This past Saturday I had the pleasure of volunteering for the Mass Audubon society by assisting in the clean up of a Sanctuary in Belmont, Massachusetts. There were six projects to choose from -- removing invasive brush plants from the meadow, adding wood chips to the trails, removing buckthorn from the wooded area, composting turnover, weeding the community garden plots and pulling back brush from the community garden. Matt thought buckthorn removal sounded fun and we headed off.Buckthorn is a non native planting which was introduced by Europeans into their own gardens. It readily spreads and when it takes over it robs the soil of nutrients that the native plants need to survive as well as the sun they need to thrive.
Matt spent the three hours pulling out at the root along with about 15 other people, including our fearless leader Doug, while I processed the trees by cutting off the roots and piling up the branches. When our friend Kathy arrived she and I got to work hauling those branches to the edge of the trail so they could be chipped into mulch.
All in all it was a fantastic and fun day and we’re all looking forward to the next event this fall. I highly recommend checking out the Audubon website and volunteering next time there is an event in your area, the people were great and the day flew by!
Here are some photos of our day for you to enjoy.
The wheelbarrow fills with root cut offs!
Some of the crew gathers around Doug to get the scoop on our duties for the day.
Matt piles up buckthorn sticks.
Kathy says its all good in the woods!
Some of the crew gathers around Doug to get the scoop on our duties for the day.
Matt piles up buckthorn sticks.
Kathy says its all good in the woods!
About one third of the pile of buckthorn we cleared out Saturday afternoon.
2 comments:
Go you for pulling weeds! I did John's backyard about a month ago and my thighs hurt so bad after I could barely walk for DAYS! LOL I am so out of shape!
In our ignorance mankind has introduced a plethora of non-native, exotics and invasive plants into places that they should not be. Here is So. Florida we have the Brazilian Pepper, Melaleuca , Australian Pine, the aggressive potato vine, and water hyacinth (to name just a few). Then we have the animal species, the walking catfish, poison toads, and a couple of exotic python species that are a threat to the natural species that inhabited Florida's river of grass, the fragile Everglades
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