Tropical Storm Irene in Vermont spread knotweed along a great number of waterways. I was able to supervise the removal of several thousand of these plants, on several different rivers. Over the course of this management, I collected samples for later analysis. What I found was that 70% of new plants originated from rhizominous propagules, rhizomes being an underground part of the plant.

This paper summarizes observations from the 2nd field season after Tropical Storm Irene. Knotweed propagules washed downstream by Irene, which did not emerge for the entire growing season following that storm, emerged for the first time in the second growing season. The window for conducting Early Detection & Rapid Response management therefore needed to be extended.

This paper gathers together all of the existing pilot studies, circumstantial evidence, and unintended findings from various sources to lay out the argument for how knotweed amplifies and exacerbates flooding

This article explains how Japanese knotweed interacts with the Wetlands Protection Act in Massachusetts, how existing regulations can be used to encourage its control, and how this control would benefit the goals of the Act. This piece ran in the Spring 2020 Issue of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commission’s Spring Quarterly Magazine.

This article was written for the summer newsletter of the Standing Committee on Environmental Analysis and Ecology of the National Transportation and Research Board. The articles previewed my 2020 publication, and laid out the case for knotweed control as an effective and meaningful means by which infrastructure can be protected from flooding, and climate resiliency promoted.

On an extended trip to Chilean Patagonia, I discovered Japanese knotweed in Puerto natales. This was roughly 700 miles (1150 km) south of its nearest known population, near Puerto Montt. Subsequently, Chilean partners have found additional plants in Punta Arenas, 125 miles (200 km) further south, on the Strait of Magellan. These are the most southern documented populations in the world.