| <div class="ck-content"><h3>2024 Lookback: River Park at Riverwalk, Hillsborough</h3><p>by Tim Logue</p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">This project is an initiative of the Hillsborough Tree Board, an advisory board made up of town citizens. Volunteers from the board began removing English ivy from trees on town property in the spring of 2021 and produced </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0BYO_Lj6Zk"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#1155cc;"><u>this video</u></span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> for the town’s website. That fall, the board decided to focus its work on invasive plants on the town’s Riverwalk, a 2.5 mile greenway established in 2010 that stretches along the Eno River from Occoneechee Mountain State Park in the west to the Historic Occoneechee Speedway in the east. Part of the state’s Mountain-to-Sea trail, the Riverwalk is heavily used by pedestrians, runners, and bikers. It runs mostly through urban forest whose understory is heavily infested with invasives typical of the Piedmont: Chinese privet, multiflora rose, Chinese holly, Japanese stiltgrass, Japanese honeysuckle, and Tree-of-heaven. We also remove invasives in a handful of municipal parks and, beginning last year, are treating two large infestations of Japanese knotweed in sewer easements close to the river.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">We began with just one or two volunteers in October, 2021, and decided to hold our workdays on Wednesdays, either in the morning or afternoon depending on the season. </span><span style="background-color:#ffffff;color:#000000;">This means we </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">draw mostly retirees and those with flexible work schedules, though we have occasionally scheduled workdays on weekends, especially when working with local high school students. The number of regular volunteers who show up each week ranges from three to ten, and our total number of volunteer hours logged each year has steadily grown: 275 in 2021-22, 282 in 2023, and 450 in 2024. We work year-round, save for a short break in the dead of winter and the worst heat of the summer. Our weekday schedule is not ideal: I routinely get inquiries about volunteering forwarded to me from the town, but often don’t hear back from some people because their schedules don’t allow weekday volunteering (or maybe they lose interest!). On the upside, we have a small core of dedicated volunteers who return week after week and need very little supervision or direction.</span></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1EQ5fSIByyw750AgxSChP8BLogtnCNdrA&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">We’ve done three rounds of native planting since the project’s inception, and will do a fourth round this winter. The first two consisted primarily of shrubs and forbs, the last two primarily of tree saplings and live stakes. Our goal is to establish a heavily vegetated riparian buffer that will stabilize banks, keep sediment out of the river, provide shade to cool water temperatures, and support wildlife. We’ve been pleased that the 4-foot cages we built to protect hundreds of saplings from browsing by deer and beaver held firm through two 500-year floods in 2024. Here’s a short </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcxyi72R8mc"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#1155cc;"><u>5 minute video</u></span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> that EB Brown of Project Pando in Raleigh, which donated over a hundred small saplings to our last planting, made of our work.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Working with our local town government has many advantages. Early on Stephanie Trueblood, the town’s Sustainability and Public Spaces Manager, gave volunteers permission to apply herbicide for cut stem applications and, more recently, approved our request to spray Japanese knotweed. The town regularly publicizes volunteer opportunities, including ours, in its newsletters and website. It has paid for native plant materials, herbicide and applicators, signage, backpack sprayers, and even string trimmers to cut back Japanese knotweed before spraying. Working along such a heavily used greenway also elicits lots of thank yous and questions about our work from passersby. (It’s also a recruitment opportunity, which we publicize with a QR code on our yard signs, as well as invitations to pull stiltgrass in late summer.) </span></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1FfrrvpSgH-_xxwhhWrZMaTwaA3clKV4h&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Stephanie reports that, based on inquiries her office receives, town residents are more curious and informed about invasive plants than in the past. One example: the owner of a local art gallery asked the town for help with several mature Tree-of-heaven on her lot. I visited the gallery, hacked and squirted all of the trees, and advised her to have an arborist take them down months later, which she did.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">What I love most about this project is how our team is constantly learning and trying new things. For instance, last March we planted 200 live stakes of black willow, silky dogwood, elderberry, and silky willow close to the river’s edge. We now know some of these species don’t do well when inundated by water, so this year we'll focus these plantings on tributary streams. We’re also moving from saplings grown in containers to bare root ones, which we think will develop strong root systems more quickly. </span></p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">More pictures available </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PFr446yqwIThbrZDHJZni80Y6LXiQ1wh"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">here</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">.