Plants Taking Over the World -Jennifer Chin

For my service learning, I signed up for the Bird Walk in Seattle, WA, but due to the time change on March 12th, the coordinator, Ekaterina Rar (ekaterina.rar@email.edcc.edu), changed the plans to viewing Native and Invasive plants at Gold Park in Lynnwood, WA. The event was about two hours long, beginning at 9:30 am and ending around 11:30 am. At the beginning of the service learning, the group took a small survey, showing what we knew about the plants, and how the invasive species were harming the environment and the native species. The goal of this project was to understand how the invasive plants are inhibiting the native plants. This is important because invasive species negatively affect the environment. If the invasive plants overpopulate the native plants, it would reduce biodiversity, cause soil toxicity, increase the emission of carbon dioxide, displace the native plant species, overrun the native wildlife habitats, and can devastate key industries including seafood, hydroelectricity, timber, and recreation. This would be an example of the bottleneck effect, as a large population of the native plants got whittled down, with only a few surviving.

For starters, we slowly walked a small trail at Gold Park and pointed out native and invasive plants. When identifying, we learned different characteristics each individual plant physically showed. For an example, Yellow Archangels is an invasive species, and has a furry texture on the outside, and has a white imprint on the leaf. These stay low to the ground, as well, as seen in the picture below.

Yellow Archangel

Here are two different plants that have similar characteristics. On the right, is a picture of English Holly (an invasive species) and on the left, is a picture of Oregon Grape (a native species). From looking just at the pictures, the plants look fairly similar, with green leaves, and some sharp edges on the leaves. However, the English Holly, the leaves are alternating, and the Oregon Grape’s leaves are partnered together.

Oregon Grape

English Holly

In the end of the event, the group walked slowly and filled out the post-assessment survey at the end. I learned the destruction the invasive plants were having on the ecosystem, and it was quite interesting. For an example, the salmon, when coming back up the streams for mating, the salmon use small pockets of water to rest when coming upstream. However, the invasive plants, don’t exactly provide a substantial pocket for the salmon to rest, unlike a tree. Another example, the English Ivy clings to everything it can, most times to trees. This would eventually cover the entire tree, and suffocate the tree from its nutrients. These invasive plants are also destroying the ability for humans to enjoy the beauty of the forest as well, as the invasive plants are taking over everything. This has opened my eyes to see how valuable it is the keep our plants in check. The experience has taught me the importance to keep a balance for the forest. Having a healthy forest can also benefit our cities, such as more oxygen emissions, and having a better habitat for the native animals. Four questions that arose during the event were:

1. How do the Invasive Plants emit more carbon dioxide?

2. How can we decrease the population of the Invasive Plants, to increase the population of the Native plants?

3. How do Invasive Plants overrun the wildlife habitat?

4. How do Invasive Plants cause soil toxicity?

A photo taken by Kaveena Ranaweera, including Jennifer Chin, Toqa Abosabaa, and Kaveena Ranaweera