Habitat Management at Smith Conservation Land

When SVT purchased 48 acres of the Smith property in Littleton in 2019 (the Town of Harvard purchased the 12 acres on its side of the town line), aggressive invasive plants had severely compromised its habitat values. Most notably, Asian bittersweet had spread across 22 acres, strangling trees and displacing all other vegetation in its path. The Smith land also had a large stand of red pine and European tamarack trees, neither of which are native. (See top photo at right.)

SVT developed a multi-year management plan to tackle the invasive plants and restore native vegetation and habitats. We employ a variety of techniques to control invasive plants. We pull, excavate, and smother invasive plants, and we are tracking the results of these various manual methods. We also carefully applied herbicides to Asian bittersweet over a three-year period in some management areas.

The Smith Invasives Management Map illustrates the layout of the various management areas. No herbicides were used in the 50-ft wetland buffers or in the residential and private well buffers. In March 2023, SVT hired a logger to remove the dying red pine and non-native tamarack trees.

We are pleased that our work is yielding great results. A high diversity and abundance of native plants are thriving and invasive plant cover is very low (less than 5%) in most management areas. (See bottom photo at right, taken from approximately the same spot as the top photo.)

Native plants include sugar maple, American elm, black cherry, winter berry, American hazelnut, choke cherry, joe-pye weed, boneset, and St. John’s-wort. We also hope to see an increase in the abundance and diversity of native insects, including moths, butterflies, and native bees.

We are monitoring our progress in a variety of ways:

• We have set up long-term vegetation monitoring plots and photo-point locations.
• We conduct an annual breeding bird survey.
• We hosted a bioblitz to catalog the plants and animals at Smith when we acquired the property in 2019, and we conducted a second bioblitz in spring 2025.
• We are recruiting volunteers to make observations of birds, insects, and plants throughout the season and over the long-term using a special project that we have set up in iNaturalist.

SVT works with both the Littleton Conservation Trust (which owns a conservation restriction over the entire Smith Conservation Land) and experienced ecologists to ensure we are using environmentally sound and effective methods. We addressed concerns that area residents had about the impact of herbicide treatments, and our plans were approved by both local and state authorities.

The Smith Conservation Land is also the site of a popular trail that SVT and Littleton Conservation Trust maintain for public enjoyment. The trail has remained open throughout the project, although there are occasional trail closures that are posted at the trail head.