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After concluding on how to proceed in terms of a demonstration, the Dirty Lads continued to collect samples of the Japanese Knotweed, this time retaining a sample in a fish tank, while keeping a neighboring plant in another fish tank to serve as a control. Even if conditions in the laboratory were not ideal, it would be made possible to reference the performance of the knotweed with another plant after a few weeks. As the Dirty Lads conducted the extraction, it was observed that there was snow on the ground and the stalk of the plant had nearly completely withered. The leaves were withered as well, producing an overall brown, decomposing appearance to the plant. It was believed that there would be no possible way that the plant would recover, but the Dirty Lads collected the sample regardless, taking it back to the laboratory to give it a chance to regrow. To reiterate, the largest focus of using a fish tank would be to show the roots. Based on the digging effort, it was clear that the root ball was not a ball, but rather a far-reaching network of thick rhizomes that had embedded themselves deep into the soil. Any plant life surrounding the knotweed was clearly withered and fading, not only because of the poor weather, but due to being “choked out” by the Japanese knotweed. Rather than using the botany greenhouse that was on campus, the Dirty Lads considered the danger that the knotweed would pose to common, noninvasive species living in the greenhouse and ultimately concluded that it would be safer to store and grow the plant in the sanitary laboratory. Publication efforts for the project continued, as the Facebook page and Twitter account began to accumulate posts and tweets.
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For the third week of the bringing awareness to the Northfield community the Dirty Lads went out into the Dog River to get samples for our model. When the group went out to the Dog River we also talked to some of the locals about what we were doing. They seemed interested towards the removal of the Japanese Knotweed in the area. When the Dirty Lads got to the Dog River most of the Japanese Knotweed was brown and looked dead however despite the look of the weed above the ground the weed was very much alive. Using shovels and post hole digger the Dirty Lads carefully uprooted some Japanese Knotweed to ensure that most of the root system was still intact. The reason that we made sure that the root system was not damaged is that this would help with the model’s visualization of the Japanese Knotweed’s root system. This way the Japanese Knotweed would not have regrow its root system. When we went out the Dog River we also dug up a patch of grass. The purpose of the grass is that we are going to compare the root system of the Japanese Knotweed to that of the native species of grass in the Northfield area. Once we collected the samples required for our model we brought them back to Norwich University. We made sure that we placed the samples in location that would be warm and receive an adequate amount of sun light. Even though Norwich University has a greenhouse we decided not to put the weed in greenhouse at the risk of the Japanese Knotweed invade the greenhouse. We decide then to place the weed in the Environmental Lab room by the windows. After moving the Japanese Knotweed out of the cold the weed sprouted a new shoot because when we grabbed the weed the top portion was already dead. Once getting the weed in the lab room the group sat down and developed a plan to water the plants to ensure that that were receiving the right amount of sunlight and water. Alonzo Hilario came in every few days to sing to the plants. Since we had completed the model for the project we then started to plan what we wanted to present to the high school students in the Northfield community. We came up with the idea to have a poster board filled with pictures to draw in the students to our area. On the poster board we will include a step by step guide how to identify the Japanese Knotweed. This will be accompanied with visuals so that the students will have an idea of what to look for when they are out and about in the great outdoors of Northfield Vermont. The next key topic that will be covered on the poster board is how to get rid of the Japanese Knotweed this will also be accompanied with visuals. We also plan on talking through our website without going to it, just hitting the key topics from our website.
-Vincent Nguyen As a preliminary assessment, the Dirty Lads began by examining the site affected by the species most heavily. As mentioned before, this area of greatest population density was along the banks, near the bridge leading to the Rugby Pitch. This area was photographed, and the Dirty Lads returned to the office in order to plan out a course of action that would include how to isolate and remove the plant from the area. Many methods were considered, some involving more natural treatments and some involving more chemical treatments. The largest challenge to combating the plant is its strong network of rhizomes. Although many people may use rhizome and roots interchangeably, rhizomes are actually much thicker and allow the plant to absorb more nutrients. This further reinforced the idea that Japanese Knotweed was a difficult invasive species to combat. It was around this time that the Dirty Lads realized that action would need to be taken in order to make the dangers of knotweed public knowledge. Using the power of social media, the Dirty Lads created a Facebook and Twitter account that would serve as a means of broadcasting a message. Attempts would be made via these social media accounts to connect with local politicians for community outreach and to increase community awareness.
