Its 3/25/2026, its been a busy start to the season for me and that comes with many many miles of driving. These drives take me all across Connecticut and Rhode Island, through forests, past rivers, wetlands and fields. 

Everywhere and I'm not kidding EVERYWHERE you go you will see an invasive plant. Especially if you anywhere near any development be it a suburban neighborhood, municipal lot, business etc. They inhabit the forgotten areas of our yards, the brushy thickets at the edges of the property, the unkempt edges of fields and sometimes and very often FEATURED as a decorative landscape plants.

Not only that but sometimes they are used to create ENTIRE HEDGES with dozens to hundreds of plants. 

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They occur on abandoned farm fields and now occur in almost every forest in the region. When in the forest you will find them in the moist areas or in areas with rich soil (much of central ct).

In Lyme, Coventry, Franklin, East Haddam, Old Saybrook, North Stonington, Mystic, Eastford, Branford you will be hard pressed to walk 100 feet without seeing an invasive plant in the forest or the roadside. 

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Why is this bad? When invasive plants invade, they don't just displace native plants. They displace everything that relies on those plants. The insects that feed on them, the birds that eat those insects and so on. Soon even deer won't exist in areas as the majority of the plants are replaced by invasive crap like barberry. Resulting in empty brush thicket woods. Once at this stage the forest (or what remains of it) is primed for 1 good storm to fell a few trees. Once gone these trees won't return. As the opening in the canopy will not give way to saplings hiding in the understory as there will not be any as there are only invasive plants. These openings will then allow the invasive underneath to proliferate even further. Such as a bittersweet now being able to climb and smother neighboring trees with the additional light. Once at this stage a feedback loop occurs and eventually entire forests will be turned into bleak monoculture invasive brush thickets. I know it sounds sensationalized and exaggerated but I see it happening, I've hiked hundreds of miles off trail in our local preserves and forests. Ill be sharing photos and videos here to showcase such areas. 

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This future sounds bleak and at the moment seems inevitable.  I believe we can be and make a difference on a community level if we act NOW. No more being a nice neighbor and allowing people to have their things. As these very things are destroying what everyone needs to live. (biodiversity and a functioning ecosystem) 

You should be appalled as appalled as I am at their awful hedge of privet or burning bush.

Or perfectly sculpted gumdrops of barberry. 

We should get together as neighbors and actively seek out all invasive on our properties and neighbors' properties. Just cutting them back and keeping them down yearly is a good way to make a difference. In place the remaining natives will gradually fill in. 

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