Vermonters work to control invasive plants

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Citizens, school groups and even
businesses are getting involved in the struggle to keep invasive plants from
turning Vermont’s unique natural habitats into unvaried swathes of less valuable species. We talk
with Richmond selectman Jon Kart, a prime mover behind his town’s effort to
save its highly prized flood plain forests from an onslaught of Japanese
knotweed, barberry and garlic mustard. And the Vermont Nature Conservancy’s
Rose Paul fills us in on why and how Vermonters from all walks of life are pulling
up hundreds of pounds of invasives. We also check in on the debate over some
commercially popular, but potentially invasive plants, and whether they should
or shouldn’t be added to the list of plants that can’t be bought or sold by Vermont
nurseries.

Also on the program, signs that Post
Traumatic Stress Syndrome treatment programs developed for previous wars aren’t
meeting the needs of today’s returning veterans. We talk with Dr. Andrew
Pomerantz, Chief of Mental Health at the White River Junction V.A. Medical Center, about what’s keeping this generation of soldiers from getting the
help they need.

Plus, an audio post card from Mount Holly, a town whose claims
to fame include the discovery of prehistoric remains found nowhere else in
Vermont.

 

 

Photo: a field of purple loosestrife, one of the invasives on Vermont’s Quarantine List

AP Photo/Michael Okoniewski

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