Jessica Rouhana

Final Paper

Introduction
Non-native invasive species is becoming a huge threat to the biodiversity of native plants

(Stokes 2014). They are increasingly replacing and eliminating native species, reducing habitat

quality for native animal species and altering the physical structure of ecological processes

(Stokes 2014). Woody non-native invasive plant species such as Cotoneaster, English holly (Ilex

aquifolium), English laurel (Prunus Laurocerasus), Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica),

European mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), and English ivy (Hedera helix) are species of

concern within Saint Edward State Park. All of these species have been used as popular

ornamental plants in yards and commercial areas for years.

St. Edwards State Park is a 326-acre urban greenspace located in Kenmore, Washington

of King County (Saint Edward). The park serves up to 500,000 Seattle area residents per year

and provides many residents with their first and most frequent experiences in a natural forest

ecosystem (Stokes 2014). It was logged in the late 1800s but has since been, for the most part,

undisturbed (Stokes 2014). This space now consists of mature and mid successional forests with

large native trees (Stokes 2014). The park is surrounded by commercial property, residential

property and Lake Washington.

Edge effects have been known to reduce habitat quality in remaining patches of forest

(Zurita 2012). They affect the functional connectivity between forest patches which also affects

the population dynamics and species persistence in these landscapes (Zurita 2012). Because of

the reduced habitat quality and disturbances amongst the edges of the forest, this can promote

non-native plant invasions by increasing seed dispersal and resource availability along the edges

(Dillon 2018). St. Edward Park has two edges bordering residential areas, one edge bordering
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Lake Washington and one edge bordering Juanita Drive along with also having two interior

edges that hold Bastyr University and the Saint Edward seminary. Given the size of the park, the

unclear definition of a forest edge, and the combination of outer and interior edges, it is hard to

determine if the whole park is technically an “edge.” St. Edward Park’s management goals are

to preserve and enhance native old growth forest while also controlling invasive non-native

species (Stokes 2014). Invasive species remains the biggest threat to the ecological condition

and natural biodiversity of the park (Stokes 2014).

Given the parks close proximity to commercial and residential areas, it is important to

assess how these human-inhabited and altered spaces affect the invasive species populations

within the park. Our initial question was “how do forest edges affect invasive species

populations?” After doing further research, we realized that this was too broad of a question

and it would be important to look at what was built on the edges of the park, how the edges

differ and base our survey off of this. Understanding where these invasive plant species may be

coming from can help prevent the spread and predict the location of where future woody

invasive species will be (Maclean). This will also help to build better management and policy

plans surrounding these species while they are still in the establishment stage (Kohli 2009). This

brings us to the question “how do residential edges versus commercial edges of Saint Edward

Park affect woody non-native invasive species populations?”

Study Area

In this study, we surveyed the commercial edge which borders Juanita Drive and has businesses

such as QFC, LA fitness, and other grocery stores, gas stations and small businesses. We also
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surveyed the north west residential edge which just has a neighborhood. We did four transects

on the commercial side and three transects on the residential side. We were limited with our

transects on the residential side due to the previous invasive species removal done, an

intersection with the commercial edge and Bastyr, and also the terrain on the residential edge.

Figure 1: Map of Saint Edward State Park with transects and previous areas of invasive species

removal.

The park has had previous invasive species removal. In 2011-2013, I. aquifolium was located

and removed in 22.8 acres of St. Edward Park (Stokes 2017). In January through March of 2015,

231 P. lauroceraus were removed with ages ranging from one to 35 years old and 22 P.

lusitanica were removed ranging from one to 21 years old (Stokes 2017). The age of these

plants shows that these invasive species have been established here for a significant amount of
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Final Paper

time. St. Edward State Park’s management goals are to preserve and enhance native old growth

forest while also controlling invasive non-native species (Stokes 2014). Invasive species remains

the biggest threat to the ecological condition and natural biodiversity of the park (Stokes 2014).

In this study, we surveyed the commercial edge which borders Juanita Drive and has businesses

such as QFC, LA fitness and other grocery stores, gas stations and small businesses. We also

surveyed the north west residential edge which just has a neighborhood. We did four transects

on the commercial side and three transects on the residential side. We were limited with our

transects on the residential side due to the previous invasive species removal done, an

intersection with the commercial edge and Bastyr and also the terrain on the residential edge.

