Oxford Gets Grant To Remove Invasive Plants

First Selectman George R. Temple announced Thursday the town has received a $9,816 grant from the Connecticut Community Foundation for the eradication of invasive plants found in the Rockhouse Hill Sanctuary. 

The money will go toward removal of the Japanese barberry plant. This plant has invaded the landscapes of Connecticut and is rapidly replacing the native plants of the state.

Japanese barberry is a dense woody shrub with numerous arching spine-bearing branches. It usually grows about three feet high, but can reach up to six feet. A single spine grows off the stem beneath each cluster of small wedge-shaped leaves. Its small yellow flowers are four-parted and can occur alone or in small clusters.

Flowers appear in May, and the fruits — red oblong berries — stay on the plant into the following winter. In the fall, the leaves of Japanese barberry turn attractive shades of red and orange. Fall foliage coloris one of the reasons this plant has been widely planted as an ornamental. It has escaped the ornamental stage for private residences and has now invaded the forests and open space of Connecticut.

Temple said the town will start the eradication in the Rockhouse Hill Sanctuary off Route 188 in the spring and said he would like to see future funding for the Jackson Cove area which is also being overrun by invasive plants, including the Japanese barberry. 

The work will be done by a combination of adult volunteers, contractors and the Oxford’s Youth Conservation Corps, which is under the direction and supervision Thomas Adamski of the Oxford Conservation Commission and Joe Lanier, an Oxford High School biology teacher.

Kathleen O’Neil, Oxford’s grant writer, said, The Connecticut Community Foundation is to be commended for its ability to see a problem that is fast becoming one of the greatest dangers to the Connecticut landscape and habitats and fund a needed solution.” 

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