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The primary instructor for this workshop is Janine Marr, a PhD researcher from Antioch University New England. Instructors will provide a broad overview of invasive plan species identification and management specific to solid waste operators. Attendees will understand why some plants are considered invasive under NH law and be able to describe how their presence may impact native plant communities; be able to identify at least five of the most common invasive species likely to be disposed of at a transfer station or landfill OR become established on a landfill; and describe methods for managing these invasive species. Instructors will identify management methods that adhere to the SW Rules.
Attendees will receive 2.5 hours of CPD toward SW Operator Certification.
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Transcript of video:
good morning everybody and welcome to our class today the invasive Upland plant management for solid waste facilities my name is Tara Albert and I will be your Solid Waste operator trainer for the State of New Hampshire and your coordinator for today's class before we get going we do have a few things that we need to go over some Logistics and how housekeeping um before so just to orient you to your toolbar some of you have a toolbar that looks like this others have one that looks a little bit different if you do need to minimize it you have this uh orange rectangle here with a white arrow and you can minimize your toolbar you can also raise your hand by using the raise hand function so you put your hand up and you can put your hand down if you do have a question while we're going through the presentations please feel free to send us questions you have a little question toolbar here you will toggle that down and you can ask questions to the presenter also in this class there are three handouts um those are in the handout section again near the question toolbar there is one that says handouts there's not one in this picture but there is one on your toolbar um so you can send those if you are having some technology issues if you're on VPN you can disconnect and then come back into the webinar make sure that you have that link so you can connect if you're not quite sure what a VPN is you're probably not one on one so you don't have to worry about it if you do have audio issues you can use the audio section on your toolbar which will say audio and you'll have three different options here if your computer is not working you can go to phone call and you can call in and you will be given an audio pin when you come in okay a few other housekeeping issues make sure that you stay hydrated today it's kind of a cool day it's not so hot but stay hydrated and if you do use a single-use container please recycle it thank you um usually in this place in the presentation we talk about if you need to get up and take a break if you need to use the restrooms please feel free to do so however I do know when you have walked away from your computer I have a little toolbar that shows me if someone's not paying attention so make sure you come back um also make sure you're muted in this Workshop today everyone starts out as muted there will be a couple of opportunities where we can unmute you and you can ask questions if you want to verbally ask your question just make sure that when you are done with that you mute yourself back emergency exits I'm obligated to tell you to look for your emergency exits this is of course not my door however it is a very pretty door uh just make sure if you if there is an emergency throughout the day please feel free to leave if you have to let me know that you um what your plan is for coming back and watching the class whether it's the recorded session or if you've hopped back in just communicate with me what the um your emergency was
okay so throughout the day we will be posting polls and that is one way that I can collect different types of information from you and we can also Garner attendance uh to show you what that is we're going to do a practice poll right now foreign
I'll give you guys a couple of seconds to answer that question
how many people are attending the class with you
now for those of you who have more than one person attending with you under your registration you will need to do a separate sign-in sheet for those folks who have are not physically registered there is a sign out sample in the handout section of this presentation you can feel free to print that out or you can create your own it is up to you give you guys a couple more seconds
so and then this is what it'll look like when we share the poll results so most of you are in just you there are a few of you who are either one or two more people or three or four more people make sure for those of you in those 17 and the four percent that you are doing the the handout if you have questions about that let me know and I can check in with you when I'm done presenting
okay so taking attendance haha you're probably wondering how we're going to take attendance we do see of course who's registered who's physically signed in and the computer tells us who is actively listening and who's walked away for their computer for an hour uh we will be submitting poll questions you just saw one um those poll questions will have a time limit so we can see who's engaged and who's paying attention if there are multiple people in the room with you we will account for that again sign in sheets and I know I've said this three times now there is a reason why I repeat myself because I get the question all the time well how do I do that how do I show I attended and I'm going I told you in the class do your sign-in sheets um and so we ask that you submit those with your renewal form and a copy of it has to go with each renewal form foreign will also go out either right after this class or within 24 hours with a survey and an evaluation please be truthful in your assessment of the class but also be kind um also the response is not Anonymous so we do see who is sending what on your on your review a couple more logistics for the day um in this class there are no videos so you don't have to worry about um finding another place to watch videos for this class so the first part we can kind of ignore um we will take a quick q a break after each presentation so if you've got questions you can type those in um we also do have the ability to unmute you if typing if we're not getting whatever the question is that you have we will still take 15 minute break about halfway through the presentation and we're recording this as well so no pressure on that all right so the class that we are posting today is invasive Upland plant management for solid waste facilities so if that is why you're here awesome if you are here for a different class feel free to stay and attend this one it's going to be a great class today
one answer to the question of why you're here is because you have to be you're required by law and New Hampshire Solid Waste rule to take at least two and a half hours of training each day for your Solid Waste operator training you also want to build your resume and accumulate professional development hours this class specifically though is a bit different than what we usually talk about in a solid-based operator training this one talks about invasive species that could be growing at your facility or that are being brought to your facility from your customers so it is a little different and it's going to be a fun class today because this is one that I will be learning along with you guys so what are we going to cover we are going to talk about what are the invasive species why are they considered invasives what are the eight species most likely to be brought in or to establish at a solid waste facility in New Hampshire we're going to talk about management options for controlling um facilities whether they were established or they're spread also how to manage invases at active facilities or on the cap of closed landfills so we are going to be focusing on those closed landfills at the end of the day too which is something that we don't always focus on uh and then we'll have questions resources and a wrap up but before I bring on our main presenter for the day we do have a pre-workshop test just to see what you guys do know and we're going to gauge what you've learned throughout the day so our first pre-workshop poll is the following our upling plant invasive species found in New Hampshire so choose all that you think apply
and we are not going to go over the answers now we will go over them at the end of the day but I'll show you what people have put for their answers
you guys are quick today trying to do that 90 and then we'll show you
all right
so we've got Japanese knot we did 92 percent 72 is milfoil 68 burning bush 52 Barberry and 48 wisteria
our next question is which management method should you never do with an invasive species choose all that apply
we're getting answers all over the board but there's one that's jumping way out ahead everybody else give you guys a couple more seconds
so we have 96 people said don't compost it 46 don't burn it eight percent says don't cover it four percent don't dig it up and 21 said chemical application
so how do invasive species spread from location to location choose all that apply
there's one in here that's kind of a trick answer
all right so 100 said seeds via vectors 60 said Nursery selling them it's pretty plants uh 92 said compost and 72 said incomplete Burns
this is just the easy true or false invasive plants brought to a solid waste facility from a customer should be treated as leaf and yard waste true or false
I think this one gets a record for the number of people that voted holy mackerel 21 seconds and 100 of you said false great all right so that is our pre-post poll questions now I'm going to introduce Dr Marsh she is going to be our presenter for the day and I'm also going to change presenter and ask her to bring up her presentation on the screen while I'm doing that so Dr Marr received her PhD in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England in 2021 after researching the long-term effects of non-native Forest oh my screen went crazy sorry to see he's a white pine Bluster blister rust on New Hampshire's White Pine population she has been a researcher and project leader for Antioch Center for climate preparedness and Community resilience with a focus on strengthening Community resilience to severe weather events impacted by climate change oh we might tap you to talk on our extreme weather events class she is also an adjunct faculty member in the Environmental Studies department and co-teaches a wildlife and Forestry management course where invasive species and their effects on wildlife habitats are a topic for discussion Janine has also served as the chair for the gilsum Conservation Commission where she assisted The Nature Conservancy with the acquisition of the town's largest unfragmented land parcel 1368 acres for a permanent conservation and protection and as a member of the Conservation Commission and an advanced Master Gardener Dr Maher has presented an invasive species impacts in natural landscapes to a variety of audiences let me check we've got your presentation we have you we can hear you I'm going to go ahead and turn my microphone and my camera off and let you go if we have any questions um I will let you know and then uh you let me know if you've got any questions for me all right thank you well thank you Tara and I'm really excited that everybody decided that uh invasive species should not be considered yard waste that gets us off to a really good place so uh thank you and welcome everybody to this presentation and as Tara said if you have any questions as I go along please put them in the chat and she's going to be monitoring the chat for me while I'm speaking if I don't touch upon your question in my presentation we'll make sure to talk about it when we have a bit of a break um I am going to be talking about invasive Upland plants not water plants how to identify them how to manage for them and um see if I can actually get the screen to be moving here um and some of the objection objectives for this particular class uh at the end I'm hoping that you'll have a better understanding of why some of these plants are considered invasive by law in New Hampshire that you'll be able to describe how their presence may impact our native ecosystems and communities that you will be able to identify at least five of the most common invasive species that might be disposed of at your facility or become established at your facility and also have an idea of at least three different ways that you can attempt to control eradicate or manage for invasive species should they show up at your facility as Tara said earlier we're breaking this Workshop into two sections one to identify invasive species understand why they're considered invasive and specifically look at eight species that top the list will take a break and then we'll go into the management piece and talk about how to get rid of the species how to control their populations and then Tara will talk to you specifically about what you're allowed to do at the Active Solid Waste facilities and then on the cap of closed landfills and again any questions that you have please put them in the chat we'll try to pause in a couple of points in this presentation for you to be asking questions so we're going to start off with a couple of definitions and New Hampshire has a definition for alien species which is any species including the eggs the seeds the spores and any other parts that are capable of reproducing that species that is not native to that ecosystem so in New Hampshire and in North America um and in the Northeast species that are not native that are considered alien include the Lilac the Forsythia and even the Apple they're not native to this region we also have a definition in New Hampshire for um invasive species those are alien species whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health so that's the difference between an alien species like a lilac that can grow next to some dogwoods pine trees other native plants and really not pose any problems to those other native plants and communities an invasive species is very greedy as far as nutrients as far as space and can go as far as to alter the chemical makeup of the soil the temperature of the soil and try to take over the space crowding out native species killing them out and just taking over the landscape so very very detrimental to Native communities that's the biggest difference New Hampshire has a prohibited invasive species rules no person shall collect transport import export move distribute propagate or transplant any living and viable portion of any plant species including the the newest cultivars the hybrids that maybe have prettier flowers which means more seed a better growing habit none of that that is on the New Hampshire prohibited invasive species list that list came out in 2004 it now has 35 different plants on it if you want to see the actual list the URL at the bottom of the screen is a place that you can go whether it's now or through the pdf version of this later on I tried to put URLs throughout this presentation so if you want more information you've got a place to go
persons shall be exempt from collecting and transporting living in a viable prohibited invasive species for the purposes of disposal you are allowed to collect and transport as long as the purpose is to dispose of however you must ensure that the viable living Parts seeds propagules do not Escape so if somebody joshimo is out there cutting down the burning bush today it's all covered with berries and it's bright red and he doesn't want it in the yard anymore he throws it on the back of the pickup truck with a tailgate down drives it to your facility to put it in the yard waste um well you know I'm trying to get rid of it I'm trying to dispose of it so that's legal right well you cannot guarantee that pieces of the plant did not escape on that trip to the solid waste facility that the seeds didn't blow out drop out whatever that's a problem and a lot of homeowners don't understand that when they do transport they have to guarantee that nothing nothing is dropped along the way to the facility
so what makes a non-native species actually invasive in habit there's three key points and if these are the only three points that you remember today you're doing really really well these are really really key points and invasive species can adapt to a wide range of conditions whether it's climate soil the Sun the chemicals in the soil the plants that are around it the wind the the weather extremes and they also can thrive on Disturbed sites and part of the reason is that they grow really quickly they don't have any competition around them they can quickly just come out of nowhere and take over an open space they also have the ability to out-compete Native vegetation partially because of the heavy seed production they produce a lot more seeds than native plants do through a process called layering and layering is when a branch touches the ground and it forms Roots where it touches the ground and all of a sudden you have a new plant through a process called nitrogen fixation and there are certain invasive species that have these little nodules they look like little little round peas almost but tinier that are attached to the roots and the purpose of those little nodules is to absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it over into a means that the plant can use so it's sort of like a plant has found a way to create its own fertilizer and by having that extra nitrogen it has more ability to create more top growth because nitrogen is what you need for your top growth your leaves and your stems that gives it a Competitive Edge over native plants that don't have that ability another really important ability that native invasive species have uh is called a lilopathy and invasive species can send out chemicals through the roots or the rhizomes below the ground that um Force other plants to either move out of the area or actually kill the other plants it's a chemical that's poisonous to a lot of other plants um black walnut is one of those if you ever see a black walnut tree in somebody's yard you'll notice no other plants can grow underneath it because of that allelopathic chemical and another one that Foresters have to deal with all the time of farmers as well is the hay scented Fern and hay scented Fern can just take over an entire field it can take over the whole forest floor underneath mature trees wherever hay scented Fern is that it emits a chemical that nothing else will grow through there what happens as a result of that is you have this huge monoculture of this one plant so this invasive species is now very dominant in the landscape the other piece is that because invasive species are the first ones to Leaf out in our region and the last ones to lose their leaves even in November sometimes they still have leaves on them they have a longer and an earlier growing season than our native plants that are used to okay we can come out of the ground late April early May it's safe now we're not going to get any more snow but we know that by October we should probably lose our leaves because we might get an early snow these invasive species from other countries don't know that what happens is they are now their leaves are now absorbing all of the sunlight they have all of the nutrients to themselves because the other plants are dormant and they can grow even more profusely third key point is that invasive species being not native do not have native Predators or diseases that will help balance their populations in this region and that's also key um it a lot of our native plants have insects or diseases or animals that will browse on them to help keep the populations under control these invasive species don't you won't find deer munching on Forsythia I mean not Forsythia but um honeysuckle to help curb that population or eating the berries even so those are the three key points that really make a non-native species invasive in our in our environment now native and species invasive species also impact our native ecosystems in several ways and the first is by soils they can go and through their chemical composition and their genetic makeup they can uh not only penetrate the soils with their root systems they can heat the soils slightly they can modify the soil chemistry there is actually a study that was done down in down south where it was found that um the
