Though beautiful, Bamboo is a fast growing, highly aggressive, and densely forming invasive species that has the added attribute of being very hard to eliminate from a space. With spring just around the corner, Pease Park Conservancy has been diligently removing these invasive species as quickly and effectively as possible. Read on to learn more about Bamboo, what steps are being taken to tackle its spread, and how you can get involved.
Bamboo is a reed plant native to China and other parts of Asia. It was brought to the United States, including Texas in the late 1880s as a popular ornamental plant for gardens because it can serve as a privacy fence. Its dense and tall growth made it a perfect buffer from the hustle and bustle of streets and nosy neighbors.
Bamboo grows through an intricate system of underground tubes known as rhizomes. This means that the roots of the plant grow rapidly outward as runners, forming new shoots to increase the plant’s ability to photosynthesize. Controlling its growth is a major challenge for conservationists, home gardeners, and anyone who attempts to get in its way. If you cut the plant back, it will quickly develop new shoots and continue its campaign of conquest to take over any space and crowd out native species. The only way to really deal with bamboo is to completely remove the plant from the equation. Because of its fast-spreading nature, the plant has encroached anywhere it can, including Pease Park.
With the patch near the 24th street bridge, our team has been cutting it back in an effort to completely excavate the dense root network. It takes pickaxes, weed wrenches, pry bars, and a lot of hard work to excise the well established networks from the soil. Prior to the excavation process specialists from Bartlett Tree Experts came to the park to carefully apply herbicide - a component of the Community Activated Park Project (CAPP) that was submitted by PPC and approved by the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD).
As we remove the roots, we have to be very careful to get every last root fragment out as well. Just a small segment of a runner can re-root and sprout into a new plant. To keep the spread of the bamboo under control as we work on removing the roots, we will be installing a plastic barrier in the ground that will block the new roots from expanding out of the work area and help give us a chance at getting ahead of them. We cannot guarantee that we will get them all on the first go, but continued treatments will hopefully one day lead to a restored and healthy patch of park.
We want to take the time to thank all of the wonderful Pease Corps Volunteers who have helped us work on this project so far. Additionally, we want to thank Bartlett Tree Experts for their continued expertise with tree care and mulch donations at Pease Park!
The work is far from over and we continue to seek all the help we can get! We invite you to join us on one of our Invasive Removal Workdays in the coming weeks to tackle the Bamboo in Live Oak Meadow, as well as our many other Pease Corps Volunteer Opportunities.
To register for Pease Corps volunteer opportunities click the button below or visit peasepark.org/volunteer.