Stewardship and Ecological Threats: Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest in Rock Creek Park
The composition or abundance of species in a natural community can be threatened by a variety of factors, such as invasion by non-native invasive plants or insects. Good stewardship strategies can help mitigate the damage. For stewardship information specific to this natural community, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Here’s how you can help protect natural communities:
Ecobit: Stewardship at Home and While Visiting Rock Creek Park
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Current and potential ecological threats for the Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest in Rock Creek Park include the following:
- Excessive deer browse: decimation of wildflowers, oak seedlings, and shrubs
- Viburnum leaf beetle (potential): damage to mapleleaf viburnum
- Asian long-horned beetle (potential): damage to maples and slippery elm
- Gypsy moth: damage to oaks
- Beech bark disease (potential): damage to American beech
- Sudden oak death (potential): damage to oaks
- Dogwood anthracnose: decline of flowering dogwood
- Prolonged or repeated drought: weakening of plants' stress tolerance
- Fire: decimation of all the fire-sensitive species
- Non-native invasive plants: competition with natives for soil nutrients, sunlight, and pollinators; degradation of animal habitat
Non-native Invasive Plants
The Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest in Rock Creek Park contains many non-native invasive plants. Some of the most common ones are oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, and Japanese honeysuckle. Linden arrow-wood is rapidly gaining ground. (* indicates non-native)
- autumn-olive* (shrub)
- English ivy* (vine)
- garlic mustard* (low plant)
- Japanese barberry* (shrub)
- Japanese honeysuckle* (vine)
- Japanese maple* (shrub)
- Japanese snowball* (shrub)
- Japanese stiltgrass* (low plant)
- linden arrow-wood* (shrub)
- mile-a-minute weed* (vine)
- multiflora rose* (shrub)
- Norway maple* (tree)
- oriental bittersweet* (vine)
- porcelain-berry* (vine)
- privets (shrub)
- wine raspberry* (shrub)
- winged burning-bush* (shrub)
Stewardship
Here are a few ways National Park Service staff are managing ecological threats to the Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest:
- Excessive deer browse: A deer management plan in place since 2012 uses lethal and non-lethal means to control the white-tailed deer population1
- Non-native invasive plants: NPS staff, together with NPS partners and volunteers, are actively removing non-native invasive plants from previously selected areas, using a variety of methods
- Gypsy moth: NPS staff use bacterial and viral insecticides, naturalized fungus, release of parasitic wasps
- Potential arrival of diseases and invasive insects: Vigilance of Park staff and visitors
Ecobit: An Extra Set of Eyes