soil was adapted for this one invasive species it actually increased the pH of the soil made it sweeter so that some of our native plants that like a more acidic soil weren't happy um it actually um changed the nutrients so that there might be more calcium there might be more nitrogen which also again fed the invasive species but not the native species yeah invasive species can impact fields and forests as well as riparian area areas along streams and rivers and wetlands they can take over those areas and probably the the key point for forests is when it takes over Forest the baby trees can't grow and so you end up with mature forest trees up above and down below just a Shrubbery or Vines of invasive species so Force succession doesn't occur the forest dies out and you end up with a forest that kind of looks like this poor house under the Kudzu it's just taken over by shrubs and it becomes more of a shrubby scrubby type habitat as opposed to a mature Forest in riparian areas and wetlands the key factor is that when invasive species take over and prevent the trees from growing along the Riverbanks and along the edges of the wetlands is you lose two key ecosystem services that trees provide and one is that you don't have trees filtering the chemicals and and components from the soil that can leach into the water to help filtrate the water so the water quality goes down and number two you don't have trees along the edges to um keep the water cool so when you only have shrubs along the edge the sunlight gets in and the water temperature goes up that's not good for the fish it's not good for the water quality and in some places you'll have more algae forming
wildlife and habitat are also impacted by invasive species a lot of the shrubs that are invasive honeysuckles one in particular birds will still nest in it but it's not it doesn't have the branching that is as sturdy and built the right way to house safe nests it may not grow at the right height so what happens is the birds are nesting lower to the ground on weaker branches and it allows the coyote walking along to come and you know help themselves to the baby birds um the fruits that they produce don't have the fat and protein content that the migrating birds need in the spring and in the winter they're high on carbs instead and as far as fire intolerant ecosystems a lot of our ecosystems in New England are fire intolerant meaning that if a fire blows through not only do the standing trees die and the vegetation above ground but a lot of the seeds will die because they have not evolved with fire as a way to reproduce unlike the Pine Barrens up in the Ossipee area that need fire to open the cones and help them reproduce a lot of our other plants in this region are not tolerant of fire so if you have a Vining habitat like the Wisteria the Bittersweet Vine heaven forbid the Kudzu ever gets up here but even the multi-floor roads that start to wind their way up into the trees you're creating a lot of fuel for potential fire even a lightning strike and the unfortunate thing is you know we're used to if we get a lightning strike the fire might burn and strike the tree and it burns the grass around it we put it out because you know it's pretty moist habitat New England we don't worry about fire a whole lot but if you have a lot of material accumulating and it climbs up into the tree in the crown of the tree up to the canopy you can then have crown fires and Crown fire can spread like the western states find like quote Wildfire so that really poses a big problem and the other key that um people are starting to really look at is what is the effect of invasive species on native plants and their resilience to climate change scientists will tell you that in order to be really resilient to climate change you want to have a variety of plants different heights different shapes different growing Seasons different Berry production seasons within an ecosystem a forest a neighborhood a landscape so that if a a hurricane comes through and wipes out certain plants others can survive if a disease comes through and wipes out a couple certain species the forest can still survive but if you have invasive species taking over an ecosystem and it's basically invasive species no baby little trees that are growing up or other native plants that ecosystem is no longer resilient to climate change it's very very stressed trying to survive the native the the non-native Invasion and it just cannot fight off invasive species and climate change together so if we leave the invasive species as is we have the potential for this Kudzu house to be growing in a lot of different places the invasive species will take over a lot of our forests a lot of our fields and and that's what it's going to look like I do want to say that a lot of the plants that are on the invasive species list are native to Japan China and Korea they're all a zone five we are a zone five so climate wise heat and cold wise they've already um adapt they're already used to our our climate in another country what's different is with climate change our climate in New Hampshire will become warmer and wetter especially in the springtime with droughts in the summer that's the projection and what we're finding is vines in particular really love that environment so anything with a Vining habit will actually start to really Thrive and potentially take over food for thought
so New Hampshire does have as I said earlier a list of prohibited invasive species that began in 2004 um they the list includes insects as well as plants and the plants are Upland plants which are those that do not typically survive thrive or even grow in Wetland situations um those are trees shrubs and herbaceous material such as the dames rocket which is a pinky purple flower that you see growing out in the woodlands in the early spring it also includes water plants like the water flag that yellow flag Iris in the center so there's a variety of plants that are on the invasive species list but today we're focusing on the Woody plants that people will just cut down on their property throw it in their vehicle bring to you as yard waste
the URL again is at the bottom if you want to refresh a complete list of that um the we're going to focus on eight species in particular that I feel and have heard and have talked to people and know are most likely to be brought to your solid waste facility or establish at your solid waste facility whether or not the seeds showed up unknowingly or the Birds dropped them or their deer brought them by however the wind perhaps
I'm going to start off with Autumn Olive and it's a thorny shrub that can grow to about 20 feet tall it likes a lot of sun but it is also drought tolerant so there's that adaptability piece what's fun about Autumn Olive is that the stems are really soft so they're fun to cut with clippers if they won't hurt you they have little lenticles which are little white spots along the stems and the one of the key identifying factors of autumn Olive is that the underside of the leaves have this very pretty silvery color to them as opposed to the Russian olive which is plain old green the berries are also speckled in silver so if somebody cuts down a shrub and you happen to notice that the undersides of the leaves are silver the berries are all speckled most likely you're looking at Autumn Olive it was brought in in the 50s to use for wildlife habitat and berries actually do make a good Jam some of the issues with Autumn Olive what's also known as Japanese Silverberry and spreading oleaster is that yes it does spread it has thorns and you'll see a couple of thorns this is actually a thorn here and another one up here and the problem with some of these Thorns is that they can be two to three sometimes almost four inches in length and they will totally destroy your tractor tire I've gone through quite a few tractor tires over the years not knowing that I was driving over a thorn from an auto mall heavy heavy Berry production um it's very possible to have several thousand um berries on one plant that's not even a large Plant it is a nitrogen fixer so it creates its own fertilizer in a way it out competes native plants as a result that do not um use atmospheric nitrogen and as a result of that extra nitrogen it also thrives on poor soil so you'll see it on roadsides Disturbed areas sometimes log Landings Old Fields any place that a lot of other plants don't want to grow Autumn Olive is very very happy
there are two types of Barberry that are on the invasive species list in New Hampshire the Japanese and the European and the Japanese has brown Twigs what while the European has gray Twigs the Japanese has smooth leaves there's no serration or teeth on the leaves but the European as toothed leaves the difference the biggest difference that you'll notice right away is that the Japanese Barberry is usually two to three feet tall it kind of has a spreading habit it's more horizontal whereas the European Barberry can grow 10 to 12 feet tall so you've got a really tall shrub Japanese Barberry has single barbs or Thorns along the stem whereas the European has thorns that are in little triplets on the stems the berries of the Japanese Barberry it's one Berry per short stem where the European Barberry has berries hanging in droops like grapes so it's very easy to distinguish the difference between both barberries
now why is Barbary a problem that's really pretty in the fall with its pretty little red leaves there are a lot of issues with Barbary um it tolerates a variety of soil types it can grow in full sun it can grow in full shade it can grow in a forest under heavy heavy canopy where it's really dark it re-sprows through root fragments so if you dig up a shrub or you pull up a shrub you don't get all of the roots there's little pieces left it can actually form a new plant from those root fragments it Alters the soil pH it Alters the nitrogen by producing nitrogen and it also increases the temperature in particular the Japanese Barberry because of that compact habit it's the one on the left here Japanese Barberry studies were done in Connecticut and they found that this type of a habit with a zillion little leaves on it created a warmer microclimate and ticks actually love that warmer microclimate and growing two to three feet above the ground it's right at the height where if you walk by it can latch right I take a latch right onto you so if you're out hunting this fall or going for a walk in the woods and Meandering through the woods and you see some Japanese Barberry do not go near it you could bring a few little friends home that you don't want the center picture is a field in Alstead was all Japanese barberry bushes that took over and they went through a program the equip program through nrcs USDA to help get some funding to remove the plants which is an option and then on the right you have the European Barberry taking over the tree
so the Japanese Barberry um saw is you know the biggest problem with it is the tick habitat while the European Barberry it hosts a pathogen that will cause wheat rust and as a result you don't see many European Barberry shrubs out in the midwest anymore they used to be commonplace at every Homestead because they were the better plant to be using for making Jam in jelly Oriental bittersweet it's one of the plants that Foresters love to hate also known as the Asiatic Bittersweet Vine a very Vining habit prolific berries along the branches um now what's key is the Oriental Bittersweet has these yellowy colored husks on the fruit that's a key point to remember the stems of the older Vines can grow actually up to four inches in diameter I've actually seen them a little bit larger on older plants out in the middle of the forest where they're credibly girdling mature forest trees um the leaves are slightly toothed and a little bit wavy in their form
they tolerate sun and shade dry and moist soils highly adaptable a key characteristic of invasive species I do want to point out that there is a native Bittersweet the American Bittersweet which is also a vine however the difference is the berries do not grow along the stem like the invasive species they only grow at the tips which is called a terminal cluster so only at the very end of the vine will you find their berries and they have darker orange husks Little Seeds covers are darker Orange I don't have photos of those because the American Bittersweet Vine is now becoming so rare it's really hard to find it in the wild
some of the issues with the Bittersweet we could spend the whole day talking about these it is shade tolerant it dominates forests and the woods edges it grows on roads Rivers Disturbed areas telephone poles trees any place that it can climb it Shades out the native trees and shrubs and it girdles the trees by climbing around it choking the tree and actually growing into the bark over time it also can uproot native trees and shrubs because the Vine with all of its canes on it and all of its berries can be so heavy it can actually topple the tree over if it's all growing on one side so very dominant when it gets into a landscape what's really key about Bittersweet is that it can re-sprout not only from the crown when you cut the vine off it can re-sprout from that same spot or if you go to dig up the vine or pull it out of the ground if you've left any little pieces of the orange root in the ground that can form a whole new plant and what's concerning is that it can hybridize with the native species which is partially why it's harder to find the native species anymore I've actually experimented with pulling up the Bittersweet and you have to do it every single year because eventually these new little shoots will come up and you got to keep pulling and pulling and pulling one of the biggest problems with Bittersweet the Oriental Bittersweet is that it does change the soil chemistry it increases the potassium and the calcium it increases the temperature it increases Leaf litter decomposition and that's a problem for the forest trees that it is living with because it's eating up all the food that the trees would want to be using uh and as a result it affects for succession because it's crowding out baby trees or smothering them out so they can't grow and as I explained earlier you end up with a forest that has mature trees and then nothing but Vine and it won't be until a disturbance happens that the trees get cut down a hurricane wipes them out that new trees can grow however the Bittersweet Vine has probably already taken over the space and the only thing else that can grow in that changed soil without Leaf litter is probably another invasive species so it creates this cycle of just going downhill or an ecosystem to be healthy
Buckthorn we have two types on the invasive species list we have a glossy and a common Buckthorn both are multi-stem shrubs or trees that can grow as tall as 20 to 30 feet tall the bark is gray to Brown and they don't have a little cover over their buds they have what's called a naked bud that's a rusty brown color color they have vertical lentils those little white spots are actually vertical on the new Twigs alternate branching and the greenish yellow flowers you don't normally notice them when they flower because they blend in with the foliage what's key about the Buckthorn is from early summer onward they are producing berries and Seed so you'll see a shrub that will have red berries and maturing to the blue black color at the same time there's three to four seeds in every little fruit which is about the size of a blueberry and what's really key is that the seeds can be fertile in the soil for five years and still grow into a plant so if the seeds are dropped onto the ground they get covered with Leaf litter or something happens and the soil is too dry we have a drought or we have a flood or cool summer conditions aren't ripe for those seeds to grow for a couple of Seasons they can stay down into that soil under the leaf litter as many as five years and still when the conditions are right become a whole new plant fooling us into thinking that we got rid of the Buckthorn when we really did not so glossy Buckthorn is identified as differently from the common buckthorne by the leaves in particular glossyboxthorn has really glossy shiny leaves and eight to nine veins along the leaves if you count these I think there's nine of them whereas the common Buckthorn which a lot of times you'll see in Wetland areas not necessarily just there has dull leaves on the underside and they have fine two things whereas the glossy does not the common has Fine teeth and only three to five veins so that's how you can tell the two apart however for your purposes whether it's glossy or common it's going to do the same thing in an environment in an ecosystem there is a native Alder Leaf to Buckthorn that lives in wetlands and it has smaller leaves and those serrations on the leaves are really rounded um and chances are you probably won't encounter that when it only grows up to maybe about three feet tall it can get confused and even these buckthorns can get fused with the native Dogwood but the native Dogwood has opposite branching as opposed to the Buckthorn which is alternate branching so those are some key identification factors for those so what are some of the issues with Buckthorn and why should we worry about it well it does grow in sun and shade wet and dry varying soil PH it's highly adaptable um if you top kill the plant early in the season you cut it down and you leave it it can still produce fruit on New Growth during that same growing season that is how prolific it is cut it down the spring and you still have fruit later in the season it likes to invade moist Woodlands Disturbed areas roadsides it forms really dense thickets it displaces seedling shrubs and Native understory plants the college Woods over at UNH and Durham has had a really bad problem with the Buckthorn over the years that they have a Big Pine stand mature Pine and the young Pine couldn't grow because the Buckthorn was taking it over they literally had a young Forest of Buckthorn so they've spent numerous years working to get rid of the Buckthorn the common box Thorns also poisonous um it is a alternate host to a couple of diseases the Alfalfa mosaic virus and the oat Crown Rust and also can be habitat for the soybean aphids so in the midwest it's a severe problem
