Invasive species are non-native and can be harmful to the environment or people. Invasives include plants, insects, animals, fungi, viruses, etc. As people travel and trade around the world, foreign organisms hitch a ride. When an organism enters a new environment without any natural predators, its population can grow rapidly and eventually overtake native organisms.   

Seventy percent of invasive plants were brought here intentionally by the horticultural industry for ornamental purposes or for food. Burning bush, Asian bittersweet vines, and Japanese barberry are a few of the invasive plants that are still sold in local nurseries.

At the time BHHC started, in 1972, we thought that preserving land simply required protecting it from development. We now understand that nature preserves require stewardship, including management of invasive plants.  Just as our yards would turn into a weed patch without our care, our natural areas are vulnerable to degradation by invasive plants that displace native