Not all plants are created equal. In fact some are just downright domineering.
"We have a lot of invasive honeysuckle throughout the zoo," said Henson Robinson Zoo Director Talon Thornton.
Or they did until dozens of students from the University of Illinois Springfield took out the plant.
“It crowds out native vegetation, it uses up soil resources that are for other plants and it creates almost a monoculture," said UIS Biology Club President Nate Hoyle.
“We've got a lot of native prairie area that's been basically removed. Not on purpose necessarily but we need to bring back as much bio-diversity as we can," said UIS student Sara Peterson.
Cutting honeysuckle down to size will help other species flourish, even though money is not.
“Their grounds keeping crew is not as big as it used to be and this is pretty expensive work, it's hard work," Hoyle said.
The story was featured by WICS-TV 20 on March 23, 2013.
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