| <div class="ck-content"><h4>Let's get rid of buckthorn at the Mason Farm Biological Reserve!</h4><p>A long, long time ago (and I can still remember), shortly after I moved to Chapel Hill from Chicago (September 2018), I attended a talk by Neville of the NC Botanic Garden about invasive species in the area. Five and a half years later, Neville and I spent 90 minutes walking around the reserve and identifying areas that needed some loving care. He's been leading volunteer groups on a weekly basis for a loooong time, clearing out privet and a truly awful infestation of buckthorn (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_davurica#"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rhamnus davurica</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">). They've accomplished a lot, but there is so much more to do. Here's an example of one particular bad section right along Morgan Creek:</span></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1CcZY9T10u0ibQJTASI6iMIkhPTY1CvUX&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>I have a longstanding hate relationship with buckthorn (sorry, there's no love in there at all). It is the invasive, up in Chicago, that I cut for eight years (up there it's Common Buckthorn or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_cathartica">Rhamnus cathartica</a>). But they are all bad news: serious, painful thorns, generators of a profusion of black berries that birds eat and spread. </p><p>So I was very happy, indeed, when attending the NC-IPC annual symposium last year, I met Neville again and we immediately started talking about me adding Mason Farm to my list of approved preserves for clearing. </p><p>I went back on Saturday and spent 90 minutes cutting kudzu and bittersweet vines, privet and horned holly. The vines are dormant, so I will be returning in the fall to cut again, and then paint with herbicide, same as I am doing with wisteria wherever I find it. It's too early to work on buckthorn - we'll wait till it leafs out, and then start cutting-and-painting. Even in the Spring months, triclopyr will kill those trees just fine.</p><p>And of course I want and need volunteers to help me! But my schedule is getting kind of busy. I lead groups on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Saturday mornings and most Sundays as well. Plus, I have to give my body a break on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. What's an obsessed individual like me supposed to do?</p><p>Add bi-weekly afternoon events on Saturday! But of course. Yes, that's the plan. Starting Saturday, February 24th, I'll be out at Mason Farm at 3 PM, after a couple of hours break from either Brumley Preserve (TLC) or Lively Preserve (ECWA). It'll be on the calendar starting with this newsletter. Hope to see you there!</p><h4><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">EPA bans three dicamba-based weedkillers</span></h4><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">I'd be so happy if this wasn't such unusual news, but let's face it: most of our government agencies were “captured” by corporations years ago, and they mostly service the profit desires of those companies, and not the people who live in the United States.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">So when I read in </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/07/us-weedkiller-ban-dicamba-epa"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">The Guardian</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);"> that “</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(18,18,18);">The ruling is specific to three dicamba-based weedkillers manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, which have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the midwest and south.” I want to celebrate. OK, fine, I <i>did</i> celebrate. I danced around my apartment. </span></p><p>Add to that President Biden's so incredibly important and sadly highly unusual “pause” of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/biden-delays-cp2-louisiana-lng-export-project">major fossil fuel expansion plan</a>, and I begin to feel a hint os some optimism. I do firmly believe that Biden will be re-elected. With another four years of non-fascists running our government, we could see some very big, long-term, positive impacts.</p><p>[And just for the record, while I believe Biden has been one of the most successful Presidents ever, and a very decent human being, I am appalled as his inability to step away from his reflexive support for Netanyahu's disgusting government in Israel, and its war upon Palestinians. I spent years organizing for peace in the Middle East and I know very well that their end game is to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and Gaza of Palestinians.]</p><h4>A better (for the planet) dish scrubber </h4><p>On quite a different note, I work very hard to minimize plastic consumption and waste. I also don't use a dishwasher. I wash dishes by hand and have always been disgusted and frustrated by the usual dish scrubbers. They wear out quickly, are filled with plastic, and get really really gross.</p><p>Fortunately, I have found a solution: the <a href="https://www.skoycloth.com/products">Skoy Scrub</a>. "<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">This reusable scrub made in Europe from cotton and a food grade non-toxic hardener outlasts traditional scrubbers and in turn saves money and controls waste." They come in packs of two. I'm still on my first one, and it's been months and months of hard use. They are </span><span style="color:hsl(120,75%,60%);"><strong>FANTASTIC</strong></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);"> - check them out!</span></p><p> </p></div><p>Resources you might find useful:</p><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> |