The forest structure of the areas we surveyed within St. Edward Park consisted of

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western red cedar (Thuja plicata), western hemlock (Tsuga

heterophylla), big leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and red alder (Alnus rubra) in the canopy

layer. Much of the shrub layer consists of sword fern (Polystichum munitum), Oregon grape

(Mahonia aquifolium), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), salal (Gaultheria shallon), Himalayan

blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) and salmon berry (Rubus spectabilis). The ground cover of our

survey areas consisted of wall lettuce (Lactuca muralis), geranium (Pelargonium), sticky buds

(gallium aparine), trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus) and H. helix.

Methods

We surveyed the commercial and residential edges of the park during May of 2021. For the

commercial transects, we started at the intersection of Juanita Drive and Holmes Point Drive.

We then used a random number generator to determine the number of meters north of this
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intersection that we would start. For the residential transect, we started on the northwest edge

of the park on the shore of Lake Washington. We also used a random number generator here to

determine how many meters off of the shore we should start our transects. We chose to start

at the lake because of the invasive species removal that had already been done on this edge.

Once our starting points were determined, we surveyed 100m transects going into the

forest. We decided on 100m transects given that there is no true definition of a forest “edge”,

the amount of interior and exterior edges within the park, and the somewhat small size of this

area of forest. At 10m, 40m, 70m, and 100m, we did a 5.6m radius quadrat survey where we

counted the amount of seedlings, saplings and adults of Cotoneaster, I. aquifolium, P.

Laurocerasus, P. lusitanica, Sorbus aucuparia, and H. helix. A 5.6m radius was chosen because

it gives us a circle with an area of 100m2. We surveyed a new transect every 100m.

Discussion

Results

Woody invasive species were spotted in both the residential and commercial edges. More

invasive species intersected with our quadrats on the commercial edge. On the residential

edge, we only recorded one Portuguese laurel with a three-inch basal diameter that looked as

though it had already been treated with herbicide and was dying. On the commercial edge, we

recorded three Cotoneasters, one I.aquifolium seedling, 36 I. aquifolium saplings, two I.

aquifolium adults ranging from six to eight inches in basal diameter, one S. aucuparia sapling

and nine S. aucuparia adults ranging from one to three inches in basal diameter.
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For the one-way repeated measures anova test, the means of all of the 10m, 40m, 70m,

and 100m quadrats that were surveyed were taken for both the commercial and residential

edge. This test showed no statistical difference between the two sets of means with a F value of

0.971 and a P value of 0.50926.

Many of the woody invasive species that were found were large and well established.

There is also evidence that the I. aquifolium invasion could spread on the commercial edge

given the number of saplings that were found. There was also a well-established S. aucuparia

population in the woods and we suspect the invasion of this species could intensify.

Commercial Invasive Species Count Means

Average number of individuals found

2
1.8
1.6
1.4 Means of
1.2 Commercia
1 Total l Transects
0.8
0.6 10 meters 0.035714286
0.4 40 meters 0.214285714
0.2
0
70 meters 1.761904762
10 meters 40 meters 70 meters 100 meters
100 meters 0.214285714
Quadrat

Figure 2: This figure shows the means of all 10m, 40m, 70m, and 100m quadrats on the
commercial edge.
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Means of
Residential
transects
10 meters 0
40 meters 0.041666667
70 meters 0
100 meters 0

Figure 3: This figure shows the means of all 10m, 40m, 70m, and 100m quadrats on the
residential edge. One-way repeated measures anova: F=0.971 and P=0.50926. The difference
between means in the commercial and residential transects are insignificant.

Limitations

It is important to address some of the flaws and limitations in our methods, study and results.

As a whole, our study would have been more accurate if we did more transects on both the

residential and commercial edges and if we did an even amount of transects. Time was a

limitation with this. Surveying the south residential edge would have also been more beneficial
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for getting accurate results also considering the previous treatments for invasive species and

undocumented treatments for invasive species that we noticed on the north residential edge.

