Peaks Island Visits Odiorne State Park

Photo by Marty Braun

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The expedition to the Odiorne State Park in Rye, New Hampshire began with a conversation between Steve Bushey, mapmaker extraordinaire, and Thaea Lloyd, retired landscape architect and creator of Adopt A Tree on Peaks Island. As Steve described it, the Odiorne State Park has a record of success over the past fourteen years in replacing dense populations of ‘invasive’ non-native plants with a diverse array of native species. Through hard work, grants, volunteer muscle, expert monitoring, and plantings of native seeds and seedlings, much of the park’s 330 acres has been regenerated with plants that are particularly well suited to bringing local ecosystems back into balance and stability.

After the conversation with Steve Bushey, Thaea and her husband, Bob Harville, visited Odiorne (pronounced without the ‘r’). They were impressed, and invited others to join them on a second foray in mid-November. Five out of the eight people on that visit were from the board of the Peaks Island Land Preserve. We learned far more than we expected, thanks to a lengthy walking tour led byTracy Degnan, Senior Project Manager at the Rockingham County Conservation District, and Arianna Spear, Conservation and Stewardship Manager there. 

The efforts at Odiorne began with a 2010 Invasive Plant Management Plan prepared by FB Environmental Associates (who completed a management plan for the Peaks Island Land Preserve this past year). Similar to the Peaks Island report,  Odiorne’s plan identified habitat types and pinpointed areas where the overabundance of ‘invasives’ presented the greatest threats to ecologically sensitive natural communities. 

On Peaks Island, the question arises: why not just let these scrappy, hard-working ‘invasives’ take over, if that’s what they’re inclined to do? Let nature take its course. 

Nature has been thrown off course by human decisions. On Peaks, for instance, it’s pretty certain that during World War II the military planted Oriental (Asiatic) bittersweet—and perhaps Japanese knotweed as well—around and over Battery Steele and Battery Craven for fast-growing camouflage. (When asked to corroborate this story, Kim MacIsaac and Reta Morrill both agree.) These plants have no natural enemies, they out-compete native plants, and provide inferior nutrition and habitat to our native insects and wildlife. 

Invasive species are here because someone planted them or a bird pooped out a seed, or a part of a plant washed ashore. They invade because they’re more tenacious, fast-growing, resilient, and opportunistic than most other plants. Anyone who’s managed to free a yard of Japanese knotweed, for instance, can tell you how much work and persistence and vigilance is required. With time and effort, we have an opportunity to bring a small part of the world back into balance.

In 2010, Odiorne State Park, the Seacoast Science Center, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, and the Rockingham County Conservation District began the effort to protect rare ecosystems and restore native coastal habitats. Monoculture thickets have now been replaced with diverse species of trees, shrubs, and other understory plants that provide a nutritious menu for local wildlife and birds. Plans for future planting include red and sugar maples and shagbark hickory trees to provide roosting sites for bats; shrubs like Virginia rose, blackberry, northern bayberry, and shadbush will promote diverse insect and bird populations. 

How has Odiorne accomplished what it has?

The first method was manual (pulling the entire plant, or cutting the stem with hand or power tools), or mechanical (heavy-duty mowing machines). For areas of specific need, they wrote grants and received funding for crews from the Student Conservation Corps.

A second method has been regeneration and revegetation (mentioned above). A third involved licensed applicators directing low-volume herbicide in a highly controlled manner.

The most common invasive monocultures on Peaks are oriental bittersweet, Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, honeysuckle, and barberry. There’s also black swallow-wort, phragmites, buckthorn, Norway Maple, burning bush, and privet, to mention a few others.

How we plan and act long-term on Peaks Island is still up for discussion. What the trip to Odiorne demonstrated is that acting upon a clear, thoughtful plan can bring about positive change. Odiorne has a battery remarkably similar to Battery Steele. Fourteen years ago, it was covered with many of the same dense bittersweet vines that cover our battery now. Odiorne’s battery and the fields surrounding it today are full of goldenrod and other life sustaining and diverse plants. We have seen a version of these kinds of changes on Peaks with the flourishing Adopt-A-Tree program (which now includes over 100 individuals and families) and the Ice Pond Meadow, where a handful of people, working an hour a week over a three-year period, were able to transform a small field into a landscape of diversity and beauty. Good things can happen.

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