burning bush is a multi-stem shrub that can grow to 10 feet tall it's one that everybody notices during foliage season it also has opposite leaves like some of our natives what sets it aside is that it has what we call Little quirky Wings they're wood they're Woody um growth on the stem which makes the stem almost appear Square the native winged element sweet gum only have two of those on the stem but the burning bush actually has four there are four seeds for each one of those little fruits which again are about the size of a small blueberry and the bright red Fall Foliage which is why we love the plant and we grow it um you know uh everywhere for landscaping um can be not confused with blueberries and dogwoods because the burning bush is really really distinctive bright red color whereas blueberries and dogwoods which are our native Reds in the fall are much more of a maroon color so if somebody's bringing in a plant and you look at and say wow that is really bright red it's most likely a burning bush if you don't or if you just see the leaves and you don't see that square stem if you just see the leaves and they're maroon they're more likely the native plant you can also tell by the shape but the color right away will give you a good hint so one of the issues with the burning bush is that it adapts to everything it doesn't matter what the climate the soil the pH how much light it gets the only difference is the more light it gets the brighter the red color it forms really dense thickets and it replaces native plants so in the foreground you have a photo of the burning bush taking over the edge of a field and it's going into the woods they're behind the for the plants that you can see it's taking over the Woodland so it's crowding out the blueberry bushes that are trying to grow in the background any of the Dogwood the young pine trees they're all getting crowded out it's all going to be a burning bush Forest underneath there it can reproduce through seeds which the birds love and it also can spread through sprouts if you break it off it can re-sprout
the seeds germinate really easily and it is possible on one plant to find literally a hundred babies underneath that one plant and it might next year it might have a hundred more babies underneath that one plant so um prolific prolific Cedar
the honeysuckle there's actually four species of honeysuckle that are on New Hampshire's and bases species list three of them the first three the aimer the moros and the egyptarian are shrubs or bushes that can grow up to 20 feet tall the Japonica the Japanese Honeysuckle is a vine which can grow to 80 feet tall or long depending on where it's growing and has two to three seeds in its little tiny fruit the honeysuckles uh can be picked out from other shrubs by having opposite branching like a dog would but unlike the native honeysuckles and unlike the native shrubs it has an Hollow pith so if you see a stem and you cut it and it's all black inside and you look really close that you're going to find that it's Hollow that is a dead giveaway that the honeysuckle is not native to this country
the invasive honeysuckles hold their flowers and their berries above the leaves
whereas the um the native will not the there is um the native honeysuckles like the mountain fly honeysuckle the berries hang down below the leaves and those shrubs rarely get above three feet tall they're very um inconspicuous in the forest or a field at a woody Edge it likes a sheltered more of a sheltered location but there are very um quiet plant if I could use that as a description they don't try to take a lot of attention they're just there as a pretty little plant with pretty little pairs of berries hanging down some of the issues with the honeysuckle that they will grow in sun and shade they're adaptable to dry and moist sites they're adaptable to varying soil and pH again a very highly adaptable plant they establish readily on Disturbed sites they form dense thickets shading out the native plants
they have early Leaf out so they're actually one of the very first invasive species to start leafing out they have early fruiting they propagate by both seeds and by layering and again that layering is wherever the branches the lower branches on the shrub if they lean down and touch the ground they will form a new plant and that's how the thicket can continue to keep moving across the property berries are considered poisonous to humans
Japanese knotweed is the invasive that everybody really wants to hate known as Mexican bamboo or fleece flower it's a very dense and fast-growing shrub it can grow up to 10 feet tall it can grow as much as eight inches per day it can spread 20 to 60 feet wide per plant its roots and this is key for management um its roots can grow as deep as six to ten feet into the soil and Japanese knotweight also has rhizomes which are horizontal stems that grow under the soil surface and as they grow horizontally every so often they send up a new shoot up into the sky to form another plant those rhizomes form two-thirds of the plants Mass so if you see a shrub that is 20 to 60 feet wide you know that there's even more than that in the rhizomes underneath the ground it's just a mass of roots and rhizomes underneath the stems of the Japanese knotweed are semi-woody with a hollow center very much like bamboo and the shoots can be eaten very early in the spring before they start to take on that really Woody texture one of the downsides it's also a plus is that they flower really late in the season you'll see it growing along the roadsides all this beautiful white flower um in September the bees love it it's one of the last flowering plants for the bees late in the season however as the bees are are going to these flowers they're also pollinating and helping to make a lot of seed a lot of issues with Japanese not wheat it is a lilopathic so it sends out a chemical through those rhizomes to suppress other plants from growing in the area it does grow along the roadsides snowplows can bump it and um help it propagate again through broken pieces it grows along the Riverbanks so the trees won't grow along the Riverbanks it grows in Disturbed areas it tolerates everything hot sun drought salty areas shade flooding you name it it's very very very adaptable as a result of the allelopathy and being so adaptable it forms these huge monocultures just masses of knotweed it does prevent tree establishment and as I said segments of those little rhizomes if if you break it off it only has to be a half an inch long can produce a new plant and it might sit there for 20 years in the soil before it sends up a new stem in a new plant so it you know you really might think finally it's taken me 10 years I got rid of this Japanese knotweed and then one year a new plant comes up and you have to start over again with the management very very difficult plant to deal with even worse is those seeds the thousands and thousands of seeds on each plant the germination rate in a study in New Hampshire found that 95 percent of them were viable so it really likes New Hampshire
multi-floor Rose is another plant that really likes New Hampshire it's a climbing shrub it usually grows to about 15 feet tall and it's really happy it can grow as wide as 10 feet wide for one shrub it can form a Thicket up to 30 feet in diameter with just canes going in every direction and as the canes are climbing on top of each other it can actually reach as high as 30 feet in some spaces um Keynes may be 13 feet long then maybe even longer I've actually cut some down that seemed like they were about 20 feet long in spots before the canes typically have thorns on them but they don't always have thorns so don't you know say well it doesn't have thorns it can't be a multi-flora rose it still can be what is really unique to multi-flora Rose is that where you look at the where the leaf stem attaches to the main cane of the plant you'll see what's called a feathery stipule it's this little green growth it looks kind of like a feather and it's very unique to multi-flora Rose so somebody brings you a rose bush oh I just cut down my rose bush at home can I put it in the compost pile or in the leaf and yard waste if you see these little feathery stipules your answer is no it's it's a multi-flora rose we can't accept it
multi-flora Rose was used as root stock for hybridizing Roses because of its prolific growth um but it also because of its flowers they're very pretty they smell incredible and they bloom May and June and they're they're just really nice to have in the landscape for that reason but that's the only reason um they prefer moist well-drained soil but they will grow in full sun they'll grow in ditches they love to grow in ditches because of that moisture but they'll grow along fences they'll take over stone walls they'll they're again highly highly adaptable
so some of the issues with the multi-flora rose is not only can they grow by all of those seeds those little rose hips but wherever the canes touch the ground they can form root and to the ground to form a whole new plant and that helps to create this hedge also when you cut them down they can Sprout again once you cut them and form new plants this is really key and scary a mature one mature multi-floor Rose can produce a half a million seeds per year that's how prolific these plants can be and the seeds that drop to the ground that you don't notice can actually stay in the soil as much as 20 years and still be viable growing new plants um the rose hips can persist in the winter time so if you find a shrub with little red berries on it in the fall it may be um it may be one of the plants you notice that normally grows in the swamp one of the Native Winterberry holly or it could be a multi-floor rose and so the animals that walk by it might drop some of the seeds in the wintertime the plow truck might pick them up and push them down the road and all of a sudden you've got new populations growing where they weren't before again it's another plant that leaves out very early on which makes gives it a Competitive Edge over the native plants and because it's shade tolerant it can grow in places that you don't want it to grow under trees in particular so those are the eight species that you are most likely to find either growing at a solid waste facility or being brought to a solid waste facility and what I want to do is review some of the key points um of these plants as far as identification the plants that can re-sprout from the root fragments or four laying from layering now the root fragments you just break off a little piece of the root or the rhizome or the layering is when they touch the ground and form new roots are the Barberry Bittersweet burning bush honeysuckle Japanese knotweed multi-floor Rose so basically just about all of them okay plants with very deep roots Japanese knotweed which is why it's so difficult to get rid of it plants that have seeds that are viable for at least five years or more are the Buckthorn and the multi-floor rose so it's really really important to make sure that you capture as many of the seeds as you can before they hit the ground plants that can create tick habitat or Barberry and bittersweet plants that are considered poisonous to humans are Buckthorn and honeysuckle
so Janine yes this is Tara can we go back to that slide real quick
so those of you that are in attendance this slide might be a really good one to take a screenshot of if you do not have the capability or the ability or the or you don't know how to do that let me know and I can get this list out to you this this one the information was amazing um and this list stuck with me when when Janine first pulled it up so I want you guys to to make sure that you get this along with all of the other handouts and information that Janine gave and again you'll have the PDF of this presentation that you can access layer access later but um by looking at this particular list it's important to I put it in in this format because I felt it was really important to understand why these plans are so bad for the environment why they are so invasive why they have such a Competitive Edge and if these adaptability issues these are the way these particular plants have found ways to out compete all of the native plants in this country and really take over an environment and these are also the ways that we need to be thinking about when we talk about the management piece of it how are we going to now manage if Japanese knotweed can have root systems that go 10 feet into the ground well obviously we can't dig up the plant so how are we going to manage for that if multi-flora rose seeds are good for 20 years how are we going to keep you know depleting the the seed bank to make sure that we don't have any more roses in this area so those are some of the problems that we're dealing with because of these plants being brought to this country for both ornamental and for conservation reasons for wildlife um they really love this particular habitat but this is what we're dealing with is you know they're high adaptability and productivity ability ability to reproduce themselves in a variety of ways so um if you haven't taken a screenshot do it now if you're going to what I would like to do is pause for a quick second and see if you have any questions for me about identification of these plants or if you feel it's time for a quick 15 minute break and then we will move on to the what can we do about all of this I actually have a question while people are typing or raising hands to be unmuted um I have a question uh my I'm thinking of my mother-in-law who makes reads and the berries all of the people that that go and cut the berries and clip the berries and it's like oh these are so pretty to put in the wreaths um are we seeing the the one that stuck with me that you had mentioned was the um the multi-flora rose because those berries look like the ones that people use and reads A lot of times and it's very like you said very similar to the Winterberry do we see people is that is that one thing that people are doing that they should not be doing is using the wrong berries yes absolutely yes um the other Barry that people use a lot is the Oriental bittersweet because the the cover is a little orange the little yellowy covers peel back and then you're left with this Berry that's very very hard so it dries really well and a lot of people will actually take the Bittersweet Vine and create the wreath out of the vine itself it's very easy to do if you know how to make a wreath um just keep winding it round and round and round and then you hang it on your door and you put a couple leaves in it or some colored corn or whatever and there you go you get a beautiful very colorful fall decoration for your door what happens though is you know if it's outside the birds come and they see those orange berries and they take the berries with them and drop them someplace else that you don't want another plant or the end of oh it's time now for the Christmas wreath so we're going to get rid of this one I'm just going to toss it in the trash you know we'll just take it to the recycling center and then all of a sudden you've transported a whole bunch of berries to another place that you don't want them or well we don't need that wreath anymore just throw it in the compost pile it'll you know it'll decompose well it'll decompose but the berries will grow so um part of your job working at a solid waste facility if you see these coming in if you see people using berries in their decorations that they're throwing away is to help educate them that wherever you're putting berries you're putting um you're putting new plants and it might be a plant that you like but it's probably a plant that we don't want um the multi-flora rose and the um Oriental Bittersweet in particular have heavy heavy uh clumps of fruits which is why we use them for crafts because you get this nice cluster of berries together that look really pretty big bunches of them so um you know the education goes a long way but also disposal and we're going to talk about disposal after we take a break specifically what people can be doing if they are collecting those berries for uh a decoration and they want to get rid of them later at the recycling center how they can deal with that yeah so so I think another thing um Janine that I thought of while I was listening and there's a couple people who are asking about um photos of all the eight plants together and I know you have a slide with them all and we'll put that up on the screen um there is a through the nrra I don't know if you've ever heard of them it's the Northeast resource recovery Association they have a side group um called New Hampshire the beautiful and they can provide signage to their members um and most of the municipal transfer stations in the state of New Hampshire are members and so they can get signage all sorts of different types of signs and I'm wondering if we can work with them to develop a sign with the photos of the invasive species or something like that I'm just spitballing here but it might be something that's very helpful uh to these the these facilities and it's a different type of sign there many of the facilities have been around for so long they've gotten all the signs that they can get and they get so many points that members get so many points where you can get some free signs and so if we can have some put together or created that might be a good thing and I know that the nrra just got a USDA Grant to assist specifically with signage for solid waste facilities
