Wild parsnip management

By Betsy Rhodes

Now is the time to deal with wild (poison) parsnip, and when it’s overcast and has been raining is the perfect time to do it. The plants come out more easily when the ground is wet, and you’re less likely to develop a rash, which happens to some people if the sap gets on their skin and is then exposed to sunlight. You can rinse the sap off with water, cover up the area for a few days, and most likely avoid the rash.

This year, for public safety, including the road crew’s, the Town of Pomfret is asking that you bag the wild parsnip you gather and hold on to it temporarily while a process is worked out to dispose of it. Members of the Invasive Plant Committee will be meeting with the Selectboard again on Aug. 7 to finalize a plan for this year. In the meantime, please email me at rhodes@sover.net or Alan Graham at alan.c.graham@gmail.com to let us know how many bags you’ve collected, so we know how much we’ll need to get rid of.

Please do not throw plants in or on the side of the road.

Throwing any plants in the middle of a dirt or paved road to dry and die can be dangerous for motorcycle and bicycle riders, since the plants become slimy as they break down and can create slick spots in the road that are a hazard to riders. On dirt roads, plants pitched too far out in the middle also make it more difficult to grade the road. The grader just rolls up the plants into piles, which members of our road crew then have to stop to manually remove before they can continue grading, slowing them down and making the job a lot harder. The Road Crew also does not want to come across piles of pulled poisonous plants on the side of the road when they are trying to work, which is why the town is asking that you bag pulled plants this year.

On your own property, out of the public right of way, instead of bagging them, you can still pile up the plants and monitor the area around the pile, letting them dry and die. Wild parsnip seeds in the soil can remain viable and possibly produce new plants for four years.

Removing just one plant can stop the spread of hundreds of seeds.

As I mentioned, the best time to pull wild parsnip is when it’s overcast, or in the evening or early in the morning, especially after a rain. The plants pull more easily when the ground is wet. But, with care, you can deal with them any time.

If you have too many plants to pull, in general, wild parsnip can be mowed without spreading it if the plants still have flowers on them or if the seeds on them are new and look kind of greenish yellow. If the plants at this stage are chopped up, the seeds won’t have a chance to continue to mature and become viable. If the flowers are still attached to pulled plants, the flowers can continue to feed off the stems and produce viable seeds. Mowing will not kill the plant like pulling it, but you will set them back and stop hundreds of seeds from producing new plants.

But if the seeds look brown, it’s likely too late to mow and you’ll just drag and spread the seeds everywhere you go if you do. It would be better just to leave the wild parsnip alone until next year, so the seeds drop directly below the plants and aren’t spread any further, and you’ll know where new plants will be to tackle next year.

Rinse off equipment used to cut wild parsnip if it has started to go to seed.

If you do use equipment to cut down wild parsnip and there’s any chance it’s started to go to seed, just to be on the safe side, you’ll want to rinse off your equipment before using it at another site, so the seeds are not spread to a new location. This is incredibly important. If you don’t do it, you are just making the problem you’re trying to solve worse.

If someone else uses their equipment on your property to cut down wild parsnip and you don’t know where it has been, please ask for it to be rinsed off before and after it’s used. Otherwise, you might unknowingly have wild parsnip or other invasive plants spread to your property. Rinsing off equipment is a critical way to help stop the spread of invasive plants.

Just a friendly reminder, please protect yourself with long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and gloves when dealing with these plants. Their sap can cause a rash when exposed to sunlight. If you get the sap on you, rinse it off quickly with water and cover the area exposed for 48 hours, so sunlight doesn’t hit it. That usually helps people avoid getting the rash.

Betsy Rhodes is a Pomfret Invasive Plant Committee member.

For photos and information about wild parsnip, visit: vtinvasives.org/invasive/wild-parsnip.

If you have any questions and/or want to get involved with the Pomfret Invasive Plant Committee, please email Betsy Rhodes, rhodes@sover.net or Alan Graham at alan.c.graham@gmail.com.