Invasive Plant Information for Vermont:
Priorities for Controlling Wild Chervil |
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- Don’t let wild chervil go to seed, which happens by mid-June. If it has gone to seed, do not work on controlling it. Especially don’t mow it.
- Request that your town (and state) road crews mow roadsides before mid-June, or not at all. Chervil is being spread by roadside mowing after seed-set. This must change.
- Timing: Start Early. Work on chervil during the April through mid-June ‘Chervil Season’. If you know where it is growing, you can find plants as soon as the snow melts. This is a good time to dig them out – while the soil is moist and before the plants put on growth. Keep at it during May and early June.
- If you have removed the flowering stalks, you can keep working on it past June.
- Plan ahead to spend time working on chervil during ‘Chervil Season’ each year.
- Prevention: Take the single plant or small group when you first see it.
- A one or two year delay often makes the difference between effective management and an uncontrollable infestation.
- Tactics: Often a combination of actions is needed to succeed. For example, mow or weed-wack several times to remove flowering stalks and use up energy from the root, then ‘stab’ by cutting the root an inch or two below the soil line (and below the crown).
- Or cover with 2 layers of black plastic, weigh down with metal roofing, stones and cardboard, etc., and leave 2 years. Replant the ground afterwards.
- Persistence: Commit to keep working on chervil in a sustained manner of repeated cuttings, weedings, stabbings.
- This will take time and constant vigilance. If you know this, you won’t become discouraged when one or two attempts do not ‘fix’ the problem.
- Focus on the native plants and natural communities that you are trying to retain (or bring back), rather than on the chervil. Think from their point of view. You are removing what is in their way. Focus on restoring the natural habitat you want. Avoid disturbing the soil or treading on the natives. Be gentle. Practice a ‘light touch’.
- Chervil is not evil. It is simply very robust and can out-compete other plants.
- Don’t think of this as a war on chervil. It is a question of balance and diversity. Do think of the insects, birds, animals and other plants who depend on the plants chervil is pushing out, and of all the lives that are connected to, and dependent upon, them.
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- ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’. Unlike so many problems, this is something we can do. Plus, no one else is going to do it for us.
- Commit to certain areas – starting with your property and a portion of your road.
- o Talk with neighbors and divvy up an area. This is a non-political issue that can bring all sorts of neighbors together to work for our own environment. This feels good!
- Experiment to see what works. Share this knowledge. Send a letter to The Herald of Randolph, and check their Wild Chervil Info Center at www.ourherald.com
- Protect against photo-burns by keeping the juice off your skin. If you do get some juice on yourself, do not let light shine on it. Humid, sweaty weather can make the photo-burns more likely.
- Don’t become discouraged. Work in groups and enjoy the company. Plan for next Chervil Season and budget time to work on it then. Imagine what our area will look like if no one was wiling to keep working to control wild chervil!
Info provided by Victoria Weber, Bethel Vermont \ February 2004 \ wdimock@sover.net
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