Invasives Archives | Marek Landscaping

Milwaukee River – East Bank

Marek_Katie — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:10:40 +0000

The River District riparian area, located in Hubbard Park on the east bank of the Milwaukee River, has served the Shorewood community as a gathering space since the village’s beginning, and is valued for its historical legacy and ecological significance. In 2020, the Village of Shorewood hired Marek Landscaping to assist in implementing their River District Land Management Plan, which aimed to improve the overall quality of the riparian area. Our stewardship team was successful in helping the Village achieve their goals of maintaining the current vegetative diversity, managing invasive species, and enhancing biodiversity and available habitat for wildlife. This area along the Milwaukee River has been identified as a potential habitat for the long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), which is federally listed as a threated species. It also supports populations of Forked Aster (Eurybia furcata), which is recognized as threatened by the state of Wisconsin, and the special concern species of hop tree (Ptelea trifolata) and butternut (Juglans cinerea).

Marek Landscaping’s stewardship team has continued to provide services at the Milwaukee River’s East Bank to further manage and eradicate the invasive species that remain. In February 2021, we facilitated a community buckthorn removal event to help accelerate progress towards those goals and to encourage community involvement. Future work along the East Bank will continue to focus on invasive species management and will include planting of native grasses, sedges, forbs, and trees to enhance existing vegetative communities and wetlands.

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SEWISC Wild Chervil Control

Marek_Katie — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 22:59:13 +0000

Southeastern Wisconsin is especially vulnerable to invasive species due to habitat availability in urbanized and other disrupted areas, and the high rate of road traffic traveling to and from Illinois, which can unintentionally transport and introduce invasive species to new areas. One of these species is Wild Chervil (Anthriscus silvestris), also known as Cow Parsley, Bur Chervil, and Keck. Wild Chervil thrives in roadsides, forest edges, fields, pastures, and disturbed areas, and is unfortunately a familiar face in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium (SEWISC) has been raising funds and awareness for invasive species control since 2007. SEWISC functions as a Cooperative Weed Management Area and promotes invasive species management in an 8-county region including Sheboygan, Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Walworth, Racine, and Kenosha.

Marek Landscaping’s involvement with the SEWISC- Wild Chervil Control project began in 2017 in Muskego on a small site needing additional Wild Chervil intervention; a 0.6-acre area just off of N Cape Road. While the past 4 years of our prescribed treatments have dramatically reduced the population of Wild Chervil in the designated area, the neighboring untreated property continues to have an uncontrolled population of Wild Chervil.

Our Wild Chervil mitigation efforts continued in 2018-2020 with our undertaking of five acres along the Hank Aaron Trail to the east of S Hawley Road in Milwaukee, and six more miles along rural roadside to the north, in Cedarburg.

Wild Chervil is best controlled by an herbicide treatment in early to mid-May with a follow up in early June.

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Franklin Savanna State Natural Area (FSSNA) Invasives Management

Marek — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 03:08:32 +0000

The FSSNA is recognized for containing elements of mesic oak savanna, one of the rarest plant communities in Wisconsin. For the Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy and Milwaukee County, Marek Landscaping provided invasive plant management services through forestry mowing and hand cutting.

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