Letter: Help to Get Rid of Invasive Weed in Allen’s Meadow and Bring Back Native Pollinators

To the Editor:

Nearly five years ago I embarked on an ambitious plan to eradicate a non-native and highly invasive weed from Eurasia called mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) from a 3/4-acre section of town-owned land behind the Community Gardens at Allen’s Meadow, and replace it with a native pollinator meadow that would provide critically needed sustenance and habitat for our native insects, birds, and other wildlife. Due to its aggressive spreading nature, the mugwort had formed an impenetrable monoculture with little to no native flowers able to coexist, let alone thrive.

The plan, approved by the Parks and Recreation Commission (2019), the Conservation Commission (2020) and the Board of Selectmen (2021) included a first year of mowing the mugwort every two weeks to limit its ability to photosynthesize, followed by a strategy called occultation (a.k.a. smothering the plants with black tarps), which was done for the following two years.

Last November, the tarps were pulled (with the help from a local Boy Scout troop) and over 40 species of native wildflowers and four species of native grasses were sowed. While seemingly making no sense to sow seeds right before winter, this strategy is referred to as cold/moist stratification — a necessary natural process where after months of freezing and thawing the seed coat softens allowing it to germinate the following spring.

While there is good germination of the native seed mix, unfortunately there is also good germination of thousands of mugwort seeds that have been lying dormant in the seed bed for 10-20 years as this area was uncared for and even used as a dumping ground for town road sweepings.

It is critical now to remove as many of these mugwort seedlings as possible to prevent them from taking hold before the native meadow plants have a chance to get established. We made a huge dent in this goal on June 29 and then again on July 10, when we hosted two community volunteer days in partnership with the Pollinator Pathway Organization, Norwalk River Watershed Association (NRWA), Wilton Go Green, Wilton Land Trust and Woodcock Nature Center.

A third volunteer day will be organized in early August. Please follow GOOD Morning Wilton‘s Events Calendar and consider volunteering an hour or two of your time to help ensure this native meadow has a chance to survive and thrive in our treasured town park. Many hands make light work.

Below is a before photo of what the sea of mugwort looked like before I started, and above in the main image, what the meadow looked like after — awash in glowing yellow thanks to two pioneer meadow species Coreopsis tinctoria and Rudbeckia hirta, which dominate a meadow in year one after which they thin out and are replaced by the 40 other longer term meadow plants that need more time to get established.

If you walk by the meadow now you won’t see as many flowers as the meadow was just mowed — you might be wondering why? Xerces Society refers to this meadow management as “Sleep, Creep, and Leap.” In year one (‘Sleep’), you mow (a) to keep annual weeds from going to seed, thus ending their perpetual life cycle, (b) to keep weeds from getting too tall, which prevents sunlight from getting to the smaller native seedlings, and (c) to encourage native seedlings to produce a strong root system rather than spending energy and resources on flowering. This year-one sacrifice (in flowering) ensures a healthy and diverse long term meadow for all to enjoy, both our native pollinators, and you and me, too.

Joe Bear