To the editor:
Elinor Osborn’s article on behalf of Craftsbury Conservation Commission is an excellent description of the challenges we face in tackling invasive Knotweed and the importance of doing so to protect native environments and pollinators.
The Greensboro Conservation Commission (GCC) has discussed and collaborated with a number of neighbouring towns (Craftsbury among them) as we work to tackle the knotweed challenge. We all agree that manual methods DO work provided you can access the right amount of labor over the right amount of time (often a decade). Elinor notes almost 1000 hours of volunteer time on just that one patch of knotweed in Craftsbury in 2024 and 2025 alone. That level of volunteer work is hugely challenging to organize and sustain across multiple patches of Knotweed over multiple years and prohibitively expensive to employ anyone to address.
Craftsbury’s experience with herbicide in 2018 is certainly one we have taken into account. That said, it is one data point. When Elinor and I visited with the Mad River group (Waitsfield-Warren-Fayston) I was also impressed by the ongoing multi-year manual effort and the impact it was having. Some volunteers were spending multiple days a week throughout the summer on the task. That said, in response to my specific questions on the use of herbicide the group we were with were clear that, notwithstanding the success they were having with manual methods after many years of work, they saw herbicide as part of the long-term solution to the challenge in combination with other techniques.
That is also the experience of other neighbouring towns, including Hyde Park that Elinor mentions. It’s not necessarily one solution versus another that works. For example herbicide can be used in year 1 to weaken the root structure and then make subsequent years of manual management fewer to get to the desired outcome of a native habitat where a knotweed monoculture existed before.
The GCC are not in any way advocating the widespread use of glyphosate in agriculture nor for residential use or sale. We voted last year solely to conduct two small stem-injection projects in Greensboro in the Fall of 2026 as an integral part of our ongoing manual efforts to help our community combat the knotweed threat so it does not become overwhelming as it has done so visibly in Morrisville and Stowe for example.
Meanwhile, at our meeting just passed on Saturday 10th January we discussed the recent withdrawal of the 2000 glyphosate study published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and agreed to remain alert to any change in guidance re herbicide and invasive plant management from the EPA and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation that may result and also agreed to invite additional expert speakers to our next public meeting in March. We are also looking at potential solutions to help us build a larger more engaged community volunteer group to help us with our manual efforts.
Chris Steel, chair
Greensboro Conservation Commission