great and and I would throw that um right out to everybody who's attending this Workshop today is would it be helpful for you at your facility to have a sign that either identifies a few of the invasive species you're most concerned about in your particular town or has rules about how to dispose of invasive species if they bring it to your facility so I would throw that out to you to be thinking about as we go through the second half of this workshop and feel free to share your comments and questions with that too yep all right so I am not seeing the only um the only question that has come through that is is one that I am oh wait a minute we've got we've got a couple questions that are coming in they are going to be answered after the break so I won't bring those up um so it's it looks like you covered everything that they needed um so what we are going to do we are going to take a 15 minute break I'm going to ask Janine to put that slide up with the pictures with the eight pictures and we'll just we're just going to leave that up there for throughout the break so it's 10 10 now so I gotta do math in my head if everybody could come back by 10 25 that would be great um and Janine and I are going to mute and turn our cameras off and go get some coffee and get something to drink uh and we'll be back in 15 minutes all right thank you
may have thought of while we were gone let me know um I also have turned the recording back on I remember to turn it off for the Break um so before we get going we do have a couple of poll questions give me a second okay so the invasive Upland plant that has the deepest Roots is what
see how you guys did
you're getting two answers Janine they see who did best in a second
foreign
s
we'll see how well everybody was paying attention yeah it's pretty the Voting is pretty good
all right so I'm gonna close and share so we got 84 said Japanese knotweed eight percent said Japanese Honeysuckle and eight percent said Autumn Olive so what do we got Janine foreign
and you said that goes up to 10 feet deep up to 10 feet deep in the soil um the Japanese Honeysuckle and the Autumn Olive have root systems that grow more horizontally across the ground they do send Roots down in a couple of feet but they don't do not go down 10 feet all right so the next one so this is choose all that apply so at my facility I have the following invasive species growing be honest in your answers
it's okay to have no idea yes and that's why we're doing the class
okay so I'm gonna close and share so it looks like I did pick the the right three so the Japanese knot weighed 50 burning bush and Bittersweet um we had 35 of you that said I have no idea that's okay you're going to learn from this class then you're gonna go take it from there and then some of you said more than the three listed for those of you that said more than the three listed can you type in the question box what others you have um spelling does not count
everybody it might take a couple seconds
or even if you want to wait and type it later that's fine too we can let people know
all right well y'all are working on those
throw out Japanese knotweed did not surprise me that's what I expected people to say
this is the last one and this is kind of a trick question because we haven't covered it yet what is the best method of eradicating an Upland plant it's supposed to say uplid plant invasive species
so Janine can you see the answers as they're coming in or no no it's just me okay so it's just me okay so we the answer the choices are burning mowing girdling cutting Suffocation chemical application and it depends let me give you guys a couple more seconds
all right this feedback is great yeah good so we got four percent said burning zero percent said mowing girdling or cutting 23 said Suffocation 23 said chemical application and a resounding 50 of you said it depends so Janine is going to talk about that now um so does anyone have any questions before we move into this next section of the presentation which is talking about methods of managing these species
if you have a question just raise your hand quickly and then type it in or and did you have any uh people typing in the other species growing at their facilities not yet um and that when they do come in I will let you know what we what we're seeing oh wait wait wait wait wait wait I got something
oh um we had a question How likely is the signage to be available well that we got ahead of ourselves on that one we will talk about that that is probably something that will be very likely um but I cannot give you a exact answer right now foreign okay all right I am going to hop off and turn my um Mike and camera off and Janine I'm going to leave it to you okay okay um as far as plants that are growing around solid waste facilities and even capped landfills and sites from former old dumps in my experience in New Hampshire and this is just from places that I've been I've seen a lot of honeysuckle I've seen a lot of Bittersweet and I've seen a lot of multi-floor rows if it's any place that's near Old Cellar holes and homesteads that's where you tend to find the Honeysuckle and the Barberry um the and probably some of the Bittersweet a lot of the other plants are ones that escaped travel down the edges of the road came in from the birds but the honeysuckle in one is one in particular that if you find it in the woods you're probably going to find an Old Homestead because it was a plant that everybody wanted back in the 1800s so um I'm curious you know whether other people are working with at their facilities so in this section we're going to switch over from trying to identify and recognize some of these naughty plants and look at some of the common management methods that are out there and um the goal of all of these methods is to remove the plants that are mature enough to fruit and to exhaust the seed bank and if that's the one goal that you have at your facility and that's all you can accomplish that you are accomplishing a major major goal and pat yourself on the back for that because if you keep cutting plants back before they form flowers and are allowed to go to seed and what will happen is the plants will keep growing and they will keep trying to send out new plants from whatever seeds are still left in the soil and that one practice alone will be enough to eventually exhaust the seed bank and reduce the new population you'll just be left with the older plants however it means it's still an ongoing process that you have to keep on working at it if your facility doesn't have the funding to bring somebody in to deal with this or you just have a few plants focus on exhausting that seed bank and getting rid of the fruiting the fruit potential that is the good goal for you that's a manageable goal so some of the control techniques that have been used with invasive species include the hand pulling and the digging some of the biological methods including girdling which can go under biological or Mowing and cutting smothering burning and using the use of chemicals so I'm going to highlight bits and pieces of each of those for you today I'm going to touch on disposal but then I'm going to turn it over to Tara so that she can talk specifically about regulations that you need to follow at your facilities a couple of notes and again these are important to remember too is that not all invasive species respond equally to the same treatment so a treatment that might work well for one may not work for another also um treatments don't always work as well during different seasons or even in the same season with different weather scenarios so if you are working and it's a moist wet summer uh seeds might be more likely to sprout and you may have more seedlings that you can be pulling because the soil is very loose and easy to pull plants from but you might be wanting to be pulling plants and we have a drought and if it's like this year the soil is like concrete and nothing wants to come out of it so it really depends on the time of year the time of treatment the type of plant and just how you know everything falls into place it's it's very site-specific
multiple treatments and mixed methods may be needed to control or eradicate an invasive species population and I think that most people that work with invasive species that try to eradicate them will agree that they have found this to be the case over the years in just about any place that they've worked so you may start with one treatment and it might help reduce the population a little bit but it's not getting rid of it so you try something else or you try a couple things at the same time and again because everything is site-specific you need to figure out what works best for you at that particular moment also with your human power and your your budget
uh in order to reduce the spread of these invasive species there's a couple things that I suggest you focus on first is to remove any of the small populations that you might find there might be one Japanese knotweed that's just starting on the edge of the the road going into the facility it might be just three honeysuckle over there on the corner you know by the woods and also focus on the mature populations that are bearing fruit and Seed by preventing them from bearing fruit and Seed so those are the the two best ways to really start to reduce the population in a manageable way without feelings the plants are still here what am I doing wrong you know as long as you're controlling the Regeneration you're doing something right
so Hand pulling and digging uh are probably the most time consuming but they are economically in a lot of ways the easiest to to do it's very easy to find volunteers sometimes um conservation groups Conservation Commission might be able to help out School groups they have a polling party and you show everybody what this plant looks like and this happens a lot with Buckthorn and garlic mustard and other plants is they have a big pulling party and teach people about it and everybody goes in and pulls up whatever they can and throwing it into the trash bags and try to clear out an area that you know as quickly as possible it works well for Buckthorn seedlings and saplings you know up to maybe three four feet tall especially if they're in smaller populations and again in sandy soil so it's easy to pull my favorite time for pulling plants out of the ground is in the springtime when the frost is just working its way out of this out of the ground because there's so much moisture that's when the the Rocks seem to want to come out of the ground easily too but you can actually pull a plant and get the entire long Taproot without breaking it off so if you happen to be someplace where you find invasives especially the younger smaller ones and the soil is really really wet from the frost working its way out if you just pull gently you can get that whole plant if not after a rainy um after it's been raining and the soil is really wet or if it's in Sandy soils burning bush seedlings can be pulled out relatively easily and some of the smaller shrubs can be dug out as an easy way to control their populations down at the bottom you'll see this Burning Bush shrub it's about I'm going to say it was almost four feet tall when I decided I needed to get rid of it so I dug it up and here's the root ball from that one shrub the root ball itself weighed a good 50 pounds and I'm not exaggerating and if you look at all of these feeder Roots um they extended out more than the height of this one burning bush so just be aware that when you go to dig invasive species don't just dig around the collar where all of the stems meet each other at the base of the plant you've got to really dig out far and wide and really gently to try to get out all of these main roots that secure it to the ground but also for some of these shrubs these main Roots can also form new plants just as a reminder you can also hand pull or dig honeysuckle Autumn Olive multi-floor Rose which is not fun if it's full of thorns but it can be done and then also Barberry shrubs up to about three feet tall so remember the Japanese Barbarian is normally up to about three feet tall and the European is the one that grows 10 to 12 feet tall so in a manageable size you can dig up the Barberry and you can dig up the Oriental Bittersweet but as a reminder both of those can re-sprout from root segments so if you're not getting the entire root it will send up more plants and the pictures up here I hand pulled a Barbary shoot that had grown in the ground to see what would happen in cup just a couple weeks later it sent out a new shoot and if you were to follow these roots around it had broken off the main route that was under the ground this was a whole new stem and a new root system this root system is longer than this plant is tall from this little piece that was left in the ground what's also important to notice is the bright orange stems or root systems rather that the Bittersweet has so if you are digging around in the ground and you see bright orange where you had Oriental Bittersweet that's another piece of the root system that can become another plant
biological control now I have said that earlier when we were talking about identification there are no known predators that are native diseases insects etc for basically all of these invasive species which is one of the reasons that they can just invade our this part of our planet so easily people are trying other ways besides the digging and the chemicals to get rid of plants and one of them is by using goats and sheep to feed on these plants and help dwindle them down one of the reasons is if you get rid of all of the leaf material the plant can't photosynthesize so it's not making a lot of energy that can go down to the roots and help it produce new shoots and new plants um goats and sheep have been known to be effective with Buckthorn and multi-flora Rose uh the jury's still out on the knotweed again because the root systems are so deep but it is being experimented with with the goats and the sheep and the knotweed um good news is that Japanese knotweed has a psyllid which is a little tiny insect it's a sap sucker and it feeds on not weed sap in particular and aphis has done a lot of testing with this insect because again it's not from here it's you know bringing in a biological control method from the country where the plant originated um just like with um the um Emerald dashboard in a way but they have been testing this down in West Virginia and so far it appears that the little psyllid is able to suck enough sap out of the knot weed to weaken it and potentially kill it but this is going to be ongoing testing but at least there's something positive that we're working on with the Japanese knotweed uh multi-flora Rose has been studied over the years how can we control this population there is a viral pathogen that is native to the western states that has been studied it what it does is it causes a Rose Rosette disease so if the rose itself gets diseased it cannot form rose hips and seeds to reproduce and um the jury's still out on that but they are studying that continually as well as the European Rose chalcid which is a non-native wasp that eats the seeds of this Rose so again we are looking at non-natives to control a non-native population these are natural predators and diseases of these plants in their on countries of origin we don't know that may not know for another Century what the effects of those non-native control biological mesh measures are on other plants in this area but testing is undergoing the only thing that um you know other thing that we have is just trying to eat the plants and see if we can eat enough of them that's about it for the biological control it's very very difficult to find ways to biologically naturally get rid of these plants smothering is another alternative that some people are using specifically with Japanese knotweed you can use seven mil black plastic you can also use the roofing the the heavy heavy it's almost rubber roofing that comes off of some of the old buildings when they're putting a new roof on and because it's weighted down and the whole idea is you cut the Japanese knot weed down and then you cover the stems with wood chips because you don't want the stems to start to poke up through your plastic because once it reaches air and sunlight it's going to keep on growing so you really have to find a way to to Really smother it so you put down the wood chips and then you put down this heavy black plastic and then you put more wood chips on top of the plastic and then you weight it down um and then you wait it's recommended that the size of the covering extend out at least five feet from the area that the uh Japanese knotweed was in because of those rhizomes you want to make sure that those rhizomes in the soil can't sense that there's a warmer climate just a few feet away and so that they might try to use up some of their reserves and grow towards that warmer climate and pop up from underneath the plastic Beyond where the plastic is
um dog seigan is a wealth of information with a New Hampshire invasive species program and if you have questions on using the black plastic of Japanese knotweed or any of the other invasives he's a great contact the thing about the waiting is it's recommended that you leave this plastic down for at least five years so you know you're investing a lot of time into seeing if this method actually works so burning may or may not be an option depending on regulations time of year and what the environment is where the invasive species is Buckthorn when it's burned it does kill the top of the plant it does not kill the root system but you have to repeat this every two to three years and the whole reason that you would even use it to begin with is if you top kill the plant it's not forming new seeds any Buckthorn that emerges during those non-fire years or those non-burn years are the seeds that are in the seed bank so that's one way to deplete the seed source is by letting them grow up and then burn them down letting them grow up and then burn them down same thing with the honeysuckle um it's best done in the springtime where the ground is a little bit more moist and when the leaves are first coming out so that you can grab as much of the energy of the plant as possible it's trying to send out all of its nutrients up into the stems so you can kill it at that point it works for shrubs and seedlings but again you have to do it on a regular basis Barberry there's two ways to deal with the Barbary you can just cut down all of the stems of the Barberry and then burn those or you can do a controlled burn prescribed fire in the if you have a um like that field area that was just loaded with nothing but Barberry they recommend to do it in early spring or late fall to kill the seedlings and that's because at that point a lot of the native plants are still dormant and you'll be less likely to harm the soil nearby that would be affecting a lot of the other plants um the only time I've ever used burning has been to take plants that I've dried and then and I've dried them in a bag for like a whole season so I knew that they were dead and the whole Plant leave the leaves the root systems and the seeds and the stems and put them into my wood stove and left the ashes in the wood stove for a few more days and by the time everything was all burned up I had this really really fine powder there was no signs of any parts of the plants left and then I knew that they were officially gone um burning because of a lot of the things that are happening out west is a topic of discussions specifically for invasive plants this document it's about 50 pages long but if you are all interested in learning about controlled Burns for invasive plants I urge you to read that document at some other point um
