Called the kudzu of the Northeast, the wildly invasive mile-a-minute vine has established a firm foothold in the Lower Hudson Valley in just a few years. It joins Asiatic bittersweet, wild grape and porcelain berry as the latest non-native vines to wreak havoc along our parkways and in our parks and woodlands.

To keep the mile-a-minute vine from spreading to parts of Westchester and Putnam that haven’t seen it yet, two volunteer weed pulls will be held this weekend, at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River on Saturday and at the Mianus River Gorge Preserve in Bedford on Sunday. The rain dates are July 19 and 20.

One of our photographers, Tania Savayan, and I were at Ward Pound Ridge on Tuesday to shoot photos for a story for the paper and video for our NewsCenter Now cable show on RNN. (These are my photos, except where noted.)

The weed pulls, sponsored by the Mile-a-Minute Project of the Hudson Valley, run from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m. at Ward Pound Ridge and from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Mianus River Gorge.

Volunteers should dress appropriately: long pants, long sleeves, boots, leather gloves, sunscreen and bug protection. Individuals, families and community or teen groups are all welcome to attend. Proof of community service can be provided.

Parking and camping will be available for volunteers at Ward Pound Ridge at no cost. On Saturday night, Chris Nagy, an owl biologist with Mianus River Gorge, will lead a Screech Owl and Barred Owl Walk.

Known botanically as Polygonum perfoliatum, mile-a-minute vine can grow as much as 6 inches a day in the summer and more than 20 feet in a year. It has 1- to 3-inch-wide triangular leaves, prickly barbs on its stems and distinctive circular leafy structures, called orceas, around the stem. The barbs lead to its other common name, devil’s tear-thumb.

Small iridescent blueberrylike fruits appear in July, and it’s best to pull up the vine before the fruits set seed in July and August.

The vine grows over anything in its path and forms dense, tangled mats that choke out native species and keep them from getting sunlight. It can kill a mature tree in two years.

Ward Pound Ridge and Mianus River Gorge are among the hardest-hit areas in Westchester, says Roni Cohen, the project coordinator for Westchester. Other problem areas include Pound Ridge near the Connecticut border and Peekskill near the Hudson River. So far, the mile-a-minute weed has not been found in parts of the county south of Interstate 287.

On Tuesday morning, a dozen youngsters from the White Plains Youth Bureau’s summer Greening Project were at Ward Pound Ridge to begin pulling vines out of the area where volunteers will be working this weekend.

(2 photos by Tania)

Stephanie Garst, 14, of White Plains:

Hand-pulling is the best way to get rid of this annual vine, says Brenda Bates, who manages the park for the Westchester County Parks Department. “It’s very labor-intensive, but luckily it pulls up very easily.”

Park managers were first told to be on the lookout for the vine about 10 years ago, she says. “It was one of those plants that by the time we saw it, it was already out of control.”

Here are Brenda, left, and Roni Cohen:

Rockland has lots of mile-a-minute hot spots, including Rockland Lake State Park and Iona Island, which had volunteer weed pulls last month, along with Blauvelt State Park and the Palisades Parkway.

So far, mile-a-minute vine has not been a problem in Putnam, says Dianne Olsen, horticulture educator with the county’s Cornell Cooperative Extension. Two homeowners in Southeast recently reported sightings in their yards, but luckily both were master gardeners, and they eradicated the vines, she says.

Known mile-a-minute vine sites in New York are limited to the Lower Hudson Valley and Long Island, according to the Invasive Plant Council of New York State.

Mile-a-minute vine has shallow roots, but any roots left behind can regrow into a full-sized plant in no time. The seeds are viable for up to five years, so known sites need to be monitored regularly to remove new seedlings.

Like most of these invasive vines, mile-a-minute is native to Asia. It probably arrived in the United States in a shipment of rhododendrons to a Pennsylvania nursery in the 1930s.

These aggressive invasive plants crowd out natives and threaten the whole biodiversity of the ecosystem. Severe deer browsing compounds the problem.

What you can do
• Avoid planting these invasive plants: Asiatic bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus); climbing euonymus (Euonymus fortunei); Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica); mile-a-minute weed (Polygonum perfoliatum); multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora); porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata).

• Clean up invasive vines on your property to keep them from spreading.

• Keep an eye out for new seedlings.

If you go
Volunteers will meet at the visitor’s center on Reservation Road at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River at 10 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and at the Mianus River Gorge Preserve at 167 Mianus River Road in Bedford at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. In the event of severe weather, the entire event will be moved to the following weekend at the same times.

To RSVP or for more information about efforts to control mile-a-minute vine in the Hudson Valley or to report the location of an infestation outside of Westchester, contact Meredith Taylor at mjtaylor@gw.dec.state.ny.us or 845-889-4745 Ext. 109. (You also can just show up at the scheduled times and places.)

To report a suspected mile-a-minute vine sighting in Westchester, contact Roni Cohen at reac@optonline.net
or 914-261-9684.

For more information
• Invasive Plant Council of New York State: 518-690-7871; www.ipcnys.org (with list of invasive plants).
• Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College: 914-606-7870; www.nativeplantcenter.org.
• Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, state Department of Environmental Conservation: 845-889-4745;
http:/www.hrnerr.org. For vine photographs and general information go to www.hrnerr.org/public/training/MAM/index_MAM.
• National Invasive Species Information Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov.
• Plant Conservation Alliance, Bureau of Land Management: 202-452-039; www.nps.gov/
plants/index.htm.