Invasive Species

What are they?

Invasive plants are non-natives that were either introduced accidentally or intentionally as ornamentals or for agricultural purposes. They spread aggressively in our forests, along roads and yards as they have no natural controls. They out compete native plants thereby reducing biological diversity which threatens ecosystems. Their spread and damage to infrastructure is costly to individuals, farmers and towns.

The information in this section is offered to help identify and manage invasive plants.

Invasive Plant Species

There are many invasive plant species in and around the Farmington Valley. Some of the most common are listed below:

Autumn Olive
Garlic Mustard
Japanese Barberry
Japanese Knotweed
Japanese Stilt Grass
Mugwort
Multiflora Rose
Oriental Bittersweet
Winged Euonymus (aka Burning Bush)

The easiest way to identify these and other invasive plant species in Connecticut is to review their photos and descriptions on the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) website to learn their colors, shapes, sizes and other characteristics.

There are several ways to manage invasive plants. Most often it takes a combination of methods to reduce their numbers and vigilance to keep them at bay. The Field Guide below describes in detail how to identify and control invasive plants.

Field Guide Invasive Terrestrial Plants (ct.gov)

Invasive Insect Species

There are a few significant invasive insect species in and around the Farmington Valley. These insect pests can cause dramatic damage to the environment, seriously harming native trees such as Oak, Maple, Apple, Crabapple, Hickory, Basswood, Birch, Aspen, Willow, Pine, Hemlock, and Ash trees. Animal species, such as deer, turkeys, birds, and squirrels depend on these trees for food. When this happens, native animal populations will decline, and normal forest underbrush can be disrupted. Some of the most common invasive insect species are:

Spongy Moth (aka Gypsy Moth)
Woolly Adelgid
Emerald Ash Borer
Spotted Lantern Fly

The following references describe how to identify and locate these pests, recognize the damage they do, and manage them.

DEEP Invasive insects information
Hemlock-Woolly-Adelgid

Tree of Heaven Spotted Lantern Fly Damage

Importance of Supporting Native Species

“Five percent of our native plants support 74% of the insects that drive the food
web.” - Doug Tallamy, from A Guide to Restoring the Little Things that Run the World.

The wide use of herbicides and pesticides combined with habitat loss has led to the decline of world-wide insect and invertebrate populations. When we lose native plant species that pollinators feed on, we lose the very pollinators that we depend on to grow our food.

“It is pollinators that are essential to the continued existence of 80% of all plants and 90% of all flowering plants, and it is birds and mammals that disperse the seeds of those plants and provide them with pest control services.” - Doug Tallamy, from Homegrown National Park website.

Members of the Canton Land Conservation Trust, the Town of Canton, the UConn Master Gardener program, the Cherry Brook Garden Club, and other volunteers are working together to manage invasive plant species and replace them with native species that support our native insects and birds. Our Pollinator Pathways goals, activities, and successes are described here.

For a comprehensive list of native plant species found in Canton, refer to the Natural Resources Inventory, Canton, Connecticut – Chapter 5: Plant Life (page 23)