prescribed fires and burns are a heated well I won't say heated but a sensitive topic because of the fact that wherever you have the fire if it's outdoors on the ground there might be other species that are trying to grow there that won't survive the fire also you're altering the landscape by burning an area you're creating an open space a disturbed place that invasives like to grow so by burning there you have to be really cautious that you're not creating an environment where more invases will invade as far as burning out of solid waste facility that's a Tara question and I'm going to defer to her for that part um a lot of people will try the hand pulling or say well the bushes are too big I don't have the time I'm just going to mow it I'm just going to cut it down I'm going to try to girdle it so what are my options here if you want to just mow it down kind of shred it down best time of year obviously is before it the plant starts to flower and set seed you can do it while the plant is flowering as long as it hasn't formed a seed yet because you don't want the any of the seeds whether they're immature or not on the ground while a plant is flowering this goes for any plant when a plant is flowering it's using up a lot of its resources to form the flower and then form the seed so that's when a plan is most vulnerable and at greatest risk for death if you do something to it so if you purposely want to kill a plant wait until it's flowering and about to go to seed okay so um burning bush not we Honeysuckle and Autumn Olive all um have been mowed and cut down um and and um that seems to work really well I'm going to talk about chemicals in a minute but with Autumn Olive after it gets cut down some people use triclopir Ester which is a chemical in some of the herbicide products and they apply that to the cut stump to help prevent the Autumn Olive from creating new suckers and Contin in US continuing to grow if you mow down the Barberry again you want to mow it before it produces the fruit and if you want to just cut the stumps the best time to cut the stumps is August to October and why at that time of year because you are preventing any of the energy that the plant is making from going back down into the root system before the plant goes dormant so what that does is you're starving the plant out all it has to live on the entire winter is what is already in its root system when you mow or cut Buckthorn it's recommended that you cover the stem to keep the stem from wanting to sprout and you can do that with plastic some people just take a tin can and pour it over the top of the stump if it's big enough again you want to keep the new growth from coming back multi-flora Rose and Bittersweet um because there's such prolific Growers you need to devote time if you're going to mow them or cut them to cut them three to as much as six times per growing season and do that for at least two three maybe even four years in a row before you're really going to start to see a difference because what you're trying to do is weaken those plants by repeatedly cutting them so they can't make any more energy all they have is what's left in the roots that they keep using up and then also any of the seed bank that's left will keep sprouting and you keep cutting those down so it's just you're wearing it down you're wearing it down there's a lot of time to devote and then girdling is another technique that Foresters used back in the 1930s 1940s on White Pine when it had blister rust they didn't have enough time to cut down every tree that was diseased so they learned that if they girdled it it'll just die on its own and they don't have to worry about it Girling is still used in forestry and it's also being used now for invasive species so if you have a stem that's pretty large and you want to kill that plant but maybe you can't cut it down because there are other plants growing right around it you don't want to damage them or kill them what you can do is on the main stem is you make a cut and a few inches above or below that cut you make a second cut and what you want to do is you want to cut all the way around the stem so you go all the way around it but you cut deep enough that you go past the bark and then the uh the coating that's right underneath the bark on some of these it might be light yellow like on the Buckthorn um it might be bright white but you go past that layer underneath the bark the inner bark down into the Woody piece all the way around the entire stem and you do two cuts because if one cut wasn't deep enough it might heal over in one little tiny place and allow all the nutrients to go up and down the stem again and the plant will still survive if you make two cuts that deep what's going to happen is the energy from the leaves and the photosynthesis are blocked from going down to the roots and the energy from the roots are blocked from going up into the plant and within one to as many as five years depending on the size of the plant you'll find that the plant is dead so that is a cost-effective way if you have larger plants and you can't do the mowing you can't do the um the cutting the chemicals um and you don't obviously you can't pull it out or dig it out that is another method that you can try
all right chemicals so what do we do about chemicals some people are really opposed to chemicals some people love the chemicals some people are on you know not sure should I use them or not you know what are the long term you know we hear about glyphosate and all these other ones on the news all the time commercials on TV there are three chemicals that are most um most used in invasive species work one of them is glyphosate and it's the chemical not the brand name the brand names or our chord rodeo and Roundup over on the side there's resources for all of these if you want some more specific information but glyphosate is a chemical that can be used for cutting when you cut the stump and you want to dab it onto the stump or you want to use a foliar spray and actually spray all the greenery on the plant glyphosate has been approved for that um um Amazon appear is another one that's been approved for foliage and then triclope here there's two different versions of it triclopir amine which um the garlon A and the brush be gone for cutting the stump in the green foliage like the glyphosate but the triclopia Ester um can also be used for a basal bark uh applications and the Ester itself is a surfactant that um gets added to the triclope here so that the chemical will stick better to the um like in this particular situation to the foliage if you have a plant that the leaves are a little bit waxy on the surface then a lot of these chemicals um which are some of them are water-based are not going to stick they're just going to run off and you can't control where it goes whereas if it has the Ester in it or in the old days it had the diesel fuel in it it would stick to the foliage suffocate the leaves and then it would die um so uh there's two versions of that trichlope here now the glyphosate and the amounts up here are considered non-selective uh chemicals meaning that they kill everything that they touch they'll kill everything that's there the triclopia amine is safe to use in a wetland when it's you're painting it onto a cut surface and also glyphosate Pro is another version that can be used in Wetlands that can be applied by a licensed herbicide or pesticide applicator um and then as I said the Ester formulation helps it stick to the foliage but the other thing is that it's long lasting and it stays in the plant until the plant is dead
so foliar applications you are spraying the foliage and the purpose is to prevent photosynthesis so the plant cannot make any new food it uses up all its reserves from the root system and hopefully you weaken it and eventually you can kill it it can be used with burning bush using the glyphosate or the Amazon peer in early summer honeysuckle when the leaves are green so basically throughout the season because it's always growing the multi-flora rose in the Autumn Olive suggested
uh mid to late summer through early fall again you're trying to starve the plant out before it goes dormant Barbary in the fall after the natives have shed their leaves because the barberries a lower growing shrub and it's in with a lot of other plants typically you don't want to spray the Barbary with those little tiny leaves and miss and get some of the other native plants so after they've shed their leaves it's safe to do the Barbary and then the Buckthorn and the Bittersweet except that foliar applications on the Bittersweet Vine are not as effective as cutting the vine off and then treating the stump
so the cut stems and stumps let's say that you mowed or you just went around with clippers and you cut all these shrubs down and now you've got these stems and stumps left if you want to treat them with an herbicide you have to treat with the herbicide immediately after you make the cut because once the wood starts to dry out on the top of that stem it won't the chemical will not penetrate that wood it's like it's already starting to heal over
it works for Autumn Olive and honeysuckle it works for Bittersweet and burning bush except not in the early spring because they're so prolific at that point um still sending out energy through the stem multi-flora Rose and Barberry mid to late summer through early fall and then Buckthorn again best in October after the first Frost when all the native plants have gone dormant again the invasives have not gone dormant at the same time that our native plants have because there's the last ones to still have leaves um the purpose of the cut stem treatment with the herbicide is you cut off the you cut off the heads of the plants they're not making any more food all they have are their reserves but now they're going to suck down the herbicide on their stem down into their root system thinking that it's more food coming from their head that they no longer have on top and they're going to suck down that poison and then they're going to die so that's how the cut stem and stump works it's considered highly effective if it's done right any of these chemicals if you're using them if you choose to use them at your facility or at your home whatever it's recommended you know not only read the label very carefully because don't mix and match well I'll just add this and that together or I'll make it a little more concentrated these chemicals you have to use in the way that they're prescribed and you want to make sure that it's on a calm day where the wind is like 10 miles an hour or less because they're very easy to blow around you want to wear protective gear for your eyes you don't want to be inhaling and um you want to make sure that you're applying it in the manner that it was specified so if it says for cut stump apply it to the stump don't be um you know sticking it in other places do it exactly the way that it um has been described you also want to make sure that it's when the it's a dry season because if it rains within the next 24 hours it's possible that the shrub has not absorbed the chemical and the rain will just wash it off and then you've just wasted your money and your time
another form of treatment is basal bark treatment and what that entails is you are looking at a stem that's less than six inches in diameter and you are actually killing the base of or trunk of the plant and so it works for Autumn Olive and Barbary and Bittersweet the triclopia seems to be the favored one especially with the triclopia Ester it works with burning bush during dormant seasons and even Summertime with the burning blush and again it's mostly before fruiting season and then honeysuckle again the tricol pier or triclopair Plus amazonpear in the winter or spring before it starts to Leaf out again because you're trying to get at the root where all of the uh where all of its um where all of its energy is and all of its carb storage the other method which is not used a whole lot because it's primarily for low larger and older specimens is a fill and drill technique and that's where you actually put holes into the trunk and you put in a liquid herbicide into the trunk so that it takes that liquid and it goes up and down the tree and kills a tree from the inside out another form of that are actually injections of little pellets of the chemical and which will do the same thing it will ingest that slowly um it's advised that you need one hole if for each inch in diameter so if you had a trunk that was six inches in diameter you drill six holes around that stump to either inject with liquid or with the little pellets so that can be really really costly and it can partially be time consuming it's primarily used with Buckthorn and honeysuckle on really big old stems and you'll probably find it mostly with old homesteads uh historical places that have this huge large beautiful specimen of the European honeysuckle but they've decided you know uh it's really you know ethically it's not good to have this in this environment anymore but we have all these other mature plants around it we don't want to kill them out so we're going to have to use the fill and drill technique so just so that you know that is an option so those are most of the ways that people choose to remove invasive species on the landscape I do want to remind you that not all biological invasions invasive species respond equally to that same treatment so what works for buckthorne may not work for multi-floor rows at your facility at the same time for other reasons multiple treatments and mixed methods might be needed to control and eradicate an invasive species population and I think most people will agree as I said earlier that yes you do have to do multiple treatments mixed methods and it's an ongoing process once you start to deal with these plants again if you prioritize your control measures starting with a small and manageable populations first those that might be easier for you or more cost effective based on the time Time of the Season the the human power that you have Etc um the goal again is to stop the plants from producing fruits and seeds and to exhaust the seed bed that's already there so those are the those are that's the goal and um and I know you can do it um Tara do we want to take questions before we go into a review or do you want to do the review first um what I have a question for you remember we have the true and false questions do you want to do those first or do you want to do these questions first okay so let's do the true information we'll do the true and false um yes we'll do true and false first and actually that might actually Spar some questions from there so that's a good place to go exactly I couldn't remember which one we had decided yeah all right so our first poll question all non-native Upland plants are invasive true or false
people are loading quick wow they already know this material well I'm not saying that they're necessarily right it was just they were
wow we got 93 in 30 seconds that's awesome all right so I'm going to close and share so we got 56 of people said true and 44 said false so Janine what is our answer all non-native in all non-native plants
are not it is not true that all non-native plants are invasive it is not true that all non-native plants are invasive uh some non-native plants can be invasive in your particular Garden because they just grow all over the place and you might consider them invasive but for the legal definition of invasive species according to that definition at the very beginning from New Hampshire and invasive species causes economic or ecological harm or harm to human health and to fit the legal definition not all non-native species are invasive correct so remember we've got that alien species and then the invasive correct an apple tree is non-native and it's really not invasive uh the mulberry tree is not native and in some places it can all of a sudden become almost invasive it starts to pop up because of the birds and you start seeing mulberry trees where you never planted them so it can have an invasive habit but it's not still even though it's propagating elsewhere like bee bomb it just kind of spreads everywhere it's not harming the environment to the point where it's considered an invasive species excellent all right next one is plants listed as invasive in New Hampshire have no natural Predators or diseases to keep their populations under control true or false
guys a few more seconds
this is fun
I'm glad you're enjoying
all right so I'm going to share so we had 78 said true and 22 said false so what is the answer plans listed as invasive species I lost the question there because I can't read it all right there you go plans listed as invasive species in New Hampshire oh wait a minute I can extend my screen it's not making it any bigger um do not do not okay so plants that are listed on the invasive species list they do not have native natural Predators diseases and insects that can keep their populations under control and that's part of the problem yep so it is true correct all right and the next toy we've got three more but this portion no one in New Hampshire is permitted to transport prohibited species for disposal true or false
they're all over the place with this one
and once we close this one out I'll leave it up so you can see it all right so we have everybody voted and so we have 71 said false and 29 said true and the question was no one in New Hampshire is permitted to transport prohibited species for disposal okay and the key word there is disposal so the answer is false under the exemption if you are collecting and transporting an invasive species specifically for the purpose of disposal you are allowed to do that in New Hampshire provided that you can guarantee that no plant parts um Escape while you are transporting it to the place of disposal and we will go over the disposal and the rules the thought that regards to Solid Waste in a few minutes
all right so
some products containing glyphosate or try yeah you are safe to use in Wetlands true or false
they're mixed on this one
I'm watching the ticker
I feel like we need a little Jeopardy uh clock sound there yeah
