The Nantucket Invasive Plant Species Committee (IPSC) was created as a subcommittee of the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative around 2004. The IPSC has a goal to identify, track, manage and educate the public about the island’s non-native invasive plants. IPSC organizes group pulling events for some problematic species and works to educate the public about identification and management. When IPSC was first created, there was a list of concerning species that we wanted to monitor on island. We called them the “invaders” and worked to bring awareness so people could report them. This list came primarily from the mainland and other parts of southern New England where problems were first noticed and studied. We wanted to learn from our nearest neighbors as a way to prevent what we saw from happening in other places. After more than 20 years, it’s interesting to note which plants have actually become the problems we expected, and which ones have been more manageable in the long run.
