Great Meadow Wetland Restoration; Acadia National Park, Maine

McKeage, Aleta; Connery, Judy; Manski, David

Field work: 2009. Following from summary: "In 2010, the National Park Service (NPS) at Acadia National Park (ANP) continues an intensive campaign to manage invasive plants threatening the ecological viability of Great Meadow wetland, near Bar Harbor, Maine. This work is being conducted under a 2008 memorandum of Understanding between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the NPS, and Friends of Acadia (FOA). During the 2009 field season, three National Park Service biological technicians and many volunteers managed shrubby St. John’s wart (Hypericum prolificum), glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus), Amur maple (Acer ginnala), in Great Meadow. Baseline mapping was conducted to determine the extent of both glossy buckthorn and shrubby St John’s wort using global positioning systems (GPS) and computer mapping (GIS). These data will enable an accurate assessment of our progress in managing these invasive plants, as well as an objective means of evaluating the project. We continued 2008 treatment of glossy buckthorn and shrubby St John’s wort by pulling and applying herbicide to cut stems of each species. Mature Amur maples have been eliminated from the park as a result of management in 2008, and this year 163 seedlings were pulled as part6 of a yearly effort to exhaust the seed bank and fully eradicate the plant from the park. No purple loosestrife was found in Great Meadow, wither on monitoring transects or by extensive inspections throughout the wetland. This year, approximately $30,000 from the donated compensatory mitigation funds administered by Friends of Acadia was used in combination with other National Park Service funding to support invasive exotic plant management work. This report focuses only on the management work conducted in the Great Meadow watershed." /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /MOUNT DESERT ISLAND/Great Meadow/ GIS CATEGORY 2; general maps of glossy buckthorn and St. John's wort extent provided.