Eradication of beach vitex, a non-native invasive plant species growing on local beach dunes, is continuing. However, more funding is needed to make sure this “weed” does not take over the beaches on the East Coast.
Officials and concerned citizens from...
Eradication of beach vitex, a non-native invasive plant species growing on local beach dunes, is continuing. However, more funding is needed to make sure this “weed” does not take over the beaches on the East Coast.
Officials and concerned citizens from the coastal regions of North and Carolina met Tuesday at the Kimbel Lodge at Hobcaw Barony for the 2007 Carolinas Beach Vitex Symposium. “It is exciting because we are moving into another phase,” said Betsy Brabson, coordinator of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force. “We’ve researched it, found a lot of locations and found some money to eradicate it. So, we are actually doing what we said we were going to do to get rid of it, but we need to do more.”
Presentations on several topics informed attendees about the history of beach vitex, an update on the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force, the status of funding support, detection and reporting by volunteers, an update on Bald Head Island beach vitex eradication project, the progress in listing beach vitex as a federal and state noxious weed, an overview of the state noxious weed listing process in North and South Carolina, the eradication and restoration demonstrations on 75 sites in Charleston, Horry and Georgetown Counties, and short term approaches and long term commitments.
Chuck Gresham, with Clemson University at the Baruch Institute, reported on his local project with beach vitex eradication. He says that with 75 high priority sites identified — many of which are on Pawleys Island, Litchfield Beach, Garden City and DeBordieu — they have already effectively wiped out this weed in about half of the known sites.
“We injected the herbicide into
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those sites in the fall,” Gresham said. “During the winter, the herbicide has moved throughout the plant during the warm days.”
Now they have started to cut the vitex which they have injected just above ground level to make sure the plant is dead. If they need to, Gresham said, they can inject the stubs with herbicide so it will be carried down to the roots.
“In first week or so in April, we will replant the areas where the vitex was removed with your typical dune species: Sea oats and bitter panicum,” Gresham said. “These are standard warm-season beach grasses.”
These two native species of dune plants, which are bought as seedlings from a local nursery, are “good growers and good dune stabilizers,” he said.
“In terms of density, sea oats are a little slow on growing and they don’t spread as rapidly, but they are very at home on the dunes,” Gresham said. “Bitter Panicum is much better at growing, but it doesn’t have the same visual appeal. It can hold the sand. You can bury it and it will pop back up again.”
He says that people who would like to purchase these two plants should contact Ecoscapes in Aynor. Gresham warns that people should make an effort to purchase stock that is native to this area.
As far as beach vitex eradication, Gresham says that people need to keep up the fight because “weeds don’t wait.”
“Most invasive plants have gotten past the point of being small local populations that are easily controlled,” Gresham said. “Fortunately, with beach vitex, it is not widespread and we know pretty much where it is. In South Carolina and North Carolina, eradication on the beach front areas is a feasible goal.
Randy Westbrooks, an invasive species prevention specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey, spoke abut how important it is to list beach vitex as a state and federal noxious weed, which would stop importation and selling of the plant, as well as requiring eradication.
He also spoke of the history of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force which began out of an interest by the South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts (SCUTE) for the safety of sea turtles trying to nest near beach vitex.
“When SCUTE volunteers became concerned about this and they asked me for help, I said the first thing you’ve got to do is figure out who cares about this and organize them into a coalition,” Westbrooks said. “The agencies who grant the funding for eradication programs want to know who cares. We found out who cares and started a task force, so now we are going to them saying we want to regulate it and find money to control it. So we’ve got our ducks in a row.”
He agrees with Gresham that eradication of beach vitex from our dunes is possible.
“When you figure out how to control it and how much it costs, then you can come up with a realistic figure of what this will cost in general to achieve the goal of eradication from the coastal communities of both Carolinas,” Westbrooks said. “You have to control this thing faster than it grows, and control it until there is no more left. This is going to take several years to a decade or more of concentrated focussed effort to achieve this.”
For more information about beach vitex and the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force, visit their website at www.beachvitex.org.
