Acadia vegetation manager outlines methods and trade-offs for invasive-plant control in Maine

Jesse Wheeler, vegetation program manager at Acadia National Park, told attendees the choice of invasive-plant control should be site-specific and planned for the long term. “Choose the least aggressive method to do the job,” he said, urging managers to prioritize prevention, monitoring and revegetation.

Wheeler described a range of physical methods — from forestry mulching and brush cutting to hand pulling and the weed-wrench tool — noting trade-offs between immediate removal and soil disturbance that can encourage reinvasion. He said heavy mechanical approaches are best used as a last resort when invasive cover is widespread because they remove native plants and require a solid revegetation plan.

For individual shrubs, Wheeler described stem-bagging (commercially marketed examples such as "Buckthorn Baggies") and said field trials at Acadia show roughly 50–75% mortality when bags remain in place across growing…