Invasive Species: the saga continues

 by Beth Sullivan

Multi-flora rose offers some protection
for nesters and berries for food, but can
take over a field in no time.

Over the last years I have written about invasive species, plant, animal and insect.  It is a challenge to actually define the term as there are many species that have been brought to our habitats that are not truly native or were not here before European contact.   Many species of animals have been domesticated such as cows, sheep, horses, pets. Most don’t become an invasive problem but could, like feral cats. Some species, like the Eastern Cottontail, have been introduced  purposefully and now have taken over a niche that was occupied by their native relative the New England Cottontail.  They have become naturalized, a nuisance, but not many people would refer to them as invasive.

Invasive insects have become a bigger problem. As products from foreign countries come to our shores, they contain plant material or insects and their eggs associated with the wood or packing material.  Once these insects are released into a new environment, they do not have native predators to control them.  Often, they find sources of abundant food and appropriate habitat.   Then they go to town, unimpeded and often leave a path of destruction. We have witnessed this most recently with gypsy moths, hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, Asian long-horned beetles and now spotted lanternfly.  As climate warms, many of these pests are not affected by winter temperatures anymore, so they survive. In most cases there are few, if any, natural insect controls. I don’t think many of our native birds are fully adapted to eat invasive insects, but we know cuckoos eat gypsy moths and woodpeckers will go into wood for various beetle larvae.   As a result of invasive insects, we are losing our hemlocks, ash trees and many of our oak trees.

Porcelain berry, a beauty of a beast
that will cover and smother entire
trees and walls.

Invasive plants form another real threat.  People have been intrigued by plants and their uses, probably forever!  Moving plants around for food, medicine and decoration is an ongoing activity.  Centuries ago, people, and plants, didn’t move quite as far or as quickly as they can now.   Settlers introduced grasses for their livestock that have become integrated into farm fields. Food plants were introduced to give us all greater variety.  But most of these kinds of plants have “better manners”.  Most don’t spread widely or aggressively.  In the last century, ecologists have noted new plants becoming monocultures in some areas, taking over habitats, killing native species with various methods, and ultimately enticing native wildlife to make use of them and spread their seeds far and wide.   Some of these plants are beautiful,  and the uninformed are also responsible for their spread.  Some plants were deemed useful in landscaping and no one really knew how aggressively they would spread beyond their intended use.

Oriental bittersweet twist 
their way up and then 
strangle the supporting tree.

So, here we are, as stewards for Avalonia, hoping to maintain habitats that are appropriate for all kinds of wildlife and reflect, as closely as possible, native species in their natural habitats. Sadly, as we look closely and learn more, it is hard to see the native forest…for all the invasive trees and shrubs and vines in the way!  There are several places where I feel the landscape would be completely barren, if we were able to remove all the invasive plants.  On some preserves, we have worked tirelessly to remove invasive shrubs such as multiflora rose and autumn olive and bush honeysuckle. However the minute the area is opened to sun, new invasives take their place.  We got bittersweet, reed canary grass and porcelain berry. When those were tackled, swallowwort, bindweed and stilt grass have began their destructive march.

A habitat overrun by invasives may offer some minimal shelter for wildlife, but the food value is often very poor. In some cases, nothing eats an invasive plant. In the worst case, our native and endangered Monarchs are fooled into laying their eggs on black swallowwort but when the caterpillars emerge, they cannot eat that plant, and they die.

Stilt grass has taken over the banks
of the Pequotsepos Brook and will 
spread downstream.

Stilt grass is relatively new here. However, in the more southern/mid Atlantic states, the grass has spread so rapidly, and destructively, that it carpets entire forests and parks, preventing any native plants, flowers, or tree seedlings, from germinating.  The seeds originally came in packing material that protected Japanese ceramics.  It is now wreaking havoc in our area. 

Avalonia stewards are determined to learn the best way to control this grass, and other invasive species. We are conducting workshops, and compiling data/fact sheets for our stewards to use. These, we hope will soon be available on our website.   Right now, Japanese stilt grass is being tracked into preserves by hikers and bikers.  It has spread along the roadsides and vehicles carry seeds to parking lots and other preserves. Landscape equipment can carry and spread seed.  This is the time to identify it and begin to wage war.   As an annual grass, it relies on self-seeding, so removal now, before the seeds are set, is imperative. It is easy to pull.  If seeds are present, already, it should be bagged and not put into compost.   It can even be “weedwhacked”  down close to the ground at this time of year, to inhibit the seeds. The plants will die.  But sadly, seeds from previous years are already in the seed bank and can last up to five years.  Too bad we didn’t start, didn’t know, years ago!

