Weed alert

This is not about the (currently) dormant storefront at Cedar and Ridgewood.

Knotweed is rapidly making its way down the hill from Crest Drive in the reservation.  It will soon reach the yards of people at the top of Claremont and Fairview.

I also saw a stand of it today in the wooded area along Profeta path, in close proximity to a yard on Brook Lane.

And, earlier this summer, I saw some growing through a bridge abutment along the east Rahway.  I con’t remember if it was at Jefferson, or Third St in SO.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/japanese-knotweed-invasive-plants.html


Ugh! I’ve noticed that it has overtaken areas next to the path on Claremont going up to the reservation.  DPW did a lot of weeding along the Brookside path last week.  I’ll look for the knotweed along Brookside path tomorrow and try to come up with a plan to eradicate it.   


From the Slate article (above): 

“No plant can excuse such violence. But the fear McRae describes, says Mark Montaldo, is not exactly irrational. Montaldo is a lawyer in Liverpool and the head of civil litigation at the firm Cobleys Solicitors. His three most profitable lines of work are personal injury suits, bad landlords, and Japanese knotweed.”


This is a big problem.


It's been around for decades, can't imagine it's going to be eradicated anytime soon.


Agree^^^.

Just this week, I saw a pretty new stand of it at Underhill. Behind the SE end of the home bleachers. Growing along the chain link fence separating the property from the backyards of 2 or 3 homes on Burroughs Way. I wouldn’t be surprised if the underground roots already extend into those backyards. I wonder if the Board of Ed is up to the task of successful remediation. Even at this relatively early stage.


Yesterday I spotted it growing along the uphill side of a front yard at the top of Woodhill, bordering the reservation. It wasn’t evident there earlier this year.

Interesting that this does not appear to be a code violation here.  Yet “common towel”, “ common drinking cup”, and “fly larvae” are code violations. In Maplewood, in 2019.

The “fly larvae” prohibition includes prohibition on the keeping of “ an accumulation of vegetable matter in which pupae exist”. Like compost piles which don’t achieve a real high temp.

From the Slate article (above):

“The U.K. has made knotweed disclosure mandatory on all deeds of sale. British banks will not issue a mortgage to a property with knotweed on its grounds, or to one with knotweed growing nearby, unless a management plan is in place.”

“ Any knotweed growing within seven meters of a property is “unacceptable security,” said the country’s largest bank. A management plan can be a long and costly ordeal, with a bedroom-size clump of knotweed requiring thousands of dollars of treatment over several years.”


It is not surprising to hear that Knotweed is present in a yard on Woodhill since large stands of it have been growing on the East side of Crest Drive for years.   Why do you think there are regulations in the UK and none (as far as I know) in the US? 


I’m just posting to say thank you for talking about this weed. My son had to do a report for his 7th grade science class on invasive species in NJ and I mentioned reading about this weed on this forum.  I hadn’t heard of this before.



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