Gardening Tips

State workers ready to battle endangered flower’s enemies

CHATTANOOGA — Along a few miles of the Hiwassee and Ocoee rivers, the endangered flower Ruth’s golden aster is about to get some help against some leafy bullies like poison ivy.

The usual suspect — man — is believed to be the real problem for Ruth’s golden aster. Botanists believe the aster was more prevalent before dams were built on the Tennessee River system. It was classified as endangered in 1985.

State workers are looking to assist the small yellow flower by possibly dabbing herbicide on aggressors like poison ivy, Japanese honeysuckle and Virginia creeper.

The Cherokee National Forest’s botanist and ecologist, Mark Pistrang, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press it will be “very detailed work.”

Using a carefully placed herbicide is part of a recently approved U.S. Forest Service proposal to save the small yellow flower that grows only along a few miles of the rivers in Polk County.

There are about 10,000 of the plants on the Hiwassee and 600 on the Ocoee,
according to the Forest Service’s Environmental Assessment.

Now that floodwaters are managed, the other species grow unchecked, Pistrang said.

“They can crawl out and literally cover the rocks and choke out anything underneath,” he said.

Janan Hay, the zone planning team leader for the Cherokee National Forest, said crews could do some preliminary work this fall.

Because the asters live among vines in pockets of soil tucked into rock crevices, manually pulling competing species out without damaging the flowers is difficult, Pistrang said. He and others will clip small shrubs, trees or other vegetation and infuse the stumps or stems with herbicide using paint brushes or eye droppers.

The poison will be administered with such fine detail to avoid contaminating the rivers, according to the environmental assessment.

The plight of the aster is not uncommon, according to Kathryn Kennedy, executive director for the St. Louis-based Center for Plant Conservation.

“We’ve altered a lot of waterways for our uses,” she said. When rivers are dammed, there frequently are species that get too much flooding and some not enough, she explained.

Conservation programs have had varied amounts of success, but the efforts are important, Kennedy said. Botanists and plant breeders use native species to gain clues on how to fight diseases or pests on the plants’ agricultural kin.

“A lot of people don’t realize that native plants are a critical part of sustaining quality of life for mankind,” she said.

Source: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/NEWS01/809230350/1006