all right so I'm gonna share this so 43 said true and 57 said false um and again the question was some products containing glyphosate or that other t word I can't say are safe to use in wetlands and the answer is true and maybe the question should be it would be easier to make that decision if it said for wetland applications uh you're not dumping you're not dumping the chemical in the wetlands specifically but um you know there are times where you have um buckthorne there was a again another application that went through the USDA nrcs program where the landowner was granted some money to get rid of Buckthorn in a wetland and it was growing right along the edges and out into the water and again it was a mowing operation where you had to cut and dab um each stem with the chemical and they could have used the glyphosate pro or they could have used one of the triclopiers that is allowed to be used it's um it's written for our use in Wetland application so the answer is true there are some that do exist for that purpose and I think another clarify again a part of this is it says some products correct so we're not saying all there are some and it's very and it doesn't mean you still want to use it but I mean it is they are licensed for that use correct correct it might not be your best option but okay and the last true or false question foliar foliar sprays can be applied at any time during the year without danger to nearby native vegetation true or false
they're coming in hot and heavy on this one
okay
so we got 89 said false and 11 said true and the question again is foley or sprays can be applied at any time during the year without danger to nearby vegetation the answer is I wish the answer is false there's no way that you can guarantee at any time during the year that you're not going to endanger other plants um because you are spraying and so that's why a lot of the foliar sprays it's recommended that you wait until the normal the native plants have lost their leaves so that when you're spraying the leaves you're not spraying native leaves you're spraying just the invasive leaves there are sometimes a year where it's recommended more than other depending on the plant and depending on the chemical but overall you cannot guarantee that a foliar spray at any time of year will not endanger a native plant
okay so we do have a question that came in Janine it says
um can dish soap and salt kill any of the invasive species instead of using chemicals and also I heard that Miracle Grow only used once that the salt will kill the plant okay so let me do the dish soap first the dish soap would be coating the leaves until it rains or until we get a heavy Dew and the salt will get into the soil and kill the roots and that's the theory behind that um Miracle Grow either you're using a lot to over stimulate the growth of the plant or you're using it to add more salts to the soil because repeated use of Miracle Grow adds a lot of salts to the soil which also will kill a plant both of those systems salt based will take several years so if you want to try putting a lot of salt into your soil you can try it but remember um the a lot of the plants that you see growing along the edges of the road including Japanese knotweed are salt tolerant these plants are highly adaptable to different soil types to the different PHS to a lot of the potassium the calcium and the salts that are in the soil so you might just be wasting your time if you think you want to try a an all-natural way to go I applaud you for that number one but number two do a little bit more research find people that have actually tried it I've not done that once I saw what Miracle Grow can do to a garden being used repeatedly and how the plants all of a sudden you know the first couple years oh they're beautiful they look like they're on steroids and next thing you know they're all dying I don't want to do that to the to the soil so um I won't I won't go the root of assault but that's that's just me personally so um I just recommend a little bit more research on that and just remember that a lot of these plants are salt tolerant
so that was a good question
that's it for questions for right now so you've got a couple questions for them okay so yes moving right along um why are some plans considered invasive under New Hampshire rules
so you guys can either type in or if you want to raise your hand and and verbally say it that's fine
seconds
what is it about one of these plants that it's considered invasive in New Hampshire oh go back to that definition we have an answer yep they damage the environment is one answer ding ding ding ding them and I have one there's no natural oh wait a minute we got all right we got a hand up hold on all right whose hand is
oh the hand went down
oh okay wait a minute wait a minute Wayne Wayne Wayne mcbrien if you would like to tell us an answer feel free or if you have a question go ahead
you're unmuted Wayne
can't hear you
uh oh you may have to type in your question
your device that may not be connected all right so Wayne while you're trying to figure that out I'll send you a quick chat and see okay so we'll move on to number two while we're waiting and go back to Wayne's answer oh wait a minute someone just typed in harmful to humans yes that's another that's another consideration mm-hmm so they're harmful to the environment and they're harmful to humans and they could pose economic um stressors or economic harm and when you think about economic harm is we have to spend a lot of time and money to eradicate these plants that at one time we thought were great for conservation reasons
okay so number two how might the presence of invasive plant species impact our native communities how might their presence in these native communities harm them so we got a comment they out-compete the natives
and that is the biggest takeaway right there that's the biggest takeaway they just take over everything are there any other comments I take over and wipe out I did hear from Wayne his he he his device doesn't have a microphone so he's like I can't I said okay thank you for answering sorry Wayne I applaud you for raising your hand and attempting oh okay okay so some of the other ways that um besides they take over and they out compete and they um they smother out and they you know prevent other trees from growing and other plants from growing they also um can alter the soil chemistry they can also change the temperature there's a lot of things that they can do below ground that some of them we may not even be aware of they also suck up a lot of the nutrients um and they change the the canopy when they grow you know 10 feet tall 30 feet tall they're creating shade in an area where there may not normally have been shade and that will also affect plants okay so number three what are five invasive species that might be disposed of at your solid waste facility or become established at your solid waste facility
I'm going to give people 30 seconds to answer that I need to I there's something going on in the other hold on one second I'll be right back but I'll let people
and everybody should be able to come up with five quickly and easily
so name five species that we've talked about today so remember you guys took screenshots so we've got bittersweet Japanese knotweed honeysuckle Barberry Buckthorn um burning bush is coming in and then there's one I can't read the whole thing multiflora rose that was the one that got me I was like oh they had a lot of others that that we didn't even talk about today or that I mentioned as an aside that can go on that list because there's 35 listed on on New Hampshire's website that is all locked yeah okay so the last
question that came through through was a winged winged something the second word it says unanimous winged euonymus yeah that's the burning bush okay okay yeah that's another name for it oh got it got it that was from Wayne yeah because of those those four little things on the side they're also um thought of as wings oh and black swallow black swallow tail um is it black swallow wart black swallow wart who swallow warts um that are also highly invasive I've yet not personally experienced them but I do know a Forester that has it on his property and he says it's really hard to get rid of well that's more of an herbaceous plant but yes that's another one all right cool it may not end up at the solid waste facility because it's herbaceous it might be something they throw in the compost pile not thinking about it but if they know people know what it is they might put it in a bag and take it there so that's a good answer as well um okay so last question can you name three methods for managing invasive species and what are they I'll do that one yep yeah
I can to type I got mechanical biological and chemical great okay burning yeah they're coming in yep so you've all learned a lot yes this is great uh and that was the purpose is to give you a really broad understanding of what's going on out there relating to invasive species um and also provide you with some URLs for some information that you can go to and learn more on your own so that this topic of invasive species is not so scary um because there's just so much you know there's a lot of legislation involved and there's just a lot of things to have to know so um one of the things that I want to suggest to you is the 3DS of disposal the first one is to make sure that you dry the plants and The Roots completely to prevent regrowth when you're pulling them you can actually hang them upside down in the arched brand you know in the branches of the tree like the V and the the U Forks of the trees that was something that was done during the blister Rust Control program when the gooseberries and currents were being pulled up all over the state they just hung them from the trees and then over the time the plant would completely dry out and then it would just eventually rot and it was gone no more Gooseberry or current D for double bag or you can burn the seeds in New Hampshire you can actually dispose of the seeds if they're double bagged at the landfill Tara's gonna go more into detail on that and the final D is do not put invasives onto the compost pile or the brush pile because you cannot guarantee that the plant is dead that it won't re-sprout and that the seeds won't be viable and continue to grow so those are the three d's uh these resources are in the PDF of places that you can go for more information and with that I'm going to turn it over to Tara to talk about um the management piece the rules regarding the actual solid waste facility and the landfill yes and also that slide that Janine just put up with the with the URLs that is also in my presentation at the end so if you didn't grab a snapshot I'll put it up again you grab a snapshot it also will go up online so you'll have um all of that information as you need it so I want to make sure that you guys can see the right slides and get myself settled all right so Janine thank you so much for going over all of that because that is going to make my job really easy I'm going to work with you guys and tell you how what the rules are regarding invasive Upland plants at Solid Waste facilities she Janine gave us a rundown on what we need to be looking for in regards to the species and what we need to do to mitigate the spread and my job is to take everything Janine has given us and incorporate that into the laws and rules that are specific to Solid Waste facilities um and then basically I will be offering you some Do's don'ts and really don't even think about it depending on the type of facility that we are discussing don't worry I am not going to dive into rule citations and law citations I'm going to try to give you true application on what you're doing and if you need to dig into the rules more specifically we can discuss those things um offline the points I'm going to dive into are rules regarding leaf and yard waste bands remember that methods of managing that may disrupt the cap so we're talking landfills here so and when I say cap I also mean cover so many of the closed landfills they don't necessarily have a cap they have covers uh we're going to talk about chemical and physical treatment what to do if it's growing at your facility and this is um at an active facility whether it's a transfer station scrap metal yard uh landfill at your active facility and then my favorite thing operating plans you guys know we've been pushing and pushing pushing these operating planes and making sure that they are up to date for your facility we want to give you the tools so that you can manage your facility appropriately and effectively all right so quick quick quick slide here this the this is reviewing again the methods of managing invasive species you've got your biological controls they use plant diseases or insect Predator Predators you've got mechanical control methods pulling digging Suffocation cutting mowing girdling there's chemical controls there's cultural controls and when you put all of these together and you you can start looking at site and determining what is the best way to manage invasives and along with other pests at your facility you're going to create an integrated Pest Management plan that's specific to your site again tie it in with that operating plan it's specific to your site and this whole integrated Pest Management we may be able to do another class on that but for now we're just going to be talking about Upland invasives
first thing I want to mention is the invasive species are not considered in the definition of leaf and yard waste for those of you that remember back from basic training there is a statutory ban on disposal of leaf and yard waste in landfills and incinerators and the reason is is because it takes up space in the landfill there's no reason to manage it in that way leaf and yard waste yard waste is also defined as leaves grass clippings Garden debris and smaller chip branches now the solid waste management Bureau at DES does not considered invasive species to be leaf and yard waste they are considered to be Municipal Solid Waste therefore landfills and incinerators may accept invasive species for disposal
important to remember just because we allow it at DES does not mean that your destination facility will accept it so you may want to check with them to make sure that they will accept those invasive species or even just notify them hey we got a load of invasive species in we're putting it in with our MSW or in for incineration for land for law incineration we're sending it to you so you can let them know you've already checked it you know it can't it's not supposed to go in your compost pile or leave in yard waste pile and go from there all right so landfills let's talk about managing of invasive plants growing at active and inactive landfills this is remember specific to your landfills digging digging down and pulling out those roots so basically disturbing the cap or the cover you've got a couple of different things going on here for a closed landfill an inactive landfill you can only hand dig six inches or less if whatever plant's growing say it's the Japanese knotweed and you're like well Tara we know those roots go down feet you need to contact DES you need to contact DES and work with your consultant to figure out how you're going to remove that specific species I'm telling you right now you're not going to want to get out there with Machinery to dig that out and dig into the waste that is there because then you're disturbing the cap and you don't want to do it now for an active landfill if on your intermediate cover operating plan hello so this should be in your operating plan you need to go back to your operating plan and see what it says that's in there if you don't have it in there that's when you contact DES and say okay we need some assistance on this we need to help we need help figuring out how we're going to get this invasive species out here that meets the rules and the requirements um and then the same as the active face operating plan it should already be in there you guys should already have that plan in place and then you'll see this Banner on the bottom of this slide you'll see it a lot in the next couple slides regardless of the situation if you have invasive species growing at and on your landfill you need to contact your Consultants they are there to help you and to assist you on management and what is the best management for whatever specific invasive species is growing there all right chemical treatment well chemical treatment may not be our first go-to sometimes it is a necessary evil and when applied in accordance with the label it can be quite effective and minimally harmful and Janine already went over all of that with you so think about it this way that you're if you are at that point where this is the only thing you can do then this is what we got to do for plants growing on a closed landfill the best option may be to apply locally to the plant make sure again you're following the instructions on the container for those of you that have an active landfill and are mitigating plans on your cover which you should not have there anyways what does your operating play and say again operating plan there should be something in there if not again work with your consultant and then check with Des to determine if it is allowable now lastly this goes for any of your facilities if there are impacts to ground Waters and surface water you don't want to use those chemicals you're going to have to check with your other um permits that you have at your facility your groundwater monitoring plan see if whatever it is that you are wanting to do is allowable now again check with your Consultants you guys are paying your Consultants to manage those closed landfills and the active landfits you all have Consultants that manage the permits you pay them to do the monitoring they have the tools and the expertise to follow all of the regulations as well as the conditions in your permit if you have storm water swales in your on your closed landfill and you have invasives growing in those whales and the only way you can get them out of there is through chemical treatment you're going to want to talk with your consultant for application and proper application and licensed application don't take it upon yourself to go out there and say okay I'm going to use the chemicals I'm going to spray it on there because you don't know what's going to happen and what's going to come down the pike on you all right so those are the two biggies grazing you want to get some goats out there sure you can do that that is allowable but there's a couple things you might want to do first you're going to want to check with some experts on invasives like Janine there may be some reason that specific plants should not be grazed on um whether it's the time of year if they have seeds on them and the the goats come and they defecate elsewhere and then the seeds are spread even more so there's certain things you just need to know you need to look into you need to research time of year types of animals types of plants or you may get goats out there I don't like that plant so they're not going to eat it so there's no sense in having the goats come out there and then just check in with des and just say hey this is what we're doing this is a um either post closure activity or it is an activity that we're going to be doing at our landfill is this allowable ninety percent of the time sure you want to bring goats out there great that's what they're doing wonderful um you're managing and mitigating plants that are invasive
