Buhbye, Bamboo

Volunteers work to remove a thicket of invasive bamboo at Stroud Preserve

By Kit Werner, Senior Director of Communications.

Bamboo is a genus of invasive plants from Asia that are extremely difficult to remove. Like all invasive plants, this quick-growing grass takes over where it’s planted, displacing native species and, by extension, the insects and other wildlife that rely on those native plants.

A few of our nature preserve have bamboo on them, hard-to-kill relics of a time before the lands were under Natural Lands’ care.

Our land stewardship experts have found the best way to remove bamboo is to cut the plant and apply an herbicide to the cut “stumps.” Sometimes repeat application is required.

By cutting the bamboo as close to the ground as possible, we take away the plant’s ability to photosynthesize, which starves and weakens the plant. The downside is that it’s very labor intensive. Fortunately, we had the help of a wonderful group of volunteers aiding our staff with a recent bamboo banishment effort at Stroud Preserve. Several folks from our Force of Nature® volunteer team were joined by PECO and Mattioni Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling on a warm day. Armed with loppers, they flush-cut the thick stalks of bamboo. Later on, staff applied an herbicide to the cut stems. (Thank you, amazing volunteers!)

In many townships in our region, planting bamboo is a violation of township zoning code. Check in your township and, if it’s not yet listed, consider encouraging your township supervisors to ban this invasive plant.