This week: a debate that's been simmering in the forest, a free webinar tomorrow, and a volunteer day that needs your hands.

CONSERVATION · STEWARDSHIP

Pull It or Leave It?

It's an invasive species question dividing land stewards across the Northeast, and honestly, the answer is more complicated than it looks. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) arrived from Europe in the 1860s, likely for use as a culinary herb and medicinal plant, and has spent the last 150 years making itself extremely at home in Northeastern forests. One plant can produce more than 7,000 seeds, smothers spring wildflowers, and releases chemicals that suppress native plant growth. The conventional wisdom has always been: pull it. But recent research is complicating that consensus.

Cornell ecologist Bernd Blossey and colleagues found that at multiple study sites across the Northeast and Midwest, garlic mustard has declined significantly on its own over recent years—a phenomenon researchers attribute to negative soil feedback. If you leave it alone, it eventually thins out. Pulling, on the other hand, creates more soil disturbance, potentially spreads seeds, tramples native species, and may interfere with the soil's ability to repel the invader. As Blossey puts it: "It all backfires."

Here at WLC, our stewards are thinking about it differently depending on location. In some places, garlic mustard is established and may be better left alone. But in an area where it hasn't taken hold yet? That's worth fighting for. The emerging consensus among many researchers is that the best strategy is prevention: catch the invasion early, because once it's dug in, eradicating it over a large area is nearly impossible. (You'd need to remove nearly 100% of plants every year for a decade, because up to one-fifth of seeds can delay germination for years.)

Check out the original 2021 study →

CONSERVATION · POLICY

Thursday: Free Webinar on New York's SEQRA Reforms

If you read last week's issue, you know the state just made its most significant changes to the State Environmental Quality Review Act since 1975. Thursday at 6pm, Catskill Mountainkeeper and Hudson Riverkeeper are hosting a free Zoom webinar to break down what those reforms mean for land preservation and overdevelopment in the Catskills and Hudson Valley. Speakers include Drew Gamils, Senior Attorney at Hudson Riverkeeper, and Dr. Kathy Nolan, Senior Research Director at Catskill Mountainkeeper. Worth your time.

Register free →

COMMUNITY · ASHOKAN RAIL TRAIL

The Stewards Have Been Busy

In the past week, WLC's Ashokan Rail Trail stewards added new poison ivy warning signs along the stone walls and spotted a downed tree at mile 19.5—now reported to the Ulster County Department of Public Works for follow-up. (Stewards monitor and flag; removal is the agency's job.) It's a quiet but essential kind of care.

Want to be part of it? Sign up to become an ART Steward →

COMMUNITY · EVENTS

This Week & Beyond

On Monday, June 30, the Ulster County Legislature's Economic Development committee will receive a presentation on the economic impact of the county's parks and trails—a public accounting of what these landscapes mean to the region. The meeting is open to the public and livestreamed on YouTube →...and volunteers are needed next Thursday, July 2, at Israel Wittman Sanctuary for a barberry removal workday. The day runs 9:30am–1:30pm, with a brief demonstration before groups split off to work. Bring thick gloves, water, tick protection, and a bag lunch. Miranda is leading—reach out to sign up →

CONSERVATION · BIRD OF THE MONTH

Wood Thrush

If you've spent any time in the forest this month, you've probably heard it without knowing what it was: a flute-like, spiraling song that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. That's the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), and it is one of the more quietly urgent conservation stories in the Northeast.

Wood Thrushes nest in mature deciduous forests with a dense understory and moist leaf litter—exactly the kind of habitat WLC works to protect. They're area-sensitive, meaning they need large, intact forest patches to breed successfully; fragmented woodlands simply don't work for them. And their numbers have been declining for decades, down nearly half since 1966, due to forest fragmentation, deer overbrowsing of the understory, and pressures on their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America.



When you hear one singing in the Catskills this summer, you're hearing something worth fighting for. Click the Wood Thrush to hear its song: