GenZ-Earther

Japanese Stiltgrass is a type of packing grass that is native to Japan but has been a ravaging invasive species across the U.S. According to USDA’s National Invasive Species Information Center, the plant was introduced to the U.S. around the 1910s and has spread ever since. It’s plausible that the plant arrived in America in the form of its seeds infiltrating packing material for shipments from Asia but there is no certain answer. The palnt has been particularly present within the eastern U.S. and has infiltrated every southern Indiana county according to the Monroe County Invasive Species Center. It is invasive because it overcrowds various stretches of a forest and then prevents anything native from growing there. It can also prevent trees from planting their seeds if the stiltgrass is growing right under them. What makes it worse is that there are no predators to keep its population in check so it requires long and hard manual labor to manage the problem.

A few months ago I joined a volunteer group to remove stiltgrass for a non-profit organization called NICHES. NICHES is a land trust organization that buys up and manages land around Tippecanoe county in order to create a healthy and thriving ecosystem around the county. With the NICHES volunteer group, we managed to clear quite a big amount of stiltgrass around a creek in one of their land trusts called Potawatomi Trail. It was easy work removing them but it was quite time-consuming given that there were vast stretches of the species in and around the creek. Overall, the problem in Indiana is manageable but far from being under control. It seems that for the near future, parks and land trust organizations will have to rely on volunteers to keep the Japanese stiltgrass at bay. If you would like to get involved and/or donate attached below is a link to the NICHES website.

NICHES: https://www.nicheslandtrust.org/join

Sources

Japanese stiltgrass. Japanese Stiltgrass | National Invasive Species Information Center. (n.d.). https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/japanese-stiltgrass

Japanese stiltgrass. iris.org. (n.d.). http://mc-iris.org/japanese-stiltgrass.html