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Invasives Recreation

Edible Exotics The culinary benefits of invasive species As part of the local and sustainable food movement, a growing number of people are cooking with invasive species. These invasive species can be found taking over forests, oceans, and streams—and eating them just might help reduce their negative effects on native plants and animals. Take the Japanese knotweed, a plant found along riverbanks that spread throughout Vermont during Tropical Storm Irene. Russ Cohen, a wild foods enthusiast and author of the book, Wild Plants I Have Known...and Eaten, leads walking tours to show what wild edibles look like. He picks knotweed in the spring, when it’s about 1

foot tall and resembles bamboo. He steams the stalks and spritzes them with lemon juice or rubs them with butter. “They taste like fresh asparagus,” he says. Or he waits until they’re a bit taller, peels off the outer layer, and substitutes them for rhubarb in a homemade pie. Some chefs are also embracing the culinary possibilities of invasives. Bun Lai, the chef at Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Conn., uses a marine plant, Asian stalked tunicate, in his miso soup. He even makes a sushi roll featuring Asian shore crabs. These exotic species have spread within his 100-acre ocean farm in Long Island Sound. Cohen hopes more chefs follow Lai’s lead and cook with invasives rather than rare native species that can’t handle the commercial demand. “When you start to see large-scale collecting [of wild natives], it can affect an ecological environment,” he says. Some observers fear that creating a market for exotics could increase their spread, as people might start to intentionally plant and harvest them. After 40 years of teaching, Cohen finds this unrealistic. Those interested in cooking with invasives, he believes, wouldn’t threaten their own garden crops by planting what is already in abundance nearby. Kathryn Barnes

In this issue.. issue... Out of the Woods by Lucille Stott

Heart-berry

by Kristen Laine

Otherworldly Accidents by Parkman Howe

You Have to Be Here: Teaching Thoreau in Concord by Sandy Stott

• Poetry • Accident Reports • News and Notes • Books of Note • The Long Way Home • A Peak Ahead

Be Informed. Be Inspired.

conservation

Photographs (Left, Top): herb swanson; Courtesy miya’s sushi

Storm Relief

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When Tropical Storm Irene slammed into the White Mountain National Forest in August 2011, it left behind a trail of destruction, damaging trails, disrupting watersheds, and spreading non-native invasive species. Even though more than a year has passed, the work to repair this damage is far from complete. It’s an expensive endeavor. The Federal Highway Administration appropriated $4.5 million to fix roads and bridges in the national forest, but addressing the rest of the reparable damage will cost nearly $6 million more. Recognizing that additional government funding might not come via traditional avenues, the National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, has designated the White Mountain National Forest as a Treasured Landscape. It’s one of only 14 sites across the country chosen to be part of this conservation campaign. The designation means an additional $2 million could be directed toward the Irene cleanup effort in the White Mountains. If $1 million is raised from private funds, the U.S. Forest Service will contribute a match of $1 million. Fundraising efforts are under way, and work is scheduled to begin in the spring. A variety of government, community, and nonprofit organizations, including AMC, will do the work. “This provides a pathway to get the kind of money that we know is needed to do this restoration work,” says Susan Arnold, AMC’s vice president of conservation. “Given federal budget issues, without this campaign the pathway would be unclear…. It’s really a wonderful Dan Eisner opportunity.”

january/february 2013

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