There is a lot to learn. Identification is the first step.  Then learning about the best ways to manage or treat infestations will take time and thought.  We, as an organization are working on finding the right balance. 

This is a great resource:   Good luck in your own home areas.

Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group:

https://cipwg.uconn.edu

If you find swallowwort, at least remove the 
pods to prevent seeding. 

Autumn Olive berries make great jam, but there
are just too many of them!

Stilt grass is not too hard to identify,
once you know it.

Natives, aliens, and invaders

By Beth Sullivan

The actual growing season is coming to an end. Plants are beginning to store their reserves for next year, and use their last bits of energy for seed production, ensuring a future generation.

We have different stewardship chores at this time of year, different management strategies to maintain the preserves as ideal (or close to it) habitats for native wildlife. As we think of our fall work, we are assessing the problems of non-natives and invasives-planning the best way to eradicate or keep them in control, and do so in a way that is safe, but also efficient.

Hard to resist the beauty of the beast- Porcelainberry

With invasives gone, beautiful wildflowers can re-establish

Non-native is not always invasive

Non-native, in itself, is fine. Aren't most of us more or less non-native? Many of our decorative shrubs and flowers and fruits and vegetables are not native to our area, but we welcome them into our gardens and they have the courtesy to stay in check. Elsewhere, however, some non -natives have chosen to go crazy and become invasive to the point of overwhelming our native flora and degrading habitat. It leaves us with some hard management questions. When we manage a preserve for ideal habitat and promotion of native species, both plant and animal, we need to decide how much invasion to tolerate, what the effect is on the habitat, and how to deal with it. The use of herbicides continues to be a sticky issue. I don’t think there is any one of us who enjoys using chemicals of any kind, but when faced with the daunting prospect of tons of bio-mass needing to be removed or controlled, sometimes it becomes necessary. When we have had to resort to the use of a chemical treatment, we do so using the best professional guidance. The right treatment for the right plant in the right area. We consult with DEEP and USFWS among others. Professionals are studying the effect of certain treatments on regrowth, seed banks, root regeneration, and species diversity and also investigating how long a chemical remains active in the soil.

At Dodge Paddock it was absolutely necessary to eradicate the Phragmites. After two years we have a handle on the management, yet they persist, and we will as well. In the meantime restoration has begun. If native plants can be encouraged to recolonize, they may be able to fend off invaders.

Phragmites choked the wetland in 2012.

In 2015 the area is regrowing with native plants and invites more wildlife. Photo by Jeff Callahan.

At Knox Preserve we have spent hundreds of hours clearing walls and removing aggressively invasive vines and shrubs. The habitat had been badly degraded. At this time of year, as plants start sending their sap back to the roots, it is the best time to use a targeted spray on the leaves of invasives. It will be transported directly to the roots, kill the plant, and the chemical itself will degrade , usually well before the next growing season. Again, not an easy decision. But one that needs to be made. Each season we see great improvement. But we cannot let our guard down.

Invasive Porcelainberry took over walls and shrubs.

We reclaimed the walls and natives offer natural beauty.

Start the battle at home

When we garden in our home plots it is always easier to pull a weed, keeping an invasion in check before it becomes overwhelming. It pays to know your plants, know the invasives and understand the best way to control them. Think before you purchase certain plants that may be beautiful but invasive and still on the market: Purple Loosestrife, “Burning Bush” Winged Euonymous, Barberry, Porcelain-berry. Autumn Olive, Multiflora Rose and Oriental Bittersweet were once favored ornamentals that we now fight. If you have these plants in your yard, if you cannot eradicate them, think about pulling off seeds and pods to prevent their spread by birds and wind.

If you find Swallowwort,  remove the pods.

An area of Swallowwart properly treated.

We are in the season for Fall planting; choose wisely, think native.

You can learn more about invasive plants at the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan, unless otherwise indicated.

