Aliens Invade Penn Station!

Aliens invade Penn Station? I guess I should take a step back for a moment and explain myself. This summer I participated in a scientific study conducted by Rutgers University and the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference to monitor invasive plant species along hiking trails in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York. Participants (all members of the NYNJTC) were trained to identify 22 different invasive plant species and pairs of hikers were given a trail segment to survey. This is the first year in a three year survey; results can be monitored at the study site above).

It was fun to partipate in the study, I learned a lot, and now I see these 22 invasive species E V E R Y W H E R E. There is a Tree of Heaven in the backyard of my apartment building. Two Norway Maples stand at the entrance to the Morris Canal section of Liberty State Park (why do Park Services plant and cultivate invasive species????). And recently, when walking out of my office building that sits atop New York's Penn Station, I was greeted by 10s of concrete planters filled with multiflora rose. Grrrrrrr. The quintessential Brooklyn tree, as epitomized in the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, was an invader too: a Tree of Heaven.

I'll come back to talk about invasive species more in the future. In the meantime, the federal government maintains an information center on them at www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov.