Students weeding out competition

Shannon McAmis marched into the Upper Cotee Preserve on a mission last week.

The River Ridge High student was after skunk vine, and school pride was on the line.

Before the afternoon was over, McAmis and the other members of a River Ridge environmental club could claim victory in the first Upper Cotee Preserve Weed-Off, a friendly competition that focused on ridding the preserve of skunk vines and noxious air potatoes.

"It's all to make the preserve better and help everybody learn at the same time," said Katie MacMillen, recreation leader with the Pasco County Environmental Lands Division.

River Ridge edged out its only competition, the environmental club from Gulf High School, to claim the Weed-Off title. The two teams competed in seven categories, such as longest skunk vine or heaviest air potato, as they attacked the two invasive plants that MacMillen would like to see gone from the preserve.

The air potato — or, to be more scientific, the dioscorea bulbifera — is native to tropical Asia, but was introduced to the Americas from Africa, according to the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

The plant has been in Florida since 1905, giving it more than a century to establish itself and wreak havoc. Since 1993, it has been listed as one of Florida's most invasive plant species because of its ability to displace native species and disrupt natural processes such as water flow.

The air potato vines "climb up the trees like mad," MacMillen said. Even worse, they drop their fruit, and each fruit can produce more plants.

In 1999, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services placed the air potato on the Florida Noxious Weed List.

The skunk vine — or paederia foetida — also is Asian in origin, but was brought in by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the late 19th century as a potential fiber plant, according to Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council.

This did not work out so well, and by 1916 the skunk vine was viewed as a "troublesome weed," the council reports. The vine creates dense canopies, which can damage or kill native vegetation

This is why MacMillen is more than happy to bring dozens of teenagers to the preserve and let them make an all-out assault on the air potato and the skunk vine.

"It's going to be an enormous contribution because we can't put together that much labor ourselves," MacMillen said.

The preserve is home to Florida nature at its finest. Visitors can see red shoulder hawks, flying squirrels, herons and wild turkeys, among other species.

"On a recent walk we saw a broad array of butterflies," MacMillen said. "There are regular spottings of bobcats."