</span></p><h3>Nature abhors a vacuum - and straight lines</h3><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://www.science.org/do/10.1126/science.zzea973/full/_20250124_on_mowing-1737755121103.jpg" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>Came across this <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/put-some-wiggle-your-mowing-bees-will-love-it?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_content=alert&utm_campaign=DailyLatestNews&et_cid=5506102">fascinating article</a> in Science: </p><blockquote><p>Cutting grass, if done carefully, can benefit pollinators and other insects. Now, researchers are adding a literal twist to this advice. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880925000106"><u>Mowing along curves, rather than straight lines, can boost the abundance and diversity of butterflies and wild bees</u></a>, researchers report this week in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.</p></blockquote><h3>What a weekend of planet healing!</h3><p>Folks, I gotta say the last few days have been amazing.</p><p><strong>Friday</strong></p><p>Worked near Mason Farm with two volunteers cutting back decades of unrestricted wisteria growth. Full report <a href="https://rewildearth.net/ords/r/rewildearth/_rewild-earth/past-event?p34_event_id=3487&session=10244746510513&cs=1TQNuKcaHMdkLKJ-6RTOk99H9GtEvmxcZwBkVXduINpCJ2IGSJZAFb-lSShaZbpJTmXc42B91JlGRtxyfo4mLsQ#:10244746510513::NO:::">here</a>. Trophy shots below. Seriously, those vines were <i>insane</i>.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1e31qByWcKMNVIhi1BGrrdr4ncexM92oK&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p><strong>Saturday</strong> </p><p>One event in Brumley preserve with a dozen volunteers pulling up hundreds of small privets + the first of two events removing big glossy privet at Hillside Park, durham, the latest in Keep Durham Beautiful's new invasives program. Details <a href="https://rewildearth.net/ords/r/rewildearth/_rewild-earth/past-event?p34_event_id=3287&session=10244746510513&cs=1n_vfekXIILdFl_smUyruR_lDnoEyA8_oN2CxY935b2QPF0iIrD-BWyxQbgquCT4Ljt7wmx8pQXd2RtYb22A03w#:10244746510513::NO:::">here</a>, Fidelity Cares team below.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1akNKQhgTiWSgeSnVrFNGVc0J-Ie7ov1E&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p><strong>Sunday</strong></p><p>Two more events. A second big effort at Hillside Park (still waiting to get the report!) and another one of those extraordinary days with UNC students from the Alpha Phi Omega service group: 40 volunteers sweeping through a steep hillside covered in wisteria, horned holly and mahonia, and giving the native trees and shrubs there a new lease on life. Details <a href="https://rewildearth.net/ords/r/rewildearth/_rewild-earth/past-event?p34_event_id=3282&session=10244746510513&cs=1D-AsmRUV9rb4s30pzMKLwZ_C10CPraDTM0TkRKGq5TK__EtJ4TjwVklTYVuyzjEWeSxpCnffj3bGvduK2Fh4Rw#:10244746510513::NO:::">here</a>. A glimpse of the mess they dealt with below.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1iJY2yuvO6zznH21XeVcxW_A6C9n6nRbM&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>And then…and then…there was (is!) Monday. Three volunteers joined me at Williamson Preserve in east Raleigh. At the start, we faced a rather imposing wall of Chinese privet:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1FIBlS3CXnsRP4_JvzsQwuiyV9W6P2FgP&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>Ninety minutes later….</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1UFZHB_8azddaLlS94Nt4Q6mwzi_Cw33k&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>I so very much ❤️ our wonderful volunteers!</p></div><div class="ck-content"><h3>Receive all my reports on tree rescues</h3><p>If you'd like to get some good news about restoring native habitats delivered straight to your brain upwards of a few times a week, sign in to <a href="https://rewildearth.net">Rewild Earth</a>, click on your name in top right, then My profile. Under Communication Preferences, switch “Send reports of all events” to ON. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1BeynVqu8taOGrsvi56u0mmDKuNJko22h&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="358" height="138"></div><h3>Resources you might find useful</h3><ul><li><a href="https://shop.naisma.org/collections/buckthorn-blaster">Buckthorn Blasters</a>: safe, easy herbicide delivery system from the North American Invasive Species Management Association. Don't start cutting without them!</li><li><a href="https://nc-ipc.weebly.com/nc-invasive-plants.html">NC Invasive Plants list</a>: recently updated by NC-IPC, the NC Invasives Plants Council.</li><li><a href="https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AG259">Overview of different herbicides</a>: glyposphate, triclopyr and others - which should you use?</li><li>Volunteer for <a href="https://triangleland.org">Triangle Land Conservancy</a>: the biggest land conservancy group in our area. </li><li>Volunteer for <a href="https://ellerbecreek.org">Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association</a> (Durham): a wonderful group working hard to maintain contiguous natural areas along Ellerbe Creek.</li></ul></div> |