Controlling Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria) along Roadsides in St. Lawrence County: Monitoring and Biological Controls

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) has begun a march through the roadsides and wetlands in New York to replace native wetland vegetation. While purple loosestrife, an herbaceous perennial reaching 2.5 meters in height, can grow in many different soil types, it tends to be found in cattail marshes, bogs, and will often be found in roadside ditches and along waterways. The problem with this is the robustness of the species, growing in dense stands that begin to replace native vegetation. Ultimately, this becomes a threat to local and migratory wildlife, particularly waterfowl that frequently use wetlands in the St. Lawrence Valley as part of migratory routes. The St. Lawrence-Eastern Lake Ontario (SLELO) Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) looks to gather information on this invasion. While this species is listed by the NY DEC as a regulated and prohibited plant, it has not been well studied or documented within the St. Lawrence Valley ecosystem. Currently, a purple loosestrife website for sightings of purple loosestrife in St. Lawrence County has only four confirmed sightings outside the Blue Line of the Adirondack Park from the New York iMap Invasives group (NYISI 2015), and very little specific research has been done in our area