Having natural spaces where we can go to connect with wildlife is as important for us and our mental health as it is for the well-being of the plants and critters that we share this planet with. Our nonprofit, WildCare of WNY, recently began to manage 47 acres of land near Akron for the sole purpose of keeping it wild and preserving it as a nature sanctuary. We became a partner in maintaining and enhancing this property, and nicknamed it the Vernal Forest. As we work toward helping the land reach its full potential as wildlife habitat, we also want to make space for people to connect with nature. Sharing our passion for nature with future generations is critical – we won’t protect what we do not love, and our hope is that through developing land-based education programs, we can help nurture a love of the natural world in future generations.
The land is beautiful! There are sections of the land that are rich in native plants, and we’ve observed an impressive variety of fauna on the land, including wood thrushes, vireos, warblers, a great egret, foxes, coyotes, a fisher, deer, snakes, frogs, toads, and mole salamanders. The list goes on. However, there are sections getting overrun with ecologically damaging, invasive plants that need our help. And so, our first challenge was to create an ecological restoration plan for the property.
Usually, invasive plants are unintentionally introduced into ecosystems by humans. They’re aggressive, and tend to colonize their immediate environment, which allows them to outcompete native plants and devastate the biodiversity that is critical to the functioning of the ecosystem. Once they've established populations, they are able to take over large areas of land, typically do not provide an adequate source of food to wild animals, and deplete resources for a broader variety of plant species. Moreover, we are one organization of many trying to adjust the rhetoric of invasive plants to the times, and will frequently refer to them as ecologically damaging or colonizing species from hereon out.
Ecologically damaging plants are commonly found in fragmented sections of land, which are common in developed neighborhoods – even rural ones. At their introduction, they outcompeted native plants, and began to thrive. Now, many species are so prevalent that seeds can be blown in from the wind, wedged into vehicle tires or hiking boots, or even brought in from the wildlife that eat them. Some plants are incredibly adept at colonizing land and have been doing so for so long that we barely bat an eye at seeing them in wild spaces, like stands of honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and buckthorn wound together in a thicket on forest edge habitat. Others are simply aggressive, growing as vines or with thorns to choke out their native competitors. Some are ‘clever’ and spread via rhizomes. Others still thrive on disturbance – if you chop them down, they’ll grow back twice as strong.
This makes land management difficult! It’s a feat of somewhat unrequited love, where much of your work involves gauging what a broader ecosystem needs in order to support the greatest amount of biodiversity so that ecosystem can go on to further sustain itself. In a world where humans have introduced a great number of invasive species, this takes a lot of discernment, and physical labor - including some blood, sweat, and tears. And while the work you do makes a difference, you may not be able to see the impact of your work for several years.
WildCare took its first steps into land management a little over three years ago. From an ecological standpoint, we’ve mostly just been getting to know it up until this field season, aside from general trail maintenance and work on the handful of buildings that it came with. This was our first season collecting data.
Like any ecology project, we need data before we can put together an action plan. So this season, we went out to the land every few weeks and conducted invasive plant surveys in order to determine what species are present or absent on the land. So far, we’ve documented plenty of Yellow-flag iris, which can be dug up and replaced with native Blue-flag iris. We’ve also identified plentiful multiflora rose, buckthorn, honeysuckle, and autumn olive. It’s likely too late in the season to adequately identify the presence or absence of several other species; but that’s what phenology is like. The more we often we get out to the land, the more likely we will see different species at peak growth or in flower, and the more we will be able to identify what areas need help. Likewise, we will also be able to further identify areas that are putting up a good fight - identifying those areas with hearty native plants that might just need a little extra help here and there.
One area of concern involves our pond. We’ve been watching the water levels recede over the past couple of years, potentially due to the expansion of common reed - sometimes called by its scientific name, Phragmites - along with non-native hybrid cattail expansion. Phragmites is particularly talented in drying out aquatic ecosystems; the plant species demands a lot of water, expands rapidly, and easily traps sediment. When we first visited the land in 2021, we could’ve easily taken a kayak out onto it if we wanted to. Now, the pond is rapidly drying, and it’s becoming more clear that we really need to tackle this population of reeds and cattails.
It sounds like a lot, and it is much different than the bat rehabilitation that WildCare has become known for. But ecological restoration has always been one of WildCare’s primary endeavors. And, at the end of the day, if we can help create habitat more suitable for wildlife – then we are still helping those bats, and all of the critters that Karen cares for in a more clinical setting.
I dedicate most of my time with WildCare to the ecological components and I’ve been using most of what little free time I have to try to develop a management and restoration plan for the Vernal Forest. Once we’ve completed our data collection, I’ll be using the data and findings to apply for grants that may be able to help us with our restoration endeavors.
Ensuring that wildlife have a secure habitat to return home to is an essential part of caring for them. Unfortunately, we are a small group of people and this is a huge project. We could use your help in conducting surveys and managing populations of invasive species this upcoming field season! This will help us better understand the health and state of our land while beginning to control some of the ecologically damaging species.
If this is something you’d be interested in, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to send more information your way.
Amanda Gabryszak
I live in the nearby area. It was my hope to go out and get rid of the buckthorn that is on our property, but there are other invasive species around the pond and back in the wetland woods and we don’t own all of that property. What you’re doing is very admirable and very needed. ..Michelle Banks