smothering and desiccation so it's basic physical in-situ treatment it's fine again with the landfills you need to make sure if you're putting down that plastic cover you're not taking stakes and putting Stakes down in because it could punch the cap or cover of your landfill also you need to make sure that if it isn't active landfill the intermediate cover or active face is not negatively affected At All by putting that plastic down you can't create an issue while trying to clean up another issue you need to make sure that your storm water console controls are not impeded and we get this a lot don't cover the vents the vents are there for a purpose you need to be mindful of the area that is around you that you are wanting to cover you don't want to negatively affect the landfill features and apparatus that are already there you are going to be the least amount of um it affected the least amount and to remove those plants okay physical alteration so we talk mowing cutting girdling yes yes yes you know on a landfill on the the CL closed landfills you need to mow that you have to mow that down so if you're in the part of your invasives um plan is to mow it great you want to cut it down as long as you're using the proper safety gear and safety measures go for it girdling the only thing I want to say about that is you need to make sure that if you are going to girdle that you are doing it at the proper time of year and on Plants where it will make a difference and that again is going to just you need to do some research about what plants you have there and what the best options are but physical alterations go for it burning just say no you may not open burn on or in your landfill you do not want to catch the landfill on fire you don't know what's in that landfill especially those closed landfills do not burn on the landfill and I will just leave you with that does anyone have any questions regarding what you can and cannot do at a active or inactive landfill in regards to management of these plants you can raise your hand or you can type your question maybe a few seconds
in anything all right so let's talk about active facilities these and we're talking about the non landfills these landfills no longer we're talking about um you want to the management of invasive Upland plants either growing at the facility or disposed of at the facility we're going to make this very easy you may want to screenshot this picture but it basically goes through each thing and says yes no whatever so composting stop when we're talking composting here we're talking especially well we're talking about any kind of composting your facility including leaf and yard waste piles when your customers bring you a plant and bring in their leaf and yard waste you have no idea if that plant is completely dead or not you just don't you don't know how long they've had it if they bagged it up if they just pulled it out of the ground that day you also know for a fact that 95 of your residents and customers are not going to go through and cut off all the flowers and the fruits and bag them up and then bring you the leaf and yard waste separately they're just not going to do it people just that's not what they're going to do so don't compost invasive species all right so yes shallow digging and hand pulling sure as long as you're using Dig Safe controls and you're out of the footprint of the landfill and you know what you're doing when you pull those out um desiccation or smothering again as long as you're not impeding normal operations or creating a storm water um collection point you don't want to do that either Mowing and cutting go for it as long as you're following the safety controls at the facility that's fine so your maybes so your burn pile this one I would kind of went back and forth with myself and kind of talked to Janine about it and so really with the burn pile you don't want to put it in there but if it ends up in there you the plant has to be completely dead Roots everything and then the flowers and the fruits removed you do not want those going through that burn pile because you don't know if it's going to be if it's it may come out of the other end viable and then you're in a world of hurt um so just if you if you notice them in the burn pile you can yank them out and put them in with the MSW chemical treatment um if they've come in and someone has brought them to you already pulled out of the ground there's you don't need to chemically treat those just put those in a bag and put them in the in the MSW um
for chemical treating ones that are growing on site again you want to follow all of the the label instructions you also want to review your permits so if you've got groundwater monitoring on site if you've got Wetlands nearby if you have drinking water wells nearby some of you may you need to make sure that if you are chemically treating these that you are doing it in accordance with all of the permits and then your labels and I every single facility is different so you all will have something different that you have to adhere to so these are the maybes so the stop go and maybe that's pretty simple and easy to follow along
any questions
raised I know it's a lot of information all right operating plans so we talk about operating plans in many of our classes you guys know you all have to have an operating plan for your active facilities so these are the three sections where invasive plant species may come into play so you've got section two Section 3 and section five a lot of words I understand so section two is just your authorized and prohibited wastes is this waste listed as an authorized waste do you have this specifically listed in your operating plan I would guess most of you are going to say well no remember if you are authorized to take MSW then you are authorized to take invasive species in and manage them properly
um for those of you who are not authorized to take MSW then you need to consider this as a prohibited waste so think about some there we do have scrap metal I always go back to scrap metal facilities because really they're permitted to take in scrap metal that's it they're not permitted to accept um your invasive species so for section two you're gonna you're not gonna wanna bring them in from your customers however you may find them on your site and then we'll we'll talk about that in section five all right so for those of you who have said yep we're authorized to accept invasive waste and work I mean yeah invasive plant species as waste and you are going to in section three of your operating plan all you do is lay out how you're going to handle it so if you no you're going to accept them what do you tell your customers where are they supposed to put the invasive species how are they supposed to bring them to you and be specific so then when you have the new guy who comes in and someone brings them in invasives and they're like have them in their hand hey I've got some um Buckthorn here what do I do with it he can look in the operating plane and say oh this is what we do done and done and you're not running around trying to find answers or calling Des or doing any of that you already know what your plan is and then section five this is for if you find invasives growing at your facility this is your routine maintenance inspections and monitoring plan so if you find it and you've identified it as growing at your facility you need to implement a routine plan what are you going to do to mitigate it what makes the most sense and that's where your integrated Pest Management plan could come into play so how are you going to just get rid of those plants from or stop them from growing at your facility and then the plants that you've gotten out of the ground what are you going to do with them and that all needs to be in your operating plan so that is a quick and dirty what you have to do at Solid Waste facilities so Janine sets you up with telling you what all the invasives were and what your options are and then I Pro linked those with what you have to do at your solid waste facility and then as promised here is the resources page again um Janine and I do have a couple of questions to put more poll questions to gauge what you've learned but if you guys have questions we have another 10 minutes or so um of time available if you have questions you can feel free to type those in you can chat them in you can raise your hand and I can unmute you and if you have a microphone you can talk um and then also I've got the poll questions so I'm going to give you guys a few seconds to do to screenshot these resources oh and I can see I screwed up this slide I apologize I did not take off all the things in the bottom just ignore those
and we'll do those poll questions Janine do you have any questions with what I went over
I'm not seeing any come in so all right I'm gonna throw out the first so these are the same questions that we asked you in the very beginning of the workshop and we'll give you the answers now so the first question is the following are Upland plant invasive species found in New Hampshire and the choices are Japanese knotweed milfoil burning bush Barberry and wisteria
I'll give you guys a few seconds
it's taking a little longer you got 10 more seconds
all right so Janine of this list which one is not an invasive Upland species
can you see the list
oh
hello oh it was on and then it went off oh the the milfoil is a wetland plant so it is not an Upland invasive species the knotweed burning bush Barberry Wisteria are all Upland they grow they're all terrestrial plants and then of course the Wisteria grows taller than the other ones being a Vine another one of those plants that has that Vining habitat we didn't talk about it specifically but you can lump it in with the Oriental Bittersweet that it can take over it crawls over climbs over whatever is in its way sun and shade and um can we actually girdle other plants so everything but the mill foil is an Upland invasive species perfect okay so let me help that
all right so which management method should you never do with an invasive species compost It Burn It cover it in plastic dig it up in chemical which one should you never do
these answers are better than the ones earlier which is excellent all right so I'm going to close and share so we got 88 say compost it and 28 said burn it which one were we looking for looking primarily for compost it um and the reason is that you cannot um be assured that when you compost something that it's number one as Tara said not completely dead already but number two that the seeds are that there it may still have seeds that are viable and you can continue to grow plants and suddenly your compost pile is covered in little seedlings of burning bush so composting is not recommended and then the burning is going to be and it depends kind of a situation it's highly situational um it's not allowed obviously um in New Hampshire at sites that tarot was just talking about um but if it was home use like in a wood stove I mean that's you know you're still burning it you're just doing it in a different ways so the burning um while it's not legally acceptable in New Hampshire could be used in other ways so um composting and burning are both correct answers but the one that is that tops it all is please do not compost invasive species yep right and
how do invasive species spread choose all that apply you got seeds nurseries compost incomplete Burns
so seeds via vectors is the 100 absolutely 67 percent of people said Nursery selling them is pretty plants I'm wondering if people did not choose that one because nurseries are not supposed to be selling them however we all know that there are some people who don't necessarily follow the law and then you've got compost and incomplete Burns both at 89 percent so all of the above yes yes I would definitely say all of the above on that perfect all right and this is our last poll question invasive species brought to a solid waste facility from a customer should be treated as Leaf in yard waste true or false
100 of people said false very good
so you guys still can see that resources slide if you want to take a screenshot or it'll be up um online later you've got the handouts there are the three in there and one is the um the sign-in sheet and then two are PDFs from um Janine there are a couple other people that put in a couple of different sites um regarding Cooperative Extension and I put one of them in the chat um if you guys have any questions you can also you can always ask those in the um out of the end of class survey that goes out um I want to thank Janine very much for being with us today um and before we let you go does anybody else have any questions oh I just got one oh no I got a comment great webinar so if anybody else has any other questions please speak now or forever hold your peace
anybody else
not seeing anything so Janine thank you very much I will send you a um uh the surveys when they come in I'll send you the results from that and and send you an email and I'm getting lots of people that are like thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you so well thank you and thanks for having me here it was fun to do this today so great and thank you Donnie for um sending me your name because this was perfect
all right guys have a great day bye
Instream Flow Program: Water for People and Wildlife
Instream Flow Program: Water for People and Wildlife
Instream Flow Program: Water for People and Wildlife
Transcript of video:
New Hampshire’s streams and rivers are home to fish, playgrounds for boaters and paddlers, and sources of water for residents, farmers and businesses. Unfortunately, when water is removed from the river for drinking, bathing, crops, or industry, it is no longer available for instream users. Flow in the river can become so low that fish may not have enough water to survive.
The Instream Flow Program balances the competing needs of those who use water taken from the river with those who use water in the river such as swimmers, fish and wildlife. The Instream Flow Program looks at each stream individually and determines how much water is withdrawn from the river and how much water needs to remain. It then seeks to balance these needs by answering two important questions related to river flows – how much is too little? And, what do we do about it? Answering these questions requires a great deal of scientific data and even more public participation.
The first question of “how much water is too little” is complicated by the nature of streams. Stream flow patterns are complex and variable. Just as the amount of water in a river is different from day to day, there are also large variations over longer time periods.
This flow variability is also what allows a stream to support a diversity of species that have adapted to these different flow conditions. The Program uses these natural patterns of high and low flows to define the stream flow protection criteria.
Stress from flow conditions is a common and normal condition for the fish and plants that live in streams.
So when does some stress become too much stress?
The program determines how long low-flow periods persist, and how frequently they occur. To gauge the low flow conditions that separate normal from excessive levels of stress, the program identifies flows that support fish and river entities and evaluates when those conditions are not being met. Low flows that are longer, lower, or more frequent than normal cause excessive stress. The protected instream flow represents the flow levels, durations and frequencies which prevent that undo stress.
After establishing a protected instream flow, the program develops water management plans that describe how water users can get the water they need while maintaining protected instream flows.
Water management plans are developed jointly between the water users, dam owners, and the Department of Environmental Services. Based on their particular water needs, water users and dam owners operate as usual most of the time. However, when flow has been too low for too long, the water management plans clearly articulate the circumstances when operational changes apply and how water users can get the water they need.
There are three components of water management plans –
Water Conservation,
Water Use
and Dam Management
Together, these plans are designed to maintain and restore the natural stream flow pattern and to support water users’ needs.
The water conservation plans reduce water losses by reducing waste and repairing leaks so that more water stays in the river or the ground.
Water use plans identify how water users will operate to get the water they need when stream flows are low. Management may include actions such as outdoor watering restrictions or development of alternate water sources. By reducing discretionary water use and using storage ponds or wells, water remains available for use while reducing or delaying the impact on the stream. For example, one municipal water system uses river water when it is plentiful, but when stream flows are low, they switch to their groundwater wells that have little or no impact on stream flow.
The final component for restoring the stream flow pattern is dam management, which is applied in extreme conditions when conservation and water use changes are not enough. Under a dam management plan, a two-day pulse of water is released from selected lakes to relieve the stress of abnormally long dry periods.
The pulse mimics the natural effect of historically common rainstorms. These pulses are carefully designed and used in a manner that also protects lake ecology and the recreational interests of lake users.
Because water truly is fundamental for all life, the public has a stake in how rivers are managed. The instream flow program recognizes this by providing frequent opportunities for public participation. The public can participate by helping to select the next river for instream flow protection, by providing input at public hearings and information meetings, and by becoming active on a Local River Management Advisory Committee. Similarly, the program also proactively seeks input from water users and dam owners in the watershed on their management plans and agency decisions.
The Instream Flow Program balances stream flow protection with society’s need for water. It answers the important stream flow questions of “how much is too little, and what to do about it.” The program applies river-specific science to define protected instream flows and water management plans so that there will be enough water for people and wildlife for many generations.
