Deb Fountain was a federal employee for 32 years. As an FAA Management Analyst/Consultant, she worked with engineers and flight test pilots. Now, she delights in watching honeybees take flight in the pollinator garden she helped create outside the Pepperell Public Library.
Retirement has afforded her an opportunity to reconnect with what she loves. "Being outdoors," she explains. "And that love has only grown." It was also in retirement that she joined the town's Master Plan Committee. At the time, she recommended that Pepperell address a problem that plagues almost every community in Massachusetts-invasive plants.
Deb says it's actually a national problem. "But it hasn't been addressed at the national level. So, communities in our area are doing what they can to tackle it themselves," she said. The town agreed with her recommendation and Deb became the chair of Pepperell's Invasive and Native Plant Advisory Committee, now in its fifth year. The all-volunteer group is committed to getting rid of the most common, most insidious invasive plants. Its members work year-round educating residents. Part of the education is encouraging them to pull "invasives" in their yards and replace them with native plants.
Deb says restoration is as important as removal; the two go hand-in-hand. "Digging them (invasive plants) up isn't enough," she said. "Often the plants leave behind a seed bed." The key to stopping those seeds from growing is planting native seeds. The committee focuses on restoration at every project site.
One of the group's current projects sits just off the main rotary in Pepperell and only feet from the town's community center. "This is an area we're trying to reclaim," Deb said pointing to a greenspace that hugs a small, picturesque pond. "One of our main waterways in town. We'd like to clean around it, get rid of the invasives so that people in town can enjoy it a little bit more."
As a half-dozen volunteers use weed wrenches (the group loans the tool to town residents), chainsaws, shovels, and their own gloved hands to remove burning bush, multiflora rose, and Asian Bittersweet, Deb points to an elm tree that's losing its battle. "It just wants to wrap around everything," she said. Bittersweet can grow more than five-feet tall and chokes plants, like the elm, by wrapping around it.
Unlike native plants, invasive plants have no natural predators and can quickly become the dominant species in an area. Some emit a chemical in the soil that robs native plants of nutrients. Left unchecked, invasive plants can cause decreased biodiversity, destroy native habitats, and cause extinctions. "We have insects who are specialists, and they will only lay eggs on specific plants," Deb explained. "If those plants are not around, the populations will decline. So, we're going to lose our insects. As the number of insects decline, we lose our bird population."
It's a ripple effect that Deb and committee members work to prevent. They offer brochures, speak to students, and include visitors of all ages on their projects. They've also found a way to make invasive plant removal fun. A Garlic Mustard Challenge (garlic mustard is a particularly insidious non-native plant) gave residents a chance to compete with friends and neighbors to see who could fill the most bags. "What's beautiful about this work is...you can see the difference," Marisa Browning-Kamins said as she leaned against her shovel. "I see the garlic mustard disappearing from my own streets."
Marisa serves as Senior Land Protection and Restoration Associate at the Nashua River Watershed Association. In the spirit of other champions of the environment, she says Deb proves-with every project-that each of us can make a difference. "Her work is visible and it's amazing," she said. Marisa says that when people are able to access a river without being stopped by a snarl of Bittersweet, they can fall in love with it. "And people protect what they love."
Right now, the State of Massachusetts has identified 36 species of invasive plants. Roughly 70 more may join that list. Invasive plants arrive in cargo ships, birds, on our shoes and tires, and intentionally when people find them pretty or useful. Deb says that people often get attached to non-native plants in their yards and insist that they're not a problem. "What they don't see is the damage the birds do when they take the berries and go into the woods," she said.
Maintaining invasives in your yard is no guarantee that the plants aren't causing problems somewhere else. She admits that trying to get rid of them it is a constant battle that can, on occasion, feel insurmountable. How does she avoid feeling discouraged? "Stop. Get a drink of water. Chat for a few minutes," she said with resolve, "and then go back at it." An added benefit of the work is the growing sense of community that forms among like-minded volunteers.
Deb takes photographs before and after each of the committee's projects. Its first project was the garden outside the Pepperell Public Library. An area that was overrun with invasive plants four years ago is now bursting with asters, lobelia, goldenrod and more. A path takes a visitor through a bright pollinator garden humming with bees. (The facility boasts one of the state's only handicap accessible trails at a public library.) Deb, who also serves as one of the gardeners on the Friends of the Public Library group, checks regularly to make sure the invasive plants don't come back. Looking at the "before" and "after" photographs is a powerful reminder that the committee is creating healthy, beautiful, enjoyable spaces.
Another source of happiness is working with children. Deb and her fellow volunteers are engaging the next generation of invasive plant hunters. Seeing kids get excited about removing what shouldn't be growing in Massachusetts and restoring an area with native plants is especially gratifying. "This helps them understand that we're all connected. We're all part of the same huge ecosystem. And we need to do what we can to help save it."