<h4>Winter Wisteria Wipeout</h4><p>I mentioned last week that my plan for wisteria this winter is to cut vines going up trees, but wait till late summer, fall to cut at the ground and paint with herbicide. This way Spring 2024 will be a wondrous season for many native trees.</p><p>Just one cut (well sometimes, an awful lot of sawing) and done. Then move on. It's waaaaay faster that my standard lollipop effect: cut high, cut low, paint, clear all around the tree.</p><p>So here's my request to each of you: <strong>let me know (email or text at 773.426.9093) about any locations you've seen at which wisteria is overwhelming the trees.</strong> Hey, by all means get out a lopper or saw (or borrow mine) and cut them. But if that's not an option, I'll see if I can get it done.</p><p>Let's help hundreds of native trees have a great 2024!</p><h4>A look back at Brumley South Preserve</h4><p>The TwiWild invasives removal program at <a href="https://triangleland.org">Triangle Land Conservancy</a> has now held <strong>more than 100 workdays at Brumley South</strong>. The first was in December 2020, then four events in 2021, 27 in 2022, and an <strong>mind-blowing 69 in 2023</strong>! An average of more than one event a week.</p><p>Hundreds of volunteers have spent hours in the preserve, cutting and pulling privet, olive, multiflora rose, honeysuckle, and more. And, wow, does it show!</p><p>Our efforts have cleared acres and acres of understory, giving native saplings and shrubs a chance to survive and thrive. I walked around several of the trails a few weeks ago, and the sense of openness, the <i>appropriate</i> absence of green this time of year (our forests should be mostly brown; lots of green means almost certainly a privet or thorny olive infestation), took my breath away.</p><p>I am so proud of all that we have accomplished, and very grateful to each of you for being a planet healer.</p><p>Of course, there's so much more to do, and we will aim to keep up a steady pace of two events a week, as weather allows. In case you didn't know, the weekly schedule is Tuesday at 3 PM and Saturday at 10 AM. Sign up at the <a href="https://triangleland.org/give/volunteer">TLC volunteer hub</a>.</p><p>I am excited about the coming years at Brumley. I can now envision a time, perhaps as early as 2025, when we shift to "maintenance mode" at Brumley South. Which means that all the immediate threats to native species (besides the awful stilt grass) have been removed, and we will now come back to areas every 2 years or so to remove the new growth of invasives. </p><p>And then? Then we will switch our focus to Brumley North.</p> |