
western edge of the Northampton portion, surrounding Bassett (Parson’s) Brook, which are in Conservation Restriction managed by the city (map, Figure 1)
Background
Importance of our land: The CR land where this project took place, as well as the surrounding acres of undeveloped land, have high ecological value. Bassett Brook bisects this land,
flowing north to south through both the Northampton and Easthampton portions of our land, and then to the Manhan River. The land connects to other protected land in the Park Hill district,
which has a high priority within city planning for preservation. The Lathrop land, with its forest, meadows, vernal pools, streams, and Bassett Brook, provides valuable habitat for
wildlife, including wood turtles, a Massachusetts “species of special concern,” whose presence we have registered with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species database. Lying directly
over the Barnes Aquifer, the land contributes to the area’s water quality and helps to buffer storms and floods.
The serious danger to our land: In 2013, we surveyed our land, and were alarmed at the increasing presence of invasive plants such as multiflora rose, shrub honeysuckle, Japanese barberry,
glossy buckthorn, oriental bittersweet, purple loosestrife, and privet. Later, we discovered Japanese stilt grass along the brook. We helped our residents understand the catastrophe
this could bring to our land, as, in the words of experts from government and private agencies, “Invasive plants impact the Massachusetts environment by competing with native plants
for limited natural resources, dominating habitats and reducing food and shelter for native wildlife. Invasives can also eliminate the host plants of beneficial native insects and
compete with native plants for pollinators. This competition at times causes biologically diverse forests, wetlands, and meadows to become dominated largely by one or a few non-native
invaders, diminishing ecological, economic, and aesthetic values of natural landscapes in Massachusetts.” (A Guide to Invasive Plants in Massachusetts, 2008, p. 5*)
Our actions: Starting in 2013, we hired consultants, including Laurie Sanders, to advise us about removing invasives from our land. We formed a strong, 30-member resident Land Conservation
Committee, which, together with Lathrop’s management, has been removing invasive plants. Our first focus was a section of our Easthampton upland forest, from which we now have removed
more than 95% of invasive plants (Green stripes on map, Figure 1). Resident volunteers continue to monitor these acres and remove new invasives. Our “Free Fifty” celebration on Oct.
21, 2017, drew nearly 100 attenders, including both residents and the general public, to hear about our invasives-removal efforts and to take a guided tour of the land.
In 2016, we turned our attention to the Bassett Brook floodplain and banks, including both the Northampton and Easthampton portions (outlined in yellow on map, Figure 1). The brook
area still had many native plants, but was being invaded by shrub honeysuckle, multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, and Japanese stilt grass, among others (Figures 2, 3). The brook
area presents a special challenge because invasives removal requires workers with appropriate licensure, permits, and equipment, and because the brook has some steep banks, and, in
the Northampton portion, is braided and marshy.
The Role of the CPC grant: Within this context, from August 2017 until December, 2018, the Northampton CPC grant helped us remove invasives along the Bassett Brook floodplain and banks
in the Northampton CR portion of our east campus. We worked simultaneously with invasives removal along the brook in the Easthampton portion of our land.
Results of the Grant Project
The work was done. The treatment of invasive plants was completed fully and on time (Table 1). We carefully monitored the work of our contractors, and were very pleased with what they
did. The report from Land Stewardship Inc. has details and photographs (https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9b8673mrk045ng/LSI%202018%20Report.pdf?dl=0)
The match was exceeded. We had promised at match of $2500, but we actually contributed $11,321 from resident donations (Table 1).
The project resulted in reduction of invasive plants. For the areas treated in fall 2018, we will have to wait for spring to determine how many invasive plants were killed. However,
the same contractor and the same methods in other parts of our campus that we treated in earlier years have resulted in more than 95% success in killing invasive plants (Before/after
photos at https://lathropland.wordpress.com/accomplishments/removing-invasives-before-after-photos/)
The project will result in increased native plants to support wildlife Again, we will have to wait to see the native plants that emerge from the areas treated in 2017-18, but in the
earlier-treated parts of our land, we have seen an increase in native plants such as high-bush and low-bush blueberry, spiceberry, winterberry, dogwood, meadowsweet, and other shrubs,
as well as increased jack-in-the-pulpit, star flower, Canada mayflower, club moss, and others (Figure 4)
The project will benefit wildlife. Well-established scientific research demonstrates that the replacement of invasives with native plants will significantly benefit wildlife.
Residents were informed and involved. Resident volunteers spent a number of hours removing invasives on the non-regulated areas of the Bassett Brook bank (Figure 5), getting Conservation
Commission approval, and overseeing the work of the contractors. Contractor, Jeff Allen, on July 9, 2018, led a group of residents out to the Northampton portion of the brook bank,
to
show them the invasives-removal work (Figure 6). We also featured this work on our Land Conservation Committee blog https://lathropland.wordpress.com/2018/07/16/lathrops-invisible-project/
We improved public access. A trail leads to the CR land where this project focused. This year, as requested by the CPC, we mounted a trail head sign. Public parking is next to the trail
head. We also this year blazed our trails. We keep our trails clear of brush and fallen branches, and we mow the trails through our meadows, but we do not otherwise maintain the trail
surface. Our trail map is on the Northampton web site and also on our Land Conservation Committee website (https://lathropland.wordpress.com/trail-map-easthampton/).
Contractors
We used Land Stewardship Inc. which has done excellent work for us since 2014, for work where licensing and foliar spray equipment were needed, and Jeff Allen, whose time is less expensive,
but who is not licensed for herbicide application in wetlands, to work in a strip along the bank, from the brook buffer zone, reaching about 50 yards into the adjacent forest.
