News
The National Wildlife Refuge Association joined other environmental and scientific organizations in successfully supporting the proposed mouse eradication project at the December 16, 2021 hearing of the California Coastal Commission. After the seven-hour emotion-laden hearing, the Commission narrowly voted to approve the refuge’s Coastal Consistency Determination for the project.
The Kudzu Team by Joe McCauley
On a recent September day, I joined Refuge System staff and one other volunteer, who happens to be my son, to combat kudzu at the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. Kudzu is a highly invasive plant that if left unchecked will smother anything and everything in its path, and quickly. Over the past three years, the Refuge has employed the full arsenal of control methods to combat this species. These include mowing, hand cutting, herbicide application, prescribed burning, and, wait for it, goats! Turns out that goats love kudzu. This should come as no surprise since one of the early promotions for this introduced plant was as cattle fodder. It was also promoted by the Federal government to control erosion. If only we knew then what we know now about the potentially harmful effects of introducing non-native species. But what’s done is done, and Refuge staff continue to face the challenge head on, taking all the help they can get from volunteers and interns.
The spread of invasive species is but one of the challenges facing the Refuge System today and into the future. This is no time to shrink from our responsibilities to protect our planet and our life-sustaining natural resources.
Written by the Refuge Association’s own Joe McCauley, Regional Representative, Northeast Region
Photo: Kudzu at the Hutchinson Unit of Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge by Joe McCauley
Invasive plant species threaten ecosystems across the US and, if left uncontrolled, can quickly degrade wildlife habitat. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has adopted various strategies for better addressing this threat and recently held several weed prioritization workshops across the Mid-Columbia River and Central Washington national wildlife refuge complexes.