This post originally appeared September 28, 2015

Combating invasive species and celebrating with mocktails: The Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment saga continues

By Jessica Sullivan

Katherine and Clare’s Work Day

On Saturday, April 23rd, GNCE’s Katherine Carey and Clare Loughlin hosted a work day for Avalonia at the Pequotsepos Brook Preserve. The event was open to anyone who wanted to be involved, and they advertised for it through various methods, on and off campus, including advertisements at farmer’s markets, on Connecticut College’s weekly news posters On the Can, and via word of mouth to friends and student organizations. 

The lane into the preserve is now wide and inviting.

On the day of the event, a dozen or so dedicated volunteers went out to the Pequotsepos Center Road entrance to the preserve for a day of brush-clearing and other work. The area has some interesting history with several very old foundations hidden beneath the vines and plant debris over decades.


The group got a lot of work done in several hours of hard work. One thing they did was attempt to clear out some of the invasive species in the area including Japanese Knotweed which is prevalent in this area. They dug out the roots of the Knotweed and hauled a lot of it away. A fun fact about this not-so-fun invasive is that parts of it are edible early in the spring. One of the volunteers took it home to try for cooking. They also cleared out a lot of brush around a stone wall and a foundation of an old house and made a brush pile out of that which animals could use as habitat.

An enthusiastic crew attacked invasive vines, cleared walls and dug out massive roots.

Overall the work day turned out great and a lot of work got done. Katherine spoke about the success of the event, stating "The work day went really well! We were pleased to get so many eager volunteers who were able to uncover a part of the foundation that was previously completely covered by vines and shrubbery." It is always great to see students getting involved and helping out at Avalonia sites because that really gets them invested in the land.

A note from Beth Sullivan: These foundations date back to early settlements in the Mystic area. Now they are uncovered, a local historian will visit and be better able to explore the site. There are huge foundation stones and evidence of the historic road way that connected this area over toward the river.

Maddy and Juliette’s Avalonia Mocktail Mixer

In a somewhat atypical and incredibly fun way, GNCE’s Maddy Fenderson and Juliette Lee raised awareness about Avalonia by hosting the Avalonia Mocktail Mixer on Tuesday, April 26th. This fun event took place at Connecticut College and was hosted by Maddy and Juliette, but was also sponsored by the Conn College Student Activities Council, or as we call it: SAC. Decked out in “business casual” attire, the students of Conn and some of the lovely ladies from Avalonia, including Beth , Binti, and Heather, enjoyed an evening of alcohol-free versions of their favorite cocktails, great music, and mingling. Also, the night culminated with a raffle with a lot of great stuff in a very chic basket filled with things like books, food, art cards, and 2 Avalonia T-shits and a complimentary Avalonia membership. The money raised from the raffle went directly to Avalonia. 

Thank you to the hosts of the mocktail mixer, Juliette and Maddy, for hosting such a great event.

The mocktails were Virgin Margaritas, Moscow Mules, and Martinellis.

In addition to the drinks and fun conversation, Beth and Heather both gave short speeches about the work that they do with Avalonia. An important part of what they both said revolved around the appreciation that Avalonia has for its volunteers. It was great to see so many students show up to this event because they came out of it knowing a little more about the organization and what it stands for. Now there are more people who know about Avalonia who will hopefully now go out and use the trails and see the beautiful Avalonia preserves. Gaining newfound knowledge in that fun atmosphere made for a great opportunity to get more of the younger generation interested in Avalonia and land trust goals and efforts. I know that I had a great time.

The raffle prize included this green basket and a ton of great goodies inside.

The turnout at this social event was great.  Everyone had fun learning about Avalonia.

Photographs by Jessica Sullivan.

Bah Humbug!

By Beth Sullivan

As we come to the end of the month of February, we start to breathe a little easier. Maybe the back of winter has been broken. We may still get snow, but it will melt quickly. The recent warmth and rains have nearly banished the big banks of dirty snow and ice along the roadsides.

It takes effort to keep the trails so beautiful. 

Revealing … litter and trash as far as the eye can see.

What it is about a coffee cup that it cannot stay in a car for a few miles until a destination is reached? I tried to mentally tally the great variety of places serving coffee within a specified distance from North Main Street, and I couldn’t keep track. Dozens? Plastic, styrofoam, coated paper.

Water bottles? Soda in plastic or glass? Gatorade? Lots of Gatorade bottles. Why can’t they stay in a car?

