Attack of the alien vines

The curious drivers in the midday traffic along Route 27 in Sudbury slow down to see what all the fuss is about.

Rebecca Chizzo, standing in roadside weeds up to her knees, pauses at stop number one of her impromptu tour of invasive plants in Sudbury. As she gestures toward the treetops, motorists crane their necks in the direction of the spectacle: a stand of dead and dying sugar maples. But instead of the quintessential New England fall palette of brillant reds and golds, the trees bear twisted strands of Oriental bittersweet, a vine with cheerful yellow leaves and bright orange berries.

While the vine may appear benign, its intentions are anything but. And Chizzo, a homemaker and self-educated environmentalist, is on a one-woman crusade against the invader.

Oriental bittersweet finds a toehold in a sunny spot and then smothers native vegetation. It girdles and squeezes trees like a tourniquet. It climbs into the forest canopy, where it weighs down branches and competes for sunlight. It grows into suffocating thickets. In bad cases, it may kill trees; other times, it may weaken them or muscle out their seedlings.

The plant, which originated in Asia, is a member of a family of woody vines called lianas, made famous by Tarzan as his primary mode of locomotion.

Like kudzu, the invasive plant that ``ate the South," or zebra mussels from Europe that foul beaches and clog water pipes, Oriental bittersweet grows seemingly unchecked. First spotted in the state a century ago, it has been reported in 102 communities, but almost certainly is everywhere, botanists say.

``I think it just takes a while . . . but it's reached this kind of takeoff point where it's now just become abundant, widespread, and dominant," said Ted Elliman, vegetation management coordinator for the New England Wild Flower Society.

``And to think I used to make decorative wreaths with that stuff," Chizzo said. ``Who knew?"

Indeed, the plant spreads when people buy a wreath and throw it out or when birds eat the berries, fly off to a new spot, and drop the seed.

This year, the state placed the vine on a list of plants that cannot be imported, sold, or propagated. But, while nature groups churn out guides to the good and bad flora and send out volunteers to uproot the invaders, they acknowledge that they may be fighting a losing battle.

``These invasives spread because they're by nature competitive, and their natural enemies aren't here," said Alan Tasker, an invasive plant specialist with the US Department of Agriculture. ``They crowd out other things, and you're left with a biological desert."

Chizzo's obsession with Oriental bittersweet began a few years ago when she was preparing a science curriculum for her daughter, whom she schools at home. She hit on ipane.org, the website for the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England, ``and I've been hooked ever since."

She said she acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of plant physiology, forest succession, and eradication measures. Last year, she was the only one who was not a land manager or a scientist at the New England Invasive Plant Summit, sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and the Massachusetts Audubon Society. .

``I think my name tag said: `Home School Science Coordinator,' " which only fueled her fury, Chizzo said.

At the annual Wayside Inn Craft Fair last month, Chizzo engaged a vendor selling craft items made with the vine.

``I told her it was an invasive plant and that it was illegal to sell it," Chizzo said. ``The lady told me it had grown in her backyard for years, so it must be natural. I couldn't change her mind. It's ignorance and economics that keep this plant around."

And, according to Tasker, educating people is the challenge: ``When North Carolina banned the sale of Oriental bittersweet, there was an uproar. . . . They came under attack by the craft industry, and so they had to partially deregulate it."

If Chizzo seems like a zealot on the subject, her fervor can be compared with that of naturalist Peter Alden.

``Oriental bittersweet is the single greatest threat at the forest edge, in shrubland, by highways, along rivers, beaches, marshes -- it grows everywhere it can reach the sun," said Alden, a Concord resident and the principal author of 15 books on wildlife, including National Audubon Society regional field guides.

``Drive along [Interstate] 495, or [Route] 128 in Lexington and Lincoln -- the infestation is 70 percent in some areas," he said.

Even conservation organizations are reluctant to invest in eradication measures on their land. ``These invasives can't be fought individually," Alden said. ``If there isn't a cooperative effort, birds, wind, and water will just disperse the seeds back onto treated property."

Alden said the state should go beyond banning the sale of invasives. ``Hey, folks, it's already bloody here and causing ecological havoc," he said. ``Here's a good law: It should be illegal to have it on your property."

State officials say that development remains the greatest threat to forests, but Oriental bittersweet and other invasive plants practically piggyback on bulldozers, thriving in the vulnerable areas where wild woods meet roads and yards.

``A lot come from developed areas and move into the woods," said Bob O'Connor, director of land and forest conservation for the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.

O'Connor fought his own battle with Oriental bittersweet at his home in Needham after the weight of one vine pulled a black-cherry tree over, blocking his chimney.

``I hadn't even noticed it . . . and when I got around to trim, it was all the way to the top of the tree," he said. ``Normally, when you cut off a major limb, it just falls to the ground. This was just tangled to the tree."

Chizzo said she has tried to drum up support for her battle with Sudbury officials, but was told the town had no money to treat invasives.

``We don't need money," she said. ``We need people with hacksaws. The mature plants that drop thousands of seeds are along the road frontage in the town right-of-way. That's what allows this vine to jump from one property to the next. The problem is so immense, I don't fault the town."

Sudbury does have a bylaw that requires developers to remove all invasive species from building sites, according to Debbie Dineen, the town's conservation coordinator. But Dineen said the town can't fight this battle alone. ``Beyond our jurisdiction, we're doing all we can to educate and organize homeowners to recognize and remove invasive plants," she said.

On the final stop of Chizzo's invasive plant tour, she stands in front of the Veterans War Memorial in Sudbury. Behind it, Oriental bittersweet engulfs the jagged dead branches of a pair of 50-foot maples. Nearby, hemlocks and ashes are festooned with tangled swags of the alien vine, with an American flag competing for attention.

``Sometimes I feel like I'm in a losing battle," said Chizzo, who moved from Los Angeles to Sudbury for its scenic beauty. ``I won't give up, though. I think people in town are beginning to see what I see, but we need a plan. In the meantime, I keep clippers in my trunk."