Situated in Leeds Pond Preserve in the hills of Manhasset and bordering on Manhasset Bay, the Science Museum of Long Island (SMLI) offers hands-on opportunities to engage children in discovery, with the grounds providing a natural laboratory to explore. However, they also have their share of invasive plant species. Pairing invasive species management with education, SMLI takes every chance to provide opportunities for learning.
Walk the grounds of the Science Museum of Long Island, and you will be greeted with a native plant garden, a pollinator garden and shady places to sit. Farther along is a network of trails, including one that marks the different invasive species present, helping visitors identify what may also be growing in their backyards.
While many common invasive plants abound on the 36-acre preserve, the scale has not deterred management efforts. Vines such as porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), climbing euonymus (Euonymus fortunei), mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata), and English ivy (Hedera helix), as well as woody invasives such as burning bush/winged euonymus (Euonymus alata) and Norway maple (Acer platanoides), were targeted with hand pulling and cutting whenever possible. These efforts are largely conducted by volunteers, including local adults who visit the property several times a week, high school students and Boy Scout troops. A year ago, SMLI also hired a facilities manager who works alongside the volunteers. Sustained and persistent attention has been the key to beating back many of SMLI’s worst invasive infestations.
As with other hilly properties in the area, SMLI also has a population of kudzu (Pueraria montana), which has been managed with the help of the NYSDEC Kudzu Control Team and Spadefoot Design & Construction, with funding from the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Greentree Foundation as well as SMLI’s own funds, plus in-kind donations from the Long Island Conservancy and matching contributions from Spadefoot. As managing this species has continued for a few years, the staff keep an eye to monitor resprouts.
Meanwhile, they tend to their restoration plantings. “In areas where we removed kudzu,” says Kristen Laird, Executive Director of SMLI, “We replanted with a mix of native trees plus a cover crop of oat and wildflowers to impede growth of other invasives in the area, which helps to reduce the amount of ongoing monitoring and treatment needed.”
To top it all off, they also tackled their areas with knotweed (Reynoutria spp.) and tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). For the knotweed, they didn’t hold back, having found success in using heavy equipment to completely remove the rhizomatous plant.
“One strategy that was especially effective for heavy infestations of Japanese knotweed was to dig it out with an excavator provided by our friends at Spadefoot,” said Matthew Ricciardi, Vice President of SMLI, “Although that left root fragments that regrew, it was very easy to pull them out by hand in the spring because the fragments were relatively small, the soil had been loosened and the root network had been broken up. One or two repeat visits to pull out the regrowth succeeded in eliminating all plants in the treated area. We also found that native jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) moved in and helped control regrowth of the knotweed.”
With the arrival of spotted lanternfly to the region, tree of heaven was their next target. Removing these fast-growing trees may not eliminate the spotted lanternfly population, but it does limit one of its food sources.
With eyes to the future, Laird commented, “It would be nice to highlight our efforts and educate the community by hosting a [walk] on our grounds.”
LIISMA is proud of their efforts to reduce the threat of invasive species, and educating all ages while they’re at it.
Website: https://www.smli.org/
