'o, 



NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



Big Red Flag 



Brabson first saw beach vitex five years 

 ago, while walking a familiar stretch of beach 

 between Georgetown and Pawley's Island as a 

 volunteer for the South Carolina United Turtle 

 Enthusiasts (SCUTE). 



Her reaction was typical. 



"I thought it was pretty," Brabson says, 

 describing how the plant's round, grayish- 

 green leaves and bright purple flowers 

 contrasted with the surrounding vegetation 



— mostly tall, wispy sea oats. 



She noted a pink beach house nearby, 

 and kept an eye on the unusual plant for the 

 rest of nesting season. 



"It grew and grew until it covered the 

 dunes, and I noticed there were no sea oats 

 growing anymore," she recalls. 



"The big red flag went up in 2003 when 

 we did the Beach Sweep," she says, referring 

 to the annual one-day litter cleanup of South 

 Carolina's beaches and waterways, sponsored 

 by South Carolina Sea Grant. 



That day, Brabson spotted thousands of 

 beach vitex seedlings near the pink house. 



One of the most troubling characteristics 

 of beach vitex is its prolific seed production 



— it can generate as many as 3,300 viable 

 seeds per square meter, says Gresham. 



"On a windy day, you can watch them 

 [the seeds] blow by you on the beach," says 

 Nash, who is also a coastal management 

 specialist for NC Cooperative Extension. 



After the Big Sweep, Brabson called 

 Randy Westbrooks of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey. Westbrook organized a symposium 

 for personnel from state and federal agencies, 

 private citizens and representatives from non- 

 profit organizations to address beach vitex. 

 The event resulted in the formation of the 

 South Carolina Beach Vitex Task Force, 



made possible by a five-year 

 grant from the National 



Off 



'c, fi '*e c Fish ^ Wildlife 



The group ^h^ ^e^ 



was renamed the 

 Carolinas Beach Vitex 

 Task Force in 2005 when North 

 Carolina officials joined the effort. 



Neighborhood Watch 



The task force encourages citizen 

 involvement, says Brabson. The group often 

 enlists the help of volunteer organizations that 

 routinely walk beaches documenting sea turtle 

 or shorebird nests. 



If someone sees beach vitex, Brabson 

 recommends recording nearby streets or 

 landmarks and visiting www.beachvitex.org to 

 submit a report. A task force member will visit 

 the reported area, confirm the identification 

 and help determine appropriate eradication 

 measures. 



"We ask people not to pull anything 

 up," Brabson says. "Beach vitex needs to be 

 positively identified first because we have so 

 many native plants on the beach that it could 

 be confused with." 



Last summer, the task force received 

 an overwhelming number of beach vitex 

 sightings, she adds. They expect a similar 

 influx this year, as the task force will distribute 

 a pocket-sized, waterproof beach vitex 

 identification card. 



"The identification cards will be in the 

 hands of an informed group of beach combers 

 and turtle watchers who can help track the 

 spread of beach vitex," says Barbara Doll, a 

 North Carolina Sea Grant extension specialist. 

 Doll, who works on invasive species projects, 

 helped the task force develop the card. 



'Time and time again, the general public 

 has proved to be the most effective early 

 warning network for the spread of invasive 

 species," she says. 



Nationwide, citizens have used similar 

 identification cards to help document other 

 nuisance species, such as zebra mussels, 

 purple loosestrife and spiny water fleas. 



"Citizen involvement will be a key 

 component in documenting, and hopefully 

 controlling, further beach vitex invasion," 

 Doll says. 



Eradication Efforts 



As citizens and task force members 

 locate and document beach vitex, researchers 

 are looking at ways to eradicate the 



4?* 



plant once it's found. 



Simply tearing beach 



TOP: Betsy and Bill Brabson pull up a beach 

 vitex seedling root that measures six-feet long. 

 BOTTOM: Beach vitex sprouts from the ground in 

 Atlantic Beach, N.C. OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM: 

 A beach vitex stem is ait to a stump and treated 

 with glvphosate herbicide. The litter layer is loaded 

 with fruit from previous years. • As part of the 

 hack-and-squirt treatment, a beach vitex stem 

 is wounded with a machete and painted with an 

 imazap\r herbicide, marked with a pwple dye. 

 • A steni of beach vitex is treated with basal paint, 

 an herbicide mixed with light oil that seeps into the 

 plant's tissue. 



28 Coastwatch I Spring 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 