Methods (more details are included in contractor reports, Table 1)
Cut stump, foliar spray, and hand pulling were used in fall, 2018 for shrubs and vines. Cut stump means cutting the shrub or vine off at ground level and using a sponge instrument to
coat the end of the stump with an herbicide. This treatment keeps the herbicide directly on the target plant, avoiding spray or drip. Foliar spray is done with a backpack and a hand-held
wand, ending in a funnel to control the spray. It is used only on plants under 6 feet tall. These treatments result in the death of most of the invasive plants, though re-sprouts occur,
especially with oriental bittersweet, honeysuckle, and rose, because of their extensive underground root systems. Further, invasive plant seeds already in the ground may be viable for
up to seven years, depending on the plant. Thus, controlling invasives is a multi-year task. It can be very successful, as shown by the acres of forest we cleared in 2013-2016, and
which are now more than 95% free of invasives, but even then, new invasives are brought in by birds, animals, wind, and water. We monitor the land and pull new invasives quickly.
Weed whacking was used for Japanese stilt grass in both 2017 and 2018. Japanese stilt grass is an annual, so you can destroy it by weed whacking it in late summer when it has not yet
set seed, but lacks time to make new seeds. Seeds are largely transmitted by the waters of the brook, so we get a new crop of seeds each year coming down from the north. Our annual
weed whacking helps to greatly diminish the seed bank that then makes its way further down the brook, infecting other lands. Japanese stilt grass is especially dangerous because it
can move from the floodplain into the forest, creating a monoculture that suppresses nearly all native plants, including tree seedlings. We are determined to keep the stilt grass infestation
as minimal as possible on our land, reduce the seed bank as much as possible, and keep the stilt grass from moving up into our forest.
Table 1: Summary and Explanation of Invoices
Contrac-tor
Date of invoice
Amount for Northampton section
Explanation
Link to Original Invoice
Land Steward-ship Inc
12/13/18
$3,000
Invoice is for $8,000 for 2018 work on both our campuses in both towns. Of the total person-days billed, 37.5% were spent on the Northampton portion along Bassett Brook (Appendix B).
So for this CPA grant reimbursement, we took 37.5% of the total invoice.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9b8673mrk045ng/LSI%202018%20Report.pdf?dl=0.
Land Steward-ship Inc
9/18/17
$928
Invoice is for $2,475 for Japanese stilt grass string trimming in both Northampton and Easthampton sections of the east campus. The work team’s notes show that the team worked flexibly
across the town line boundaries, so we took the same ratio as for 2018: 37.5%.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z16pn7dixhb3qfr/LSI%20Invoice%20Lathrop%20JSG%202017%20%283%29.pdf?dl=0
Jeff Allen
6/15/18
$2607
All Jeff Allen invoices, except as noted, were for Invasives removal on Northampton portion of east campus: Cut stump treatment and hand pulling of invasives on Bassett Brook bank,
outside the regulated area.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uq8btba9kt1kk1j/Jeff%20Allen%20Invoice%20%232%2C%20June%2015%2C%202018.pdf?dl=0
Jeff Allen
8/15/18
$1207
Total invoice was $1417. $1207 was for invasives removal on the Northampton portion of the east campus.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nicrxakz52qjznr/Jeff%20Allen%20Invoice%20%233%2C%20August%2015%2C%202018.docx?dl=0
Jeff Allen
12/11/17
945
All for invasives along brook in Northampton portion
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gumvigdcw7ltpzf/Jeff%20Allen%20Invoice%2012-11-2017.docx?dl=0
Jeff Allen
6/15/18
2607
All for invasives along brook in Northampton portion
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uq8btba9kt1kk1j/Jeff%20Allen%20Invoice%20%232%2C%20June%2015%2C%202018.pdf?dl=0
Jeff Allen
11/25/18
3027
All for invasives along brook in Northampton portion.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/spmgs5x2nb1f14q/jeff%20allen%20Invoice%20%234%20112518.docx?dl=0
TOTAL
$14,321.00
Figure 1: Map of invasives removal work on east campus
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Figure 2: This “before” photo of April 21, 2016, shows the Northampton portion of Bassett Brook (very braided and marshy) and its bank. Among the dogwood and other native plants, invasives
include shrub honeysuckle and multiflora rose, as well as Japanese stilt grass. On the bank, the main invasives are shrub honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, and Oriental
bittersweet. Under this grant, Land Stewardship Inc removed invasives in the regulated area of the brook; Jeff Allen and resident volunteers removed invasives on the bank to the right,
starting at the buffer zone and extending about 50 yards into the forest. For further details and photographs of the work by Land Stewardship, see their report of Dec. 13, 2018, at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9b8673mrk045ng/LSI%202018%20Report.pdf?dl=0 especially Appendix B.
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Figure 3: Bassett Brook Northampton portion, April 21, 2016, before work was begun. The green is invasive shrub honeysuckle leafing out before native plants.
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Figure 4: Natives like this gray dogwood are coming into the earlier-treated areas where we have killed invasives such as this dead multiflora rose. We expect the same thing to happen
in the land treated under this grant in 2017 and 2018.
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Figure 5: Supported by this grant, contractor Jeff Allen (at right) and resident volunteers remove invasives on bank of Bassett Brook in the Northampton portion, Nov. 29, 2017. Bassett
Brook is in the background. The work on this 50-yard-wide strip of land along Bassett Brook continued into 2018, moving northward toward the Lathrop property boundary. By the time
of this report, we were a few hundred yards short of the property boundary. We plan for follow-up work, as re-sprouts and new seedlings appear, especially oriental bittersweet.
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Figure 6: Contractor Jeff Allen (left) leads a walk to show residents the invasives removal work conducted under this grant in the Northampton section along Bassett Brook, July 9, 2018.
*Publication sponsored by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Nature Conservancy, New England Wild Flower Society, Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Assn., Massachusetts
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program)