As part of the community outreach effort, the Dirty Lads were called on to create a demonstrable model that would show the effects of knotweed. The clearest solution would be to use two fish tanks in order to allow full view of how the Japanese Knotweed develops differently compared to regular plants in a controlled environment. One of the considerations made was whether or not the size of the tank mattered but after much deliberation, it was settled that the tank size was relatively unimportant; what mattered most was that the roots were visible in the apparatus. The plants would be exposed to sunlight and watered regularly, but would remain indoors until the presentation. The difficulties of being able to grow a plant without adequate conditions was considered, but the Dirty Lads, based on many years exposed to the wild[BB1] , made the decision that the plant would likely be able to grow in non-ideal conditions. [BB1]Three of the four Dirty Lads are Eagle Scouts and know how to deal with wild plants thusly. Starting the second week of the fight against the Japanese Knotweed, research was done on the best way to combat the weed, what to do with the weed and how to best get the public informed about the weed. Starting the week off the website was updated, pictures were added to increase the visual appeal of the website, however the website is far from complete. The current goal of the website is to streamline the website in that the website is more user friendly so and visually appealing. The team went out to get pictures of Japanese knotweed and the plan for those pictures are to make a comprehensive guide on how to identify the Japanese Knotweed. By creating the guide everyday people will be able to gain a better understanding of what the weed looks like, so that they’re are not unintentionally harming the environment by eradicating a native plant that is crucial to the ecosystem. On the informative side of the project this week a Facebook and twitter accounts were launched during this week. The purpose of these accounts is to spread the word on the Japanese Knotweed to the public. The social media accounts are still in the making in that they are far from ready to truly engage the average person to care and understand the environmental impacts of the Japanese knotweed. As of right now only those who are really into eradicating the weed from their backyards will care about the weed. The group came together to thoroughly think about the best way make a model. It was determined that the for the model only 2 fish tanks will be required. The size of fish tanks does not really matter because the purpose of the fish tank are to allow the viewer to see the roots of the weed and visually compare the impacts of the soil. One tank will be filled with regular soil that has not been impacted by the Japanese knotweed. The second tank will have the weed in it. Testing must be done on the soil to confirm that the weed is negatively impacting the soil. When the testing is done the results will imputed into the website. However, the results first must be converted into a format that will be easily digestible by those who know little about environmental engineering. This means that the charts and graphs will probably need to be generated. The group has also played with the idea of making videos of how to remove the weed and the different methods, along with a video of how to identify the weed. With the temperatures dropping people are less likely to go outside to look for the weed, so the best time to campaign hard to get rid of the weed would be in the warmer seasons. However, because of the time restrictions the group has to work harder to convince the average person to care and understand the environmental impact of the Japanese Knotweed.
-Vincent Nguyen For the second week of our project, we started to develop a model to show just how persistent of a species the Japanese Knotweed. The shogun knot swat team drove down to the bridge connecting the Norwich University Rugby Pitch to the rest of the campus where there is an abundance of Japanese Knotweed. After arrival, the team used tools obtained from the materials lab on campus to dig up a sample of Knotweed and put it in a large plastic jar. Another sample was taken of normal grass, taken from a location away from the closest Knotweed plants. These samples were taken back to the lab to be placed in a controlled environment, undergo observation and hopefully show some results.
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the Dirty LadsThe group was first formed in late August of 2018 and since then, founded Shogun Knot Swat Oct. 2018 at Norwich University. The members consist of Brian Betz, Alonzo Hilario, Vincent Nguyen and Pat Ryan. ArchivesCategories |