For our methods, we also had quite a few limitations. The first one being that there

were many invasive species outside of the transects especially on the residential edge. Doing

more transects and quadrats with less distance apart would have been beneficial to our study

in this case. The border of the park was also unclear. There is a buffer zone between the

residential area and the actual park making it unclear where we were able to survey and also

making it so we were not testing the true forest edge on the residential side. We also

encountered some large cliffs and ravines on the residential edge that made it difficult to do a

transect every 100m. The last limitation is that there was an extra transect on the commercial

side which could taint our comparisons.

Limitations in our results were also present. As mentioned earlier, there was evidence of

treatment of woody invasive species on the residential edge. This could have affected our

results especially if there was also physical removal of seedlings, saplings and small adults. The

last limitation is that our results on the residential edge do not actually reflect the invasion that

we saw. Although there is removal currently going on, we still encountered large mature adult

I. aquifolium and also large sections of H. helix in the beginning of the transects where we were

not surveying. Some of the H. helix areas were so established that there was no other ground

cover in that space.

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Picture 1: H. helix invasion on northwest residential Picture 2: Large I. aquifolium found on

edge of park. residential edge of park.

Conclusions

We can conclude that there are some areas of concern within St. Edward Park but not

necessarily if residential versus commercial edges have an effect on woody invasive species

populations.

From our data on the commercial edge, we can predict that S. aucuparia may be a

concern in the future considering the amount of well-established adult trees that were found.

There was also large I. aquifolium invasions currently already happening with large established

stands and many saplings being spotted. On the residential edge, H. helix and I. aquifolium

invasions are of serious concern although our data does not reflect that. The H. helix invasion is

to the point of possibly not allowing native vegetation to grow in some areas of the residential

edge.
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For management recommendations, we recommend the continuous removal and

surveying of I. aquifolium throughout the park. There should also be more surveying and

removal done on H. helix given the amount of invasion we witnessed on the north and south

residential edges. For both I. aquifolium and H. helix, it is recommended to try working with the

city of Kenmore, the city of Kirkland and possibly homeowners associations to educate

residents on the effects of using invasive species as ornamental plants in gardens. Our last

recommendation is to do further surveying for S. aucuparia now and a year in the future to see

if further establishment of this species is happening within the park so a management plan can

be made for this species before the invasion is out of control.

Sources Cited
Dillon, Whalen, et al. “Native and Invasive Woody Species Differentially Respond to Forest Edges and
Forest Successional Age.” Forests, vol. 9, no. 7, 2018, p. 381., doi:10.3390/f9070381.

Kohli, Ravinder Kumar. Invasive Plants and Forest Ecosystems. CRC Press, 2009.

MacLean, M.G., Congalton, R.G. A comparison of landscape fragmentation analysis programs for
identifying possible invasive plant species locations in forest edge. Landscape Ecol 30, 1241–1256
(2015). https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1007/s10980-015-0175-7

“Saint Edward State Park.” Saint Edward State Park | Washington State Parks and Recreation
Commission, parks.state.wa.us/577/Saint-Edward#:~:text=Saint%20Edward%20State%20Park
%20is,areas%20are%20available%20for%20rental.

Stokes, David, et al. “Invasive Woody Plant Research in St. Edward State Park: Control of Invasive Species
for Science and Native Biodiversity.” 9 Mar. 2017.

Stokes, David L., et al. “Pictures of an Invasion: English Holly (Ilex Aquifolium) in a Semi-Natural Pacific
Northwest Forest.” Northwest Science, vol. 88, no. 2, 2014, pp. 75–93., doi:10.3955/046.088.0204.

Zika, Peter F. “Invasive Hollies (Ilex, Aquifoliaceae) and Their Dispersers in the Pacific Northwest.”
Madroño, vol. 57, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–10., doi:10.3120/0024-9637-57.1.1.
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Zurita, Gustavo, et al. “Edge Effects and Their Influence on Habitat Suitability Calculations: a Continuous
Approach Applied to Birds of the Atlantic Forest.” Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 49, no. 2, 2012, pp.
503–512., doi:10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.02104.x.