The Importance of Maintaining the Greenway

The Importance of Maintaining the GreenwayVolunteers rip out the barberry. Provided photo.

At the beginning of October, Carantouan Greenway board members, along with volunteers, removed over 100 invasive barberry shrubs, and more than a dozen young Tree-of-Heaven. 

As the volunteers approached the pinewoods to begin clearing the plants they could hear the sound of Paul Barber’s excavator crossing the alfalfa field. The excavator was used to deepen the outlet pool so that this fall’s foliage would not block the outlet pipe at the Wildwood Reserve pond in the town of Barton.

The Importance of Maintaining the Greenway

Paul is pictured in the excavator by the outlet. Provided photo.

The removal of the Tree-of-Heaven will hopefully slow the northward movement of the spotted lantern fly, as it is the preferred food source for this invasive species. 

Removal of the barberry will hopefully lessen the deer tick population. The dense thicket of barberry creates a favorable habitat for ticks. It also is a great cover for white-footed mice, the main vector carrying Lyme disease. 

This close proximity of the two species provides greater opportunity for ticks and mice to come into contact with each other, thus perpetuating the ticks’ life cycle. By removing barberry plants, it is the mission of the Greenway to lessen the chance of transmitting Lyme disease to visitors. 

The maintained Wildwood Reserve trails are open to the public from dawn to dusk all year long.

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