<div class="ck-content"><p>I'm so excited. A few weeks ago, I order 200 blue stake flags. Now I have just 25 left, without another <i>300</i> on order. Where did they call go? They are stuck in the ground at Brumley South next to little tiny baby trees. We have started phase two of native ecosystem restoration! </p><p>Phase one is clearing away most of the invasives, such as privet and olive, so that new native plants can get the sun and rain they need to sprout and get started. Volunteers at our Priority Privet events at Brumley over the last 1.5 years have done a whole lot of that. Now, stilt grass has covered most of those areas. Which we fully expected, though it still is a bit daunting to face.</p><p>So Eddie Kallum and I waded into that grass in search of baby native trees. We found many - mostly ash, but also oak, sassafras, walnut, locust and others. We cleared away the closest mats of stilt grass and planted a flag. Over and over again. In some areas, we found nothing. Just dirt. Kind of depressing. But in other areas, <i>so many baby trees! </i>Then, this past Saturday, a half dozen volunteers went into high gear. Not only did we find a few dozen more trees (lots of oak and hackberry), but we removed a whole lot of stilt grass. You can see the results below, and many other photos from the day on our <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P1_yfnu_wy5xFSzTzMBk0wlmooB16Efv">Triangle Rewilding drive</a>. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1TsVJQFqcbINySc7RmBT9hZ52MxEPxiZO" alt="Girl in a jacket" width="600" height="400"></div><p>We'll continue on this project August 19th - sign up <a href="https://triangleland.volunteerhub.com/vv2/?eventGroupId=95336209c34b4e82b0f15b9739bb94c4">here</a>. And then on September 9th, we're going to hold our first Big Stilt Grass Pull Day - we hope to bring out dozens of people, including families with small kids, because stilt grass is <i>perfect</i> for kids. But back to those baby trees….</p><p>This is the start of a multi-year effort. We will likely need to put tree protectors around many of these saplings. We will ensure that they survive and thrive, year after year. And then….years from now, when we or our children walk the Brumley trails and see a 10 foot tall oak tree, we will know and can proudly say: “If not for me, it would not be there. If not for us, that giant oak would be the last oak in Brumley.”</p><p>Because that's where we are now: without our intervention, any preserve or park that is threatened by invasives, there will be no future generations of mature, native trees. </p><p>Conversely, with our efforts, we can ensure future generations of trees that will be homes for millions of other living creatures.<strong> With our efforts, we make a future possible for our non-human friends and neighbors. </strong></p><p>Thank you for joining me in this work.</p><p>Steven Feuerstein</p><p> </p></div> |