Dolan Pond - - Knotweed Control

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Dolan Pond

Dolan Pond Knotweed Control Project

At the Dolan Pond Conservation Area there has been an ongoing project attempting to control the invasive japanese knotweed plant without the use of pesticides. This bamboo-like plant grows very tall and very fast, produces large numbers of flowers and seeds, has deep, difficult-to-remove roots, and tends to spread rapidly.

In the summer of 1998, the Newton Environmental Science Camp spent a workday attempting to remove one of the three major patches of knotweed at Dolan Pond. In the area where it was removed, it did unfortunately grow back, but at a somewhat reduced size. This past July 13th, determined to win the battle, approximately 50 Environmental Science campers, staff, and other volunteers, armed with shovels, pitchforks, and rakes, made another attempt at completely uprooting the knotweed in all three of the infested areas. The campers generated a truckload of pulled knotweed. Experimentally, various types of plastic sheets were placed over some of the cleared areas to see if this would inhibit the regrowth. The areas not covered did grow back to a much smaller size and importantly did not significantly flower.

Over the summer and early fall, a group of Newton Conservator volunteers, among them Norm Richardson, Linda Simon, Katherine Howard, Jana Tolisano, and Bill Cheney, raked up and and evened out the remaining areas and finished laying large plastic sheets over them. By leaving the plastic sheets in place for at least a season, the hope is to kill off the persistent knotweed roots by depriving them of light and water and preventing them from growing upward.

On Sunday, October 24, approximately 60 volunteers, consisting of students, teachers, and parents of the fifth grades classes at both Burr and Franklin schools, put forth a tremendous effort to spread wood chips over the plastic sheeting and along the paths of the Dolan Pond area. Special thanks to Bob Davis, Jr. whose pickup truck proved invaluable in redistributing the huge pile of wood chips to the needed areas. With this small army of volunteers and their shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrows, approximately 3000 square feet of knotweed was covered over. The extra chips were used to refurbish the existing pathways and volunteers stayed later than scheduled until every last wood chip had been used.

The students participating were from the classes of Kalpana Guttman, Lucia Kegan, and Jane Frantz at Burr School, and from the classes of Joan Yospin, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Klane at the Franklin School. This was the second year that Burr and Franklin students had volunteered at Dolan Pond and been using the Dolan Pond as their "outdoor classroom". As the Franklin students related in a recent letter to the Tab, "We walk there and observe and sketch our special spots. In spring, we will be testing the pH of the water as part of our science studies. Dolan Pond is an important part of our neighborhood, and we are glad that we could work there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon."

Complete control of this invasive at Dolan Pond will require continued vigilance in pulling any remaining plants when they appear next year. It will also involve eventual planting of suitable substitutes for the knotweed. A recent article, "Outsiders stubbornly root themselves in the region", (Boston Sunday Globe, 11/21/99, West p. 21) quoted Rose Paul of the Nature Conservancy in Vermont with this interesting suggestion: "For this species, there's one more way to discourage it. Make Japanese knotweed pie. It's a delicious substitute for strawberry-rhubarb."

Anyone interested in joining a "Friends of Dolan Pond" organization, please call Ted Kuklinski at 617-969-6222 or send email to DolanPond@aol.com.