Home Community National Park Invasive Exotic Plant Treatment Concluded on Buck Island

Invasive Exotic Plant Treatment Concluded on Buck Island

0
Last week, the National Park Service concluded this season’s part of the Buck Island Reef Exotic Plant Control Project in cooperation with park staff and the NPS Florida/Caribbean Exotic Plant Management Team (EPMT), Everglades NP, Homestead, Florida. The team was on St. Croix for two weeks, and completed projects at Buck Island and Salt River Bay National Historical Site and Ecological Preserve. Both projects are part of region wide (Southern Florida and Caribbean) initiatives to restore impaired ecosystems within parklands managed by the National Park Service. Both exotic (non-native) and invasive (native but aggressive) species continue to be targeted to help increase local biodiversity within managed parklands.
This project was started in 2004 and continues to this day targeting the following species: Urochloa maxima (Guinea grass), Leucaena leucocephala (wild tamarind, tan tan), Bromelia penguin (wild pineapple, penguin), Boerhavia erecta (boerhavia), Thespesia populnea (Haiti Haiti, seaside maho), Tecoma stans (cedar Thomas), Melicoccus bijugatus (genip, kenip), Morinda citrifolia (painkiller, noni), Tamarindus indica (tamarind tree), and Aloevera (aloe). As stated in the previous PSA, the specific strategies for Buck Island and the region are available online at: park planning.

During this season’s work the EPMT team found that very few areas required treatment at Buck Island, and that many native species are successfully beginning to out compete the invasive and exotic target species. As a result, limited spraying was required. At Salt River, the EPMT group helped to prepare areas in advance of a ‘planting out’ of native species seedlings on the old hotel site to the south of the Hemer’s Penninsula. Again, spraying in this area was very conservative, and native species are successfully making a comeback since the removal of hotel construction debris during 2011.

We look forward to the continued success of this program as we continue to clear trails, remove brush, and plant new seedlings at both Parks through the Youth Conservation Corps and EMPT programs during the summer and fall of 2012. www.nps.gov/buis

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here