Beer cans? There are more brands and interesting labels than I ever knew. I could start a collection.

Liquor bottles, big ones and little ones.

Dumping garden debris can introduce invasive species to a nature preserve.

Then all the paper and plastic wrappers and bags, from snacks, candy, sandwiches, doughnuts, and pizzas. What happens to an animal that comes along to investigate a sandwich wrapper and ends up with a wad of plastic in its digestive system?

I just don’t understand.

Part of our stewardship job is to do roadside clean up along our preserves. If the towns had to pay workers to clean up, it would be our tax dollars being wasted.

Nocturnal visitors - not welcome

Some of our preserves have off-street parking. These are small lots provided to make it easier and safer for hikers instead of parking along the roadside. They are not meant to be easier for those who want to park after hours, drink, party or rendezvous! Technically our preserves are closed at dusk. But what the morning light brings is pretty interesting. Items range from the usual food and drink, to occasional items of clothing! Who would leave the area without pants and a coat in the middle of winter?

A trash-filled party camp in the woods. Photograph by Rusty Morrison.

Then there are the special items: upholstered chairs, televisions, shelving units, mattresses, and once, even an entire toilet and tank! Maybe over time, someone was thinking of setting up a permanent home? Who do they think is going to come along and lift these things up and out? Not all of us are blessed with a pickup truck and a partner with muscles and patience to be running around cleaning up!

Just hard to understand.

We are lucky to have willing, strong stewards and a truck to help when needed.

Maybe they wanted some place to watch the TVs?

Sometimes the worst items are smaller, seemingly innocuous, yet contain toxic materials. Gas and oil, paint, containers that are aerosols, sealants and stains. A bottle of nail polish remover found empty along a stream. Where did the contents go? Did gas and oil leach into the soil? Get into the waterways? Who and what is downstream? There are designated hazardous waste days all around the area.

Just one of several bedding items found over the last few years.

A pet peeve may be a home owner, whose property adjoins a preserve, who feels it is just fine to dump leaves and yard waste over the wall. It may be organic, but it is a violation. And even worse are those who dump their trash, flower pots, outdoor furniture, broken tools, old kids’ toys over the wall, out of sight, out of their sight. But not out of ours.

Over the wall is just too easy for some people. Feet deep and years old, including a plastic Christmas tree.

Cleaning up is now required

Sadly, as stewards, we now have to walk with collection bags and heavy gloves, to pick up as we go. We now have to have work parties dedicated to cleaning up party camps in the woods.

It would be a lot nicer to be able to concentrate on the beauty of the preserve we try and protect.

Sorry for the Grinch tone…we have spent way too many precious hours, walking boundaries, volunteering as stewards of the lands, only to waste time on cleaning up the messes of others. I am sure this is “preaching to the choir” as readers of a blog like this are likely to already know what I am talking about. I am sure you already are part of the volunteer clean-up effort. Thank you.

I am looking forward to spring, and walking the trails, being a good steward of our beautiful lands.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan, unless otherwise indicated.

There is a hazardous waste collection site near you.

Moths of Winter : Bad news for next spring

By Beth Sullivan

We had an incredibly mild stretch of weather these last weeks. Several days were warm enough to allow small gnats and flies to swarm and even a few butterflies to roam during the day’s sunny warmth. Out in the woods and thickets, a few lingering warblers and flycatchers got lucky enough to find sustenance later than usual.

Invasive Winter Moth

There is a down side. Several nights of warmth created perfect conditions for the emergence of the Winter Moth. This invasive, non-native, insect has been around for a while, but seemed to burst into our awareness last spring when leaves on numerous species of trees emerged deformed, eaten before unfurling. Ornamental and fruiting trees had their blossoms devoured before opening. Without the blossoms there was no pollinating and no fruits this past fall. Crab Apples, some Cherries, and Dogwoods never carried full loads of berries, and this Autumn the birds lost out.

Caterpillars go dormant in the soil in masses, then pupate to emerge at this time of year.

When leaves emerge in Spring, they are already damaged by the larval Winter Moth.

