<div class="ck-content"><h4>Major planet healing milestone achieved!</h4><p>A big milestone was reached one week ago. All privet taller than 3 or 4 feet have been cut and painted in a 5 acre area between Village Green condominiums and the Franklin Street bridge, bounded by Bolin Creek and Bolin Creek Trail, and accelerated restoration of same has stated with the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs. I refer to this section of woods near Estes and Franklin in Chapel Hill:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1OeiNXpQLHH8qo9ryLaHPSWEnGKQX-2IK&" alt="REPLACE" width="450" height="300"></div><p>Here's the story of clearing this area. The photographic record is available on my <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Izm8vnrVSFOUlekEzmIclumgAybDwNuX">Triangle Rewilding drive</a>.</p><p>Work in this area started in April 2023, after I applied for permission to clear the wisteria and invasive in this area (thank you, Town of Chapel Hill!). It was, frankly, a disaster zone. From Franklin St, there was a hillside completely consumed by wisteria. Enormous trees - 40, 50 ft tall - were crowned by wisteria. And the understory? Completely dominated by privet, glossy and otherwise. </p><p>For a few months, I worked on my own. Then I added Bolin Creek Trail to the schedule on Rewild Earth, and volunteers started to sign up. This area got a big boost later in the year when the new <a href="https://ncwf.org/">NCWF</a> chapter, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tricountyconservationists">Tri-County Conservationists</a>, made this area the focus of monthly tree rescues, turning out large groups of volunteers.</p><p>Section by section, working from both ends (NCWF chapter from the east, Rewild Earth volunteers from the west), we removed the privet and killed off the wisteria.</p><p>On Tuesday, February 27th, we took another major step when NCWF sponsored a tree planting event. Hundreds of trees and shrubs, along with river oats, were planted.</p><p>And then on Saturday March 2nd, I came over and polished off the remainder of the large privet that were still standing. It's done. To give you a sense of the transformation, when we first started, this was the view into the woods from the trail.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1__sKB1bp39JDfiMbBgYqeDiqrEP8m4m1&sz=w600-h400" alt="hemmed in by privet" width="600" height="400"></div><p>In other words, no view at all. Privet filled the understory right up to the edge. And to discourage anyone from entering, multiflora rose and horned holly presented many opportunities for puncture wounds. Now, as you walk along the trail, you have a clear view into the woods, all the way to the creek!</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1i1iEAi6f1o6yngKBw_KcUAKBp-j8_Ysj&sz=w600-h400" alt="poanorama view of cleared understory" width="800" height="270"></div><p>OK to be completely honest, we are not “done.” There's plenty of small privet, with more to come. And the stilt grass will likely come roaring in. But for the first time in years (decades?), wisteria isn't covering the crowns of 40 foot trees and killing them. The privet is not cutting off the sun from the ground, stopping all but a few native saplings from getting started. </p><p>It's going to take a while for the 100s of trees and shrubs just planted to take hold. It's going to take ongoing attention paid, both to ensure native trees grow and to remove the resurgent privet, wisteria and other invasives. till…</p><p>This is a major accomplishment, and clear proof that volunteers can have a dramatic, big and lasting impact on the natural world around them, and the creatures with whom they share this world .</p><h4>Another Tracy Chapman song for you: Mountain of Things</h4><p>I'm a big believer of the need to reduce consumption. Buy what you need, not what you desire. So this song really resonates with me. As does the refrain “Oh they tell me…”</p><p style="margin-left:40px;">The life I've always wanted<br>I guess I'll never have<br>I'll be working for somebody else<br>Until I'm in my grave<br>I'll be dreaming of a life of ease<br>And mountains oh mountains o' things</p><p style="margin-left:40px;">To have a big expensive car<br>Drag my furs on the ground<br>And have a maid that I can tell<br>To bring me anything<br>Everyone will look at me with envy and with greed<br>I'll revel in their attention<br>And mountains oh mountains o' things</p><p style="margin-left:40px;">Sweet lazy life<br>Champagne and caviar<br>I hope you'll come and find me<br>Cause you know who we are<br>Those who deserve the best in life<br>And know what money's worth<br>And those whose sole misfortune<br>Was having mountains of nothing at birth</p><p style="margin-left:40px;"><strong>Oh they tell me</strong><br><strong>There's still