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Roy Brook Nature Center staff: invasive species cost about 3 million acres a year
Summary
A Roy Brook Nature Center staff member told a local meeting that roughly 3 million acres are lost annually to invasive plants and insects, and said removing them is expensive and time-consuming; volunteers and the Simsbury Land Trust are doing removal work on nearby state land.
A Roy Brook Nature Center staff member said the region is losing "3 million acres annually" to invasive species and described removal as time-consuming and costly. The comment opened a brief discussion of local volunteer efforts and the burden invasive plants and insects place on community resources.
"It's a big problem," the staff member said, adding that "half the species on the invasive species list are there because of an invasive species," meaning many listed entries are invasive plants or insects. The speaker said removal work is "incredibly hard to remove" and requires substantial community time and funding.
Participants acknowledged the fiscal and labor burden on towns and volunteer organizations. One participant highlighted the Simsbury Land Trust's substantial time spent managing invasive species, and the Roy Brook staff member said their team removes invasives from adjacent state land as part of regular stewardship.
The presenter listed commonly removed species and noted that some originate as garden plantings, citing "olive" as an example of a planted species that can become a management concern. Meeting participants said the item would be discussed later in the agenda to consider follow-up and local control efforts.
No formal motion or vote was recorded in the transcript. The discussion concluded with agreement to return to the topic later in the meeting for additional detail and next steps.