Guide for Septic Hauling Professionals
Guide for Septic Hauling Professionals
Guide for Septic Hauling Professionals
Transcript of video:
Increasingly, homowners in developments like this one use septic systems for wastewater treatment. Many were raised in urban settings where they experienced a relatively sterile environment. They are not accustomed to some of the basic facts of country living traditionally experienced in rural and agricultural settings. These increased expectations have influenced the development of the latest septage rules. These rules require a higher degree of business professionalism than ever before, putting increased pressure on the hauler. In Addition, many of the remote lagoon facilities that haulers used for disposal in the past are now under pressure from development to close, or have closed.
Let's take a few minutes to go over some basic protocols for the septage hauler Dress for the professional occasion! Wear waterproof gloves, waterproof boots and smock when handling hoses and pumping; cloth or leather easily absorbs liquid and can be a friendly breeding ground for pathogens.
The typical homeowner is expecting you to take appropriate health-safety precautions when working with fecal matter, especially if you are going to be handing over a bill to the homeowner after the service is complete. Take pride in your personal appearance and cleanliness.
A neat vehicle gives both a positive impression, and complies with the rules at the same time. Make sure the exterior of the truck is clean – the septage is supposed to be in the tank and not on the outside of the truck. Hoses should be stored in order with clean exteriors. There should be clear lettering on truck or tank. Watch for smoky or broken exhaust.
Take care to protect the lawn, leach field and any other landscaping features of the home. Remember, many homeowners now have huge investments in their homes and they won't appreciate damage to their valuable property and neither will your insurance company!
Keep the septage in the hose or in the tank, not on the grass! Using a separate tailpiece to suck out the tank will keep the overall pump-out and clean up much neater.
Again, keep the septage off the grass! Take care to make sure the hose is completely empty before uncoupling and take extra care when uncoupling from the tank valve.
Keep the homeowner happy and you'll likely get return business. Make sure you put all the covering material back in its place and is left looking the way was when you arrived on the scene. If you disappoint the homeowner with poor quality in any facet of the job you may not get a call back and you might even lose other customers.
Whenever septage is being hauled, the vehicle is required to be equipped with a kit that will control, remove and disinfect a 25-gallon spill.
If there is a spill your job is to contain it, minimize the environmental impact and begin the clean up. If a catastrophic spill has occurred (e.g. hundreds of gallons, in a residential area, next to surface water or storm drain, etc.), contact the local fire department, local health officer and the DES in that order for assistance.
For any spill 25-gallons or greater, any spill that is not completely cleaned up in
24 hours, or any spill that affects surface or groundwater, you must notify the DES within 24 hours and provide the date, time and location of the spill. Include the permit number of the vehicle and the name of the driver, the volume of the spill, and how much was recovered. Also, report what happened to the septage that wasn't recovered, the distance to any surface water and storm drains within
100 feet of the spill, what was done to contain, clean up and disinfect the spill, and if any additional clean up is required.
Occasionally you may have another customer calling and you've got a full truck or no disposal location thats open. You could be tempted to find a remote location, open the valve, and "let'er rip". DON'T DO IT! This creates a health and environmental hazard and DES will not tolerate it. Remember, NH is getting more populated each day and the chances of not getting caught are getting slimmer each day. Permit revocation, administrative fines, civil fines and even criminal prosecution are all possible penalties for illegal dumping.
Whenever septage is in the truck, slips showing customer name, street address, town, phone number, gallons pumped and final intended disposal location are to be in the truck
For each load, the date, customer name, street address, town, gallons pumped, final disposal location and date of disposal need to be kept on file for a period of
5 years after the hauler permit expiration date
For each load, or on a periodic basis agreed to by the hauler and the disposal site/facility/transfer area or WWTP, report to the disposal location the date pumped, customer name, street address, town and gallons pumped
For each previous calendar year, by January 31st, report to DES how many gallons of septage from each town were disposed at each site/facility/transfer area or WWTP
Proper understanding of our septic systems laws and protocols helps you provide a valuable service to your customers, and helps us all to protect the natural water resources we're blessed with here in New Hampshire. It takes every one of us to make sure we do our part to assure this life giving resource stays clean and healthy for generations to come.
Septage Mangement Guide for NH Municipalities
Septage Mangement Guide for NH Municipalities
Septage Mangement Guide for NH Municipalities
Transcript of video:
NH is one of the fastest growing states in the country. And as the population increases we see more and more houses and housing facilities being constructed. This continual growth places an enormous burden on the infrastructure of local municipalities.
Many new developments are not connected to municipal sewer systems but, instead, use their own form of de-centralized wastewater treatment, also known as septic systems.
Nearly 60% of existing and 80% of all new homes in NH utilize septic systems, and the EPA estimates that about 25% of all domestic wastewater nationwide is treated through this form of wastewater treatment. That's about 4 billion gallons of wastewater every day!
Back in 1955, the NH legislature recognized that municipalities had to provide septage disposal capacity for their residents. So they passed a law under the public health statutes which made it a requirement for all municipalities to adhere too.
Remote lagoon facilities were utilized by septage haulers for the disposal of septic waste for many years, however, these types of facilities are now under pressure from development to close, or have closed due to odor and other concerns. This reduces the disposal options available for septage, and increases the need for municipalities to assure adequate disposal for their residents, in compliance with the law.
Let's take a moment and look at what the law states:
"Each municipality shall either provide, or assure access to, a department of environmental services approved septage facility or a department approved alternative option for its residents." The law, under water protection statutes, makes it quite clear that the responsibility for dealing with the septage rests with the municipality. This requirement has been on the books for approximately 50 years. The second part of the law was added recently:
II. For the purposes of paragraph I, ""provide, or assure access to'' shall mean a written agreement with a recipient facility, or department approved alternative option, indicating that the recipient facility agrees to accept septage generated in that municipality. The municipality shall consider providing sufficient annual capacity equal to the number of households with septic multiplied by the average septic tank capacity of 1, 000 gallons divided by the average septage pumpout frequency of 5 years.
Rest assured, there are several options your municipalities have has to attain compliance with the law.
A municipality can provide disposal capacity through operating its own dedicated septage facility , or accepting septage at its centralized treatment plant. The
DES can assist the municipality in developing its own dedicated septage facility or upgrading its WWTP to accept septage.
To assist municipalities in attaining compliance the DES administers a grant program that provides monies to municipalities to cover up to 50% of eligible costs to increase septage disposal capacity at a new or existing facility.
Your municipality can also enter into a contract with another municipal disposal facility or an approved private facility. The important part of such a contract is to assure access to specific capacity, as opposed to an open invitation. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services can assist your municipality in developing and implementing these types of contracts.
Assuring adequate disposal for public health translates to economical disposal. This means homeowners will be more likely to pump their tanks on a regular basis, greatly reducing the possibility of system failures. System failures can lead to unsanitary conditions both inside the home and to the property itself.
Outside system failures can affect other neighbors, water bodies and recreational facilities within your municipality.
Proper understanding of your municipality's septage disposal responsibility helps to assure access to affordable septage disposal for your residents. Affordable septage disposal is a key element to proper maintenance of septic systems and helps us all to protect the natural water resources we're blessed with here in New Hampshire. It takes everyone of us to make sure we do our part to assure this life giving resource stays clean and healthy for generations to come.
Septic System Management for Homeowners
Septic System Management for Homeowners
Septic System Management for Homeowners
Transcript of video:
NHDES Septic System Management for Homeowner Script
This housing development is like thousands across the country. It has the house and the yard and maybe a deck off the back. It also has something were going to talk a lot about in the next few minutes.
All the houses in this neighborhood, and millions like it all over the country, have their very own decentralized wastewater treatment facility - Can you see it? I'm standing on it right now…its a septic system.
These septic systems are so popular as an alternative to centralized municipal sewer systems, they treat about a quarter of all the domestic wastewater in the US. That’s about 4 billion gallons
…that's billion with a "b"... of wastewater every day!
4 billion gallons of wastewater?!
Anyway, the point is, septic systems are important, and just because they are under the ground and kind-of forgotten about, doesn't mean we don't need to take care of them, 'cause if we neglect them they are very difficult to ignore once they 'act up'…I know you don't want me to show you what that looks like ...
So, let's get to know our septic system.
You know that little pipe that sticks out of the roof? That's your vent pipe. It allows air to enter and leave the system as liquid flows through the pipes. Oh, and it vents noxious gases, too.
All the various drains in the house are connected to one main exit pipe called the sewage lateral. That's the buried 4" pipe that goes from the house to the septic tank. It usually goes through the home's foundation wall, but may also go through the home's basement or crawlspace floor. Everything that goes down every drain in the house ends up in your septic tank.
Yours may be made of watertight concrete or plastic and some older ones may be made of cinderblock or steel. Regardless of what its made of, the septic tank is where the wastewater separates into solid and liquid, and where the first stage of biological treatment occurs.
The tank will have several access hatches that allow inspection and pump-out of the tank. Typical modern septic tanks hold 1,000 or 1,500 gallons. Tanks can be connected one after another in series if the design requires.
The tank may have a single compartment or two compartments. Some two-compartment tanks may have a submersible pump in the second smaller compartment to pump liquid to the leach field if the outlet of the tank is lower than the leach field.
When all the material is sucked out of the tank during servicing, that material is what is defined as septage.
The liquid in the tank flows by gravity through a buried 4" diameter pipe called the effluent line to the distribution box. Some systems use a pump to push the effluent through a small diameter pipe to the distribution box.
Sometimes a larger wet-well that contains a submersible pump is located between the septic tank and the D-Box. This is done when placing the pump into the septic tank is not practical.
The distribution box, or D-Box, is a buried concrete or plastic watertight box with an access cover, typically about 2' wide on each side, and is used in nearly all modern septic systems.
It serves to equally distribute the liquid effluent to the different pipes in the leach field.
OK, so now that we know about the working parts of our septic system, also known as…do you remember?… a decentralized wastewater treatment facility, ok so let's take a look at what is actually happening down there.
The inlet pipe forces the wastewater to turn towards the bottom of the tank, preventing the wastewater from flowing directly across the top portion of the tank. The solids that are heavier- than-water sink to the bottom and the lighter than water solids like oil, grease and plastics rise to the top.
In between is the liquid that will become the effluent that eventually flows into the leach field. While this liquid is cleaner than the wastewater that flowed into the tank, it still contains dissolved biological matter and water-soluble chemicals.
The outlet pipe is designed so that only liquid leaves in a properly functioning tank: the top of the pipe is in the air above the grease layer, while the bottom of the pipe is in the liquid above the bottom solids layer.
For every gallon of wastewater that flows into the tank, a gallon of effluent leaves the tank. In the tank, primitive anaerobic microbes live and feed on the biological matter. These microbes don't need oxygen to live and they reduce both the volume of the settled solids and the concentration
of the dissolved biological matter in the liquid.
The leach field is the most important part of a properly operating septic system, the most expensive to replace, and the one that is the easiest to damage. The reasons for this is simple: all the liquid portion of the wastewater that leaves the home must be dispersed by the leach field,
or the septic tank overflows or wastewater backs up into the home; and due to the intricate design and typical location of the field, it's easy to compromise one or more of the critical design features by either improper operation or care, or by physically damaging the field by inadvertently crushing or cutting the pipes.
The leach field is typically a set of pipes with small holes in the bottom that is laid in a trench, which allows the effluent to flow into the soil after first flowing over gravel. The pipes are covered with additional gravel and finally topsoil.
The flow of the liquid down through the gravel and into the surrounding soil pulls air down into the soil, which allows oxygen-using microbes to further break down the dissolved biological matter. Further down the soil depth, where no oxygen is present, other microbes finish the biological treatment process. The soil itself also acts as a filter to remove many of the other chemicals and minerals in the effluent.
So what can you do to protect your septic system?
Well, the first thing is to know where your system is located. If you don't know, you can contact the subsurface bureau of the DES. If the system was installed after 1975, they should be able to provide drawings showing where your system's components are. If the system is older than that, there still might be enough information in the archives to help you locate the components. If you can't locate the components using drawings, you may want to contact a licensed septic system designer or installer to help you locate your system components.
It’s important you know the location of your septic system in order to avoid accidentally damaging a critical component. Damage may occur by digging a hole for a post or foundation in the wrong spot.
You should never place anything on top of the leach field because it will interfere with the proper airflow into the ground. Never plant anything except grass over the leach field as roots from bushes and trees will damage the structure of the field, which could lead to failure.
Never drive over the leach field. This will compact the soil and reduce the ability of the soil to accept liquid and transfer air. In severe cases the weight of the vehicle can crush the pipes. And don't pasture large animals like horses over the leachfield because over time they can compact the soil too.
In the winter, avoid removing or compacting snow cover above all parts of the septic system. Snow is a great insulator, and even though the ground can get cold, it's a lot warmer than the -
20° F air temps we can get around here. Snow cover will keep the ground around the system components above freezing.
Make sure there is easy access to the covers of the septic tank and D-Box for servicing. Finally, keep the vent pipes clear. Debris and even small animals can get into the pipe, clogging it, preventing the free flow of air into and out of the system, leading to possible system back-ups.
Don't pour household hazardous waste, paints or used cooking oil down your drains. These can kill the vital microbes in the entire septic system, and in severe cases clog the leach field - leading to total system failure.
Proper understanding and care of our septic systems helps us to protect the natural water resources we're blessed with here in New Hampshire. It takes every one of us to make sure we do our part to assure this life giving resource stays clean and healthy for generations to come.
Green Your Meetings
Green Your Meetings
Green Your Meetings
Transcript of video:
Animated slides showing the tips to hosting a green meeting with an instrumental background song.