Vine Squad

Vine Squad Logo

Saving trees since 2012

Invasive vines choke and smother trees - ultimately killing them.

The Hastings Vine Squad is a group of resident volunteers seeking to preserve the health of our trees (and ourselves!) by removing invasive vines. Come join us for productive fun and exercise. No experience necessary: we provide training and equipment. In two hours, you'll feel good about making a difference and saving a tree. You'll meet new people and learn about the plants in our ecosystem.

New this year! The Hastings Vine Squad also picks up litter! And in collaboration with Hastings Public Library, announces the Hastings Litter League! You and your family and friends can check out the Litter League's Pickup kit from the library, which includes litter grabbers and safety vests, and go to town helping prevent human trash from harming animals. Join the many active residents who help keep Hastings beautiful. 
 

Join our mailing list for locations & updates or visit our Calendar. The Vine Squad Lops November to April.

2023-2024 TENTATIVE Schedule

All lops are Saturday mornings, 11am-1pm (unless noted otherwise)

November 11th
SUNDAY, November 19th
December 2 
December 29
January 13
January 20
February 3
February 17
March 9
March 23

Contact
To join our mailing list, email us at vinesquad@hastingsgov.org. For information on working on Hillside Woods Restoration Project, click HERE.
We will train you to recognize what to cut back and how to do so safely – valuable knowledge you can bring home to your own property. Even small children can participate! We also pickup litter when we encounter it. All are welcome.
 
We are supported and were trained by the Saw Mill River Coalition of Groundwork Hudson Valley. Groundwork also conducts lops throughout the winter along the Saw Mill River - try a lop with them, too!
 

A bit more about vines
The vines we encounter most are porcelain berry and Asiatic bittersweet, which were both imported from Asia over a century ago, and English ivy, imported from Europe in the 1700s. Porcelain berry takes over huge swaths of land, suffocating trees and extirpating native flora, while the fauna that relied on the native plants now face a landscape barren of the vegetation they need to survive. Bittersweet and English ivy strangle, weaken and eventually fell trees. Birds eat these vines' colorful berries, spreading them along their flyways and expanding the infestation. While it's good for berry-eating birds to have food to eat, these vines don't support the insects other birds eat. Also, the berry-eating birds lose on nutrition, as fast-growing porcelain berries and Asiatic bittersweet have more sugar and less fat than, for example, the native dogwood berries they've crowded out.

Here is an excellent slide-deck primer on controlling Asiatic bittersweet from My Woodlot.

Other invasive vines choking Hastings, each with its own set of impacts:

  • Asiatic wisteria
  • Japanese honeysuckle
  • Fiveleaf akebia, or chocolate vine
  • Mile-a-minute

Come on a lop and learn to identify these plants and more!

Saving Our Sidewalks: Lower Mt Hope, Before, During and After Vine Squad intervention, in concert with area neighbors:

Before

Mt. Hope - Before

During

Mt. Hope Vine Squad

After

Mt Hope Cleaned up

 

https://www.hastingsgov.org/conservation-commission/pages/hastings-litte...