Land Trust enlists help of beetles to control purple loosestrife

Westborough Community Land Trust volunteer Debbie Okita and her son Craig remove netting from potted purple loosestrife plants to release loosestrife-eating Galerucella beetles into a cattail-and-loosestrife marsh at Mass Fish and Wildlife's Westborough Management Area. PHOTO/VIVIAN KIMBALL Westborough - For the past 20 years, purple loosestrife, a nonnative plant, has been invading the town's wetlands. But this summer, the Westborough Community Land Trust (WCLT) has started to fight back - with help from some beetles.

Although purple loosestrife looks like a beautiful wild plant, it has taken over wetlands habitats, pushed out native species and changed the overall ecology of the town's wet- lands. Therefore, according to WCLT President Garry Kessler, the WCLT along with Westborough High School (WHS) environmental science students have teamed up for a biocontrol pilot project to help control purple loosestrife by raising and releasing purple loosestrifeeating beetles (Galerucella) at selected sites in town.

"If you talk to most people who don't understand what purple loosestrife is doing to the environment, they think it is gorgeous," Kessler said. "The goal of this project is to control purple loosestrife, not eradicate it."

After about a year of preparation, the project was officially started in April when 25 WHS students in Anita Lotti's environmental science class dug up and potted a dozen dormant purple loosestrife plants from around Mill Pond in order to start raising the beetles. They were then set up in the WHS greenhouse in plastic wading pools to grow.

In May, after the WCLT received the proper licenses, about 200 "starter beetles" were released from plastic cups to the plants in the greenhouse. The beetles feed on the purple loosestrife in both its larval and adult stages, and seek out the plant to lay their eggs, which produce a larger next generation of the beetles.

"It is a very hands-on project for the students," said Annie Reid, Kessler's wife and WCLT volunteer. "They aren't just reading about it in a book."

The beetles were later released at Mill Pod and at Mass Fish and Wildlife's Westborough Management Area by WCLT volunteers in early August. The project is low-tech and inexpensive, according to Kessler.

The project is also just in the beginning stages and is expected to run through 2012. It will establish resident populations of the beetles, which will feed on the purple loosestrife. The beetles will not eliminate purple loosestrife, but are expected to significantly reduce the density of the plant.

While residents might be concerned about putting a new species into the environment, the usual methods of controlling a plant by pulling, cutting, mowing or applying herbicide don't work with purple loosestrife because they are either ineff ective or not suitable for wetlands.

"Sometimes people get nervous when they hear about one new species being used to combat another," Lotti said in a press release. "I would like people to understand that this process has been studied for many years."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the use of the beetles in 1992 after six years of research into their safety, according the WCLT website. There is no observed long-term negative impact on other native plants. Similar projects have already been started in at least 40 other communities in Massachusetts, including Grafton and Uxbridge.

The project obtained permission or licenses from the Mass Department of Conservation and Recreation, Mass Fish and Wildlife, and the Westborough Conservation Commission. The project is funded by the WCLT and grants, including a portion of a Staples education grant.

Students and volunteers are expected to work together in the year ahead. In the coming fall and spring, the WCLT plans to monitor and collect data using procedures setup by the state.

"We hope to have a local impact on this regional problem," Kessler said. "It only takes a few committed volunteers to make a big diff erence."