Invasives Volunteers Pull Together

Weston Today photos

Students who volunteer to remove invasive plants in Weston were recognized and thanked at a Weston Kiwanis meeting on March 29, where club members were updated on an initiative’s progress from three of its leaders.

Sarah Hutchison, Lisa Brodlie, and Michael Aitkenhead described how ongoing efforts to remove invasives as Lachat Town Farm and around Weston schools have, over the past five years, gathered momentum with increasing numbers of volunteers, volunteer hours, and results.

Ms. Brodlie, Ms. Hutchison, Mr. Aitkenhead

“It’s been long, arduous work,” said Mr. Aitkenhead, who teaches environmental science at Weston High School. “It’s now paying off.”

Ms. Hutchison, a champion of the Pollinator Pathway, said the group was recently granted a two-year permit from the Conservation Commission to remove barberry from three acres of wetlands at Lachat. She said areas where invasives once deprived native plants of resources like sunlight and nutrients now have growth of goldenrod, blueberry, and carrots.

Ms. Brodlie said the work follows a plan by the UConn Invasive Plant Working Group, of which she is a member. No chemicals are used, only manual tools. Teams work in areas divided as a grid, pulling together to remove invasives by the roots.

“Pulling Together” is the title of the group’s new program, a series of workshops that run at Lachat, two-hour sessions where volunteers learn how to identify, remove, and dispose of invasives, partly with instruction and partly by doing it. An attendant goal is to educate Weston residents on how to remove invasive species and replace them with native plants.

Information about the latest workshop schedule and registering for one can be found on the farm’s website.

Ms. Brodlie said work at Lachat has evolved into a research project. Volunteers document the invasive plant species found and log the number removed. Records of healthy trees and bushes on the site are compared to a study done by botanists 20 years ago to measure the spread of invasives over time.

Ms. Hutchison said all of this began five years ago with work to remove invasives around school buildings and in wooded, non-wetlands areas on campus. Since then, the number of volunteer hours has grown from 48 in 2020 to 352 in 2024, adding up to 1,200 hours in the five-year stretch. “That’s a real accomplishment for a town as small as Weston,” said Mr. Aitkenhead. The group’s goal is 500 volunteer hours this year.

The effort extended to Lachat Town Farm during construction of the Offutt Center, has continued, and now includes the Pulling Together workshops. And a new pull area has been designated along the sidewalks on School Road.