time to save my soul</strong><br><strong>They tell me</strong><br><strong>Renounce all</strong><br><strong>Renounce all those material things you gained by</strong><br><strong>Exploiting other human beings [SF: and non-humans]</strong></p><p style="margin-left:40px;">Consume more than you need<br>This is the dream<br>Make you pauper<br>Or make you queen<br>I won't die lonely<br>I'll have it all prearranged<br>A grave that's deep and wide enough<br>For me and all my mountains o' things</p><p style="margin-left:40px;">Mostly I feel lonely<br>Good good people are<br>Good people are only<br>My stepping stones<br>It's gonna take all my mountains o' things<br>To surround me<br>Keep all my enemies away<br>Keep my sadness and loneliness at bay</p><p style="margin-left:40px;">The life I've always wanted<br>I guess I'll never have<br>I'll be working for somebody else<br>Until I'm in my grave<br>I'll be dreaming of a life of ease<br>And mountains oh mountains o' things</p><h4>Look, it's a bag full of olives!</h4><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1VbOG0eICx-zg0YfHf3HZB08z-p4bOOAH&sz=w600-h400" alt="a bag of olives"></div><p>As I mentioned weeks ago in my Monday missive, I try to do something for the planet every day. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and most Sundays I have scheduled tree rescues, sometimes by myself, sometimes with a handful of volunteers, sometimes with dozens. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I <i>try</i> to give my body a rest, but I suck at that. So instead, I lie in bed the night before and ask myself: What can I do tomorrow morning before work sets in, and before I get my dogs for the rest of the day?</p><p>And then the next morning, I stretch a little, and then I go do that. On Friday, I decided to take a stroll down Piney Mountain Rd and cut some privet, multiflora and thorny olive growing near a stream. That was very satisfying; some of the privet was full of black berries. On the way back, I decided now was also the time to take on some big <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaeagnus_pungens">thorny olive</a> (Elaegnus pungens) bushes nearer to my apartment. OMG I am so glad I did. First, because it had gotten totally out of hand:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1tk97Wx9h1nbGEvXo23FwUmpt144bwrjp&sz=w600-h400" alt="thorny olive" width="600" height="400"></div><p>And second because when I got up close I found that these shrubs were females, every one of them, and absolutely packed with gorgeous olives:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1UjYRRkRRLqoZHjgwYoKZtUc0fHbfzzHa&sz=w600-h400" alt="olives galore" width="600" height="400"></div><p>Gorgeous, but also super-spreaders of more Elaegnus. Well, first things first: I cut and painted all the plants. Here's the view from inside/under:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1bG24fftl8zWfxs5Q8b3GVz7kpG2aGPcZ&sz=w600-h400" alt="dead olive" width="600" height="400"></div><p>But all those olives, ripe and ready to be eaten by birds, and spread all over….it weighted on my mind. After all, the #1 priority when it comes to invasives is to stop seed production. Well, and then….the forecast for Saturday was rain. Rain, rain, rain. Had to cancel the tree rescue at Brumley and Lively Preserves. Bummer. But hey didn't I just get a new raincoat? Didn't I need to give it a test run? </p><p>So Saturday morning, in relatively light rain, I went back to the thorny olive and harvested olives. When I first arrived, there were a bunch of birds in the shrubs. They squawked unhappily as I grabbed olives (they wanted the fruit all to themselves), but they soon departed. Proof positive that I needed to do something about all these seeds. Spent about 40 minutes doing stoop labor, pulling olives and surrounding leaves off the plants, dumping them into an old Macy's bag. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1wrAFSwAmzlKFurpqPwmNFpwj52VntZGQ&sz=w600-h400" alt="olives up close" width="600" height="400"></div><p>I sure as heck didn't get them all, but also for sure there are lots less for the birds to eat, either because they are in this bag, or they are on the ground, much less accessible to birds. Some of them might grow into plants, but at least they'll be concentrated in one spot and easier to kill later. By the way, they are quite tasty.</p><p>I hope that when I tell stories like this, it doesn't sound like I'm boasting. I'm proud of what I do, and glad that I have found a way to make myself useful to my non-human friends,. Mostly, though, I want to remind you all that it is very possible for each of us to find ways, large and small, to do some planet healing. Feel free to ask me for advice to help you get going on a similar path.</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> |