Swarming Winter Moths

The life cycle of these moths is only now being understood. Right now the moths are flying in clouds and those are only the males! They are small, boring and light brown. They usually land with wings spread, but they may be held together, which is unusual for moths. The females have small non-functioning wings, and when they emerge from the soil, they climb up the base of the trees where they are found by the males and mate. They then crawl up the tree to lay their egg masses in cracks and crevices in the bark, close to leaf buds. The moths die and the eggs overwinter. The caterpillars emerge very early and begin eating the leaves and flowers while in bud. They are not terribly fussy, and they will feed on many tree species, from mighty Oaks to Blueberries and garden plants. The affected Oaks have produced very few acorns locally, in an otherwise huge acorn year.

Gypsy Moth egg masses are easy to spot now and can be scraped off bark.

When the caterpillars are done feeding, they drop to the ground where they remain dormant through the summer, to pupate in the fall. I discovered masses of these dormant larvae just under the leaf litter as I did fall clean up in my gardens. They emerge, to continue their cycle, after a hard frost period and rewarming in mid November and December.

Male moths, like these brown Gypsy moths, must fly to find the more inactive females waiting on tree trunks.

The trees that had significant leaf damage were stressed for the entire season. Some were able to send out a second set of leaves later, but that is an enormous expenditure of energy. Then we had the later summer drought and heat which literally dried out the tender leaves well before they were due to fall.

Moths are attracted to lights and swarm on warmer evenings.

Check your trees

Until entomologists and landscape contractors can better understand the full life cycle, there may be no way to interrupt the onslaught. If you can check the bases of your trees now, it may be possible to find and destroy the females before they ascend the trunk. Smaller trees in the home landscape can be treated with a horticultural oil or insecticidal soap to kill the eggs or larvae early on. I go out and squash them by the hundreds, even thousands, when they collect by lights I leave on purposely to attract them. But that is a drop in the bucket. We cannot protect the entire forest. For now we hope that some natural predator or disease will be found that will stop their march.

Several years of defoliation and drought will kill many woodland trees.

Several years of stress from infestation and drought, may cause trees to die and we might expect to see large areas affected like after the Gypsy Moth invasion of decades ago. A disease evolved to help kill off Gypsy Moth caterpillars. Their egg masses are easier to find on tree trunks and can be scraped off. But those moths also reappeared last year in greater than expected numbers.

Seems to be another round of bad news for our already stressed woodland habitats.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan

Beauty can be a beast - again

The follow blog post originally appeared in October of 2013.

By Beth Sullivan

During this time of year, the scenery changes, seemingly minute by minute. Light changes: the angle of the sun creates shadows and details. Color changes; grasses go to warm browns and golds, meadows show off aster purples, goldenrods and Joe Pye weed magentas.

There are other colors showing up in hedgerows and shrub lands and along roadsides. This is the season for berries. Throughout the spring and summer we enjoyed the flowers, some showy, some discrete. Some are fragrant and others not at all. But now the great variety of berries, the fruits, creates a special show.

Take a ride along a back country road, or even along the highway, and it is impossible not to notice the bounty of berries. We have dozens of native shrubs and bushes that have evolved to provide the vital foods needed by small mammals and birds. Ripening over a succession of weeks and even months through fall and winter, they provide a food source for birds when insects are long gone. Migratory song birds will rely on shrub-lands full of cover and food as they stop after a long night of flight to rest and feast and refuel.

But not all berries are created equal!

Over the decades shrubs were imported and planted as ornamentals. Multiflora Rose created instant hedgerows and fragrant white flowers in spring. Those flowers turned into abundant fruits, rose hips, that were eaten by many species of birds. Seeds were dispersed in droppings and now the rose has become an invader, an aggressive spreader that is quick to colonize fields and roadsides. Even though it does provide food and cover, it will out-compete other native plants in our landscape.

Multiflora Rose

Autumn Olive was planted deliberately along our highways to create visual buffers, and also to be a quick cover to prevent erosion. Now that shrub dominates the roadsides. Red berries are abundant now and robins and thrushes are quick to find them. At this time of year we can witness great flocks of starlings, along the highways, swirling and circling as they descend into the medians and roadside edges to feast on the berries and further disperse the seeds.

Autumn Olive

We all enjoy the colors of autumn decorations, but beware of using the non-native and invasive Oriental Bittersweet. It is another truly lovely berry, but a menace when its seeds are spread. The resulting vines climb and twist their way up trees and over native shrubs, strangling and adding their weight and causing death to the plant that supports it.

