Habitat Restoration & Protection Database

The dunes along the western shore of Harkness Memorial State Park had become distrubed and fragmented due to trampling from excessive pedestrian traffic. The disturbance led to losses in native dune plants, including American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata). Non-native invasive species (Japanese barberry, Japanese knotweed, Asiatic bittersweet, autumn olive, multiflora rose) began to colonize these disturbed areas, as they so often do, and outcompeted the native species, further reducing their abundance.