Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
FRUITS OF the Japanese barberry plant, an invasive species that has spread throughout the Gogebic Range, turn a bright red.
LAKE GOGEBIC - Three organizations teamed up earlier this summer to fight an invasion of Japanese barberry plants at the Lake Gogebic County Park.
The Gogebic County Forestry-Parks Commission combined with the U.S. Forest Service and Gogebic Conservation District to rid the park of the common landscaping plant that can spread into the woods when rodents and birds eat the berries and carry seeds to new locations.
"We knew we had Japanese barberry out at the park, but had no idea how extensive the infestation was," said Greg Ryskey, Gogebic County Forester.
Jim Finley, administrator for the Gogebic Conservation District, mapped the park and found more than 100 clumps in the area.
With the use of GPS, each barberry clump could be relocated.
All three organizations are members of the Western Peninsula Invasives Coalition, a group that works to manage invasive species.
After the mapping, the Forest Service provided two members of its seasonal invasive plant crew, Tanya Ladensack and Doug Bailey, to treat the barberry.
"Getting rid of these bushes will help keep the infestation from spreading to neighboring lands," said Ian Shackleford, a botanist with the Ottawa National Forest Service.
"We fund eradication efforts and sometimes actually do the work on some significant infestations of invasive plants outside the Ottawa that we do not want jumping into the national forest," Shackleford said. "I have a crew that spends every summer spraying, cutting and hand-pulling invasive weeds, so we had trained herbicide applicators available to do the work."
Finley encourages homeowners in Gogebic County to stop buying and planting Japanese barberry and to tear it out of their landscaping if it already exists.
The plant usually turns bright red in the fall and Finley said if it is spreading on the property, a homeowner will likely see it.
"The stuff can form huge, thorny thickets and is being linked to the occurrence of Lyme disease because deer mice find it useful for protection and food. They carry the tick larvae to the plant, then the plant gives adult ticks back to them," Finley said. "For some reason, the ticks that grow up on Japanese barberry have a high incidence of Lyme disease," he said.
