Liberty Mutual vols help with weeding out invasive flora on Teneriffe Mountain

Lindsay Watkins, the Forester for UNH Cooperative Extension's with volunteers to help with some important pruning on Teneriffe Mountain in Milton (MMRG photo)

MILTON - Liberty Mutual volunteers joined Moose Mountain Regional Greenways staff and Lindsay Watkins, the Forester for UNH Cooperative Extension's Belknap & Strafford Counties, for a hands‑on invasive species removal day at Teneriffe Mountain Forest in Milton earlier this month.

Teneriffe Mountain is a vital conservation property known for its rare plant communities, rugged terrain and one of the northernmost documented stands of Chestnut Oak, says MMRG.

The focus for the day centered on a small but ecologically important field opening that provides habitat diversity and helps maintain the forest's structural mosaic. The focus on May 6 was part of a broader restoration effort supported by the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). With this funding, MMRG has begun planting native trees and shrubs along the field edge to strengthen habitat, improve resilience and outcompete invasive species over time.

Staff recently planted a variety of native seedlings such as highbush blueberry, black chokeberry, hazelnut, red maple, and sugar maple. Volunteer stewardship days like this one help ensure those young plantings have the best possible chance to thrive.

During the visit Watkins showed volunteers how to use a targeted technique called window pruning to weaken invasive bittersweet vines without disturbing the soil. She explained the approach during her demonstration, explaining, "The best approach to mechanical control for bittersweet is what we call window pruning or window cutting, where we're cutting vines at the base where they're growing out of the ground and then we're cutting it at again around eye-level. We don't have to go too high up, but the goal is to disconnect the root system from the part of the plant that's in the tree and then over time, the stuff that's in the tree will die and hopefully fall out."

This method protects the host trees whose shade naturally suppresses bittersweet while avoiding unnecessary soil disturbance. When a volunteer asked why we wouldn't simply dig out the roots, Watkins offered an important ecological insight.

"Mostly it's too much work, and we also know that there will be seed in the soil from bittersweet and other invasives, and we know invasives do really well in disturbed soil," she noted. "The more digging we do, the more we stir things up and potentially promote more regrowth, so to the extent that we can not disturb the soil we're minimizing the potential for invasives to come back as quickly."

To learn more about Moose Mountain Regional Greenways go to www.mmrgnh.org