Above: Giant hogweed. Photo by Flickr user helena.40proof
The nasty giant hogweed, an invasive plant species which grows well above head-height and has sap that can burn your skin, is cropping up disturbingly near the Catskills, according to the Times Herald-Record:
Say hello to the giant hogweed, a noxious, triffid-like weed that has attacked large areas of Western and Central New York — and which now appears to have staked a pair of outposts in Sullivan County.
The THR story interviews Naja Kraus, the plant biologist at the Department of Environmental Conservation who manages the agency's hogweed eradication team. When we interviewed Kraus back in February, she told us that hogweed hadn't hit the Catskills yet. (A map of hogweed's advance at that time shows just one hogweed siting in Sullivan County.)
Now, there's another find in Sullivan. From the THR story:
Locally, [Kraus's] team has identified two hogweed sites in Sullivan: one on private land in the Town of Thompson and another along a right-of-way on Carr Road in Ferndale.
Think you have hogweed? Use this DEC hogweed identification guide to make sure. (Hogweed looks a lot like the much more common wild parsnip, which is already ubiquitous in the Catskills.) If you're pretty sure you've got hogweed, call the hogweed hotline to let Kraus know: 845-256-3111.
