I was fortunate recently to be able to attend the biennial conference of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council, this year held in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
The two days were full of rapid presentations about new research—some of which was contradictory, illustrating the complexity of the ecosystems and relationships within them.
Several of the presentations were about the interaction between deer and invasive plants: is there a synergy between them that allows invasive plants to be, well, invasive? What control methods are necessary to restore a site where a natural disturbance, such as a blowdown in the forest, has given light-seeking invasives a chance to become established: remove the invasive plants, fence out the deer, or both? (One study suggested that both are necessary, the other that fencing alone might work; both agreed that in the presence of high deer densities removing the existing invasive plants alone is unlikely to fill the site with a diversity of regenerating native trees.)
There were also updates on a naturally-occurring fungus that is killing invasive ailanthus trees, research on the density of ticks and presence of the Lyme-disease bacterium on sites invaded by Japanese barberry (more ticks and more Borrelia there), and research presented on an assessment of plants being evauluated for biofuels and their potential to escape into natural areas.
I'm still typing up my notes; it was an incredibly full and rewarding couple of days.