Oriental Bittersweet

Oriental Bittersweet vine

Colorful but invasive 

One of the most outstanding plants for colorful berries is likely the very worst invader: Porcelain berry. A decade or so ago, it was a sought after nursery plant, a climbing vine with most unusual berries. They start creamy white, then to pale green, then light teal, deeper aqua, sky blue and then to purple when ripe. Porcelain berry vine is a vigorous grower, adding inches, if not feet, almost overnight. It covers everything in its path. Obstructing light, smothering plants beneath, it forms a dense monoculture allowing no diversity and changing the landscape and altering valuable habitat.

Porcelain berry smothering a ceder tree.

The colorful Porcelain berry.

Walk through the Moore Woodlands in Groton, Knox Preserve or Knox Family Farm in Stonington, Pine Swamp in Ledyard, Preston Nature Preserve and many other Avalonia Land Conservancy properties. Notice the berries. Take the time to learn the non-natives and notice the beastly effects they have on our landscape and avoid them in your own. Opt for natives instead and the birds will be happier you did.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan.

Caterpillars: Love ‘em or hate ‘em?

By Beth Sullivan

Pretty much any kind of wildlife intrigues me. I am not afraid of much but have a healthy respect for things that bite or sting. I am grateful we do not have venomous snakes to worry about in my area.

Tent Caterpillars are easy to spot in their web nests.

But I have to say I am getting pretty upset with caterpillars this spring! We have seen groves of trees denuded in a short time. Some trees never even had the chance to unfurl their leaves. Some never blossomed.

The Winter Moth

The first wave of problems was caused by the Winter Moth: A nondescript, smallish brown-gray moth that was noted in abundance last fall and into December, in pockets in southeastern Connecticut. They flew in clouds, caught in headlights, covered garage doors and patio windows. Then they disappeared, but not before laying millions of eggs on the bark and buds at the tips of branches of certain trees. They seemed to favor Oaks and fruit trees like Crab Apples and Cherries. Despite the bitter winter the eggs survived and as the spring enticed trees to begin their growth, the caterpillars hatched and ate into the developing buds. As leaves unfolded they were damaged and lacey. Their photosynthesis abilities were greatly diminished. The trees will suffer. The caterpillars were small, smooth and green, and while I felt helpless, I knew some birds were enjoying a spring feast. So there was a positive side to it…maybe. But if Oaks are too weak to produce acorns, other species will be impacted later. The trees that lost their blossoms will not produce fruit, so the birds dependent on the berries in the fall will be severely challenged.

When the leaves of infested trees emerged in spring, they were already damaged.

The birds being impacted are our own natives; the caterpillars doing the damage, are not.

This photo was taken in June not January.

The Winter Moth caterpillar cycle is nearly finished now. They will drop to the ground to pupate. There are foresters very interested to determine exactly how and where they complete this stage, as control may be possible. But, to add insult to injury, Gypsy Moth caterpillars have made a comeback in many areas, as well as Tent Caterpillars, easy to spot with their webby abodes. The poor trees that are trying to re-sprout leaves, are being eaten back yet again. There is only so much a tree can tolerate before it will be damaged beyond recovery. The Gypsy Moth caterpillars and Tent caterpillars are not as enticing to birds; they are too fuzzy to be palatable to most, except Cuckoos. We can wage war on them. Tent structures can be removed and destroyed. Gypsy Moth caterpillars often migrate up and down the tree trunks and can often be found clustering near the base prior to pupating. I have no problem destroying them!

Gypsy Moth caterpillars blend in to the tree bark.

Monarch Butterflies

But then we think of our Monarchs. The beautiful native that has enthralled people of all ages and cultures for centuries is under siege. Their home range for winter migration is threatened with climate change and forest destruction. The Milkweed they depend on here, for their caterpillar food, is being decimated by habitat change and widespread use of herbicides. There is a “lookalike” invasive plant, Swallowwort that attracts the butterfly to lay her eggs, but the caterpillars will not be able to survive.

Monarch butterflies are in serious decline.

Little Monarch caterpillars have big appetites.

So dedicated nature people like me go out to dig, propagate and save milkweed to establish big patches in attractive places for the Monarchs to use. We rejoice to see the chewed up leaves!

We protect the Milkweed plants so Monarch caterpillars can survive. 

Another caterpillar…a different response!

Photographs by Beth Sullivan.