Someone once told me that they have more concern about the lint in their belly button than kudzu. Well, put that person’s opinion aside for a moment and instead try to really think for a moment about how kudzu could significantly alter the natural beauty of Western North Carolina.
Now think about the significant economic costs associated with the continuing spread of kudzu (property values depreciating, tourism dollars lost, etc.) and the associated changes to WNC’s landscape of hardwood trees, rivers, waterfalls, etc., to a kudzu monolith. This kudzu monolith will lead to the loss of scenic areas that are central to why people want to visit and live here.
It would seem that a start to the solution — especially since we are lucky enough to live in North Carolina with a large and prestigious state university system with experts in the fields of biology, chemistry, etc. — is coordination at a large scale. Coordinating that team of experts with state, local and the federal governments to start looking into research on some form of selective herbicide targeting kudzu.
To the lint-in-their-belly-button crowd: No, it won’t work to try to solve this problem by the individual pulling up kudzu by themselves, but it is important to do our part to not let it climb power poles, trees or streams where it can then expand to new areas. That’s doable for a start. But totally getting rid of kudzu needs large-scale coordination. There is no doubt that people will be economically affected when every road and scenic area in WNC is kudzu-covered, and that time is fast approaching.
Here comes the tough part for the belly-button-lint crowd. Do me a favor and take a minute and use Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com and look at two comparable properties, one kudzu-covered and one not. Yup, the kudzu-covered property is worth significantly less. Now multiply that loss to an individual property value across vast sections of areas of WNC.
Kudzu will indeed hit people’s pocketbooks at some point, and maybe, just maybe, the person gazing at their belly button might finally say we need to do something.
— Tim Holloran
Sylva
I last walked the old Saluda Grade RR line about 5 years ago. Then, you could park in Saluda, walk down the grade to the big left curve at Sand Cut without opposition from vegetation. But shortly after passing Sand Cut I encountered an unholy mess of (then dormant since it was March) kudzu covering the tracks and ballast on both sides of the tracks. I had intended to make it to the trestle at Melrose but gave up pretty quickly (I was age 73). Anyone trying to turn the grade into a usable trail has a formidable kudzu abatement task.
Kudzu is also almost entirely edible and has many medicinal uses. Are we missing out on an economic opportunity to stamp out hunger and heal the sick?