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For the first few posts, The Native will be showcasing some common native and invasive species. Being able to identify species that are supposed to be here and the ones that aren't, means that you can take steps to protect the ones that are "good" and remove the ones that are "bad." Those are relative terms, and all wildlife can be good in some respects, but every story needs a hero and a villain, yeah?
Okay that's all fine and dandy,
But first, who am I?
Ah, life's great existential crisis provoking question.
I don't know about you, but my name is Sandy Tice. I am an Environmental Science Major at Longwood University. I come from a rural area. I have grown up surrounded and intrigued by wildlife. Recently, I took up a job as an environmental education specialist at a local state park. My background, education, and experience leave me feeling comfortable enough to share my knowledge confidently. I hope to foster a learning experience for my audience, as well as myself. The promotion of native wildlife encourages stewardship of natural resources through public awareness.
My goals for this blog are to enable the audience to recognize native species, further public awareness, and even encourage actions that would benefit the local environment. The main function of this blog is to offer information on native species and why they should be promoted, as well as invasive species and why they should be discouraged.
Our good guy here is the Virginia Creeper. Odd name for the good guy, but let’s roll with it for now. It is a native woody vine that is often mistaken for poison ivy or other vine species. The easiest difference to spot is in the leaves. Poison ivy has three leaves on each cluster, while Virginia Creeper has five. The Virginia Creeper supports many local species, such as, caterpillars, birds, bees, and other small pollinators. It provides shelter for many small species, such as bugs and small birds, with its hardy vines and many leaves. Various woodland critters enjoy the creeper vines berries. The vine depends on this relationship with the animals for seed dispersal. Virginia Creeper can become a nuisance if it overgrows in a particular area, however through proper management, it can still benefit the locality greatly.
So, our iffy good fellow here, the Virginia Creeper, ain’t too shabby. First off, it’s not poison ivy, so that’s cool. Also, it has berries that feed cute little woodland creatures, and that’s nice. It just might tend to grow real good in some places sometimes is all.
Our bad guy for today is the terrible Kudzu. Throughout Virginia large masses of kudzu vines are a common sight along roadways and bordering agricultural fields. This non-native plant was originally used as a soil control practice and then was commonly used as ornamental foliage. Kudzu is so effective at taking over because it essentially crawls overtop whatever is around. Climbing vertically straight up any tree or building within its surroundings. Its tough vines and large leaves make it effective at getting to and taking in a lot of sunlight. In doing so it cuts off sunlight to its host tree or any plant-life below it. This can be detrimental to the local ecosystem. Because it can lead to kudzu taking over huge areas of land, that once had a variety of wildlife, now taken over entirely by one species. This normally wouldn’t be such a problem for native vine species (shout-out to Virginia Creeper) since native species are kept in check and have their population controlled through predation, as well as competition and other natural processes that create a balanced local ecosystem. Kudzu can also cause the soil to become unproductive for new plant life to grow, because of its high capacity for nitrogen fixation, overloading the soil with nitrogen, making it unsuitable for many local plant species. The recommended method of removal would be cutting it back, removing the roots, spraying herbicide, and covering the area with a black plastic tarp.
So, Kudzu is kind of the worst, it’s a playground bully with rich parents, the wombo-combo kiddies. It has no natural predators, so nothing is going to eat it. And it is darn good at growing, it flat out just is. So that’s bad news for the local wildlife, who, I don’t know, wanted to live there too maybe.
The next blog post will focus on wildlife around water bodies. I'll probably be covering critters such as The Great And Amazing American Beaver and some turtles and stuff. So be on the lookout for some of those in your own area. You don't have too, but I mean, if you want to. That'd be cool.
Take it easy, keep it breezy, kill some Kudzu, and peace out till next time.
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