| <div class="ck-content"><h4>But first, I will talk about my newsletter <i>in my newsletter</i></h4><p>But I will not talk about talking about my newsletter in my newsletter. </p><p>You can now read all past newsletters on the website. Simply go to <a href="https://rewildearth.net">https://rewildearth.net</a>, click on the Newsletters tab on the right and then click on the subject of the newsletter that <i>you absolutely have to read right now</i>. Or whenever.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=15TPW7995oeSRN9KRbe9Ias1SfucIuzt0&sz=w500-h300"></div><h4>Homestead Park in Chapel Hill our newest focus</h4><p>And oh my the multiflora has really taken advantage of the lack of attention over the years. You see below a lovely magnolia that has been extensively infiltrated by multiflora, with another big bloom of it to the left. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1yTkmKq8QMZRKmxMveEnS7RiWP3iRefxG&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><h4>April is Native Plant Month in Hillsborough</h4><p>The mayor of Hillsborough has proclaimed <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">April to be Native Plant Month. This is the result of efforts by many people, including “our” very own Tim Logue (who inspired and taught me at Pritchard Park, now leads weekly invasive removal along the Hillsborough Riverwalk, and also helps at Brumley) to raise awareness about the dangers of invasives and the benefits of native species.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">The </span><a href="https://www.hillsboroughnc.gov/news/news/2024/4/8/1797/out-with-the-invasive-in-with-the-native.html"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">town website </span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">has a very nice article about the proclamation, including this:</span></p><blockquote><p>The town’s tree board and volunteer invasive species removal team have added a new layer to their work along the popular greenway — planting native species in areas once dominated by invasive plants. </p><p>“Native plants are critical to maintaining a healthy ecosystem,” said Tim Logue, a former Tree Board member and a volunteer coordinator for the removal of invasive plant species. “Native plants provide greater and richer nutritional resources for insects, the birds that feed on those insects and other wildlife than non-native plants.” </p><p>This year, volunteers planted over 1,000 native plants of over 30 species, helping increase the biodiversity along Riverwalk. The plantings included sycamores, several species of oak, strawberry <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">bush </span>and elderberry. </p><p>“The plants have an impact beyond the landscape and beautifying the Eno’s banks,” Logue said. “These plants will also stabilize riverbanks and increase aquatic ecosystem health and diversity by capturing sediment and pollutants and by cooling summer water temperatures with shade.”</p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">Nice work, Tim, Stephanie and others! Read the proclamation </span><a href="https://assets.hillsboroughnc.gov/media/documents/temporary/native-plant-month-proclamation-LXS7nocMCefYyRRr9vkN.pdf"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">here</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);">. </span></p><h4>Invasives Even Worse Than We Thought (sorry)</h4><p>An <a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-impacts-invasive-species-transcend-ecosystem.html#:~:text=%22Our%20work%20shows%20that%20the,therefore%20necessary%2C%20the%20researchers%20conclude.">article in phys.org</a> titled “Study shows impacts of invasive species transcend ecosystem boundaries” gives us the bad news:</p><blockquote><p>Interactions between ecosystems are widespread in nature and connect, for example, forests and lakes, grasslands and rivers as well as coral reefs and the deep ocean. In their work, the researchers show that invasive species influence these interactions in three different ways.</p><p>Firstly, they can change the amount of organisms and materials that flow across ecosystem boundaries. Secondly, they can change the quality of these flows, which may, for example, influence how valuable they are for the animals that consume them as food. And thirdly, invasive species can cause new spatial flows between ecosystems that did not exist before the invasion of the species, for example through secondary plant substances produced by invasive terrestrial plants, which flow into <a href="https://phys.org/tags/aquatic+ecosystems/">aquatic ecosystems</a>.</p><p>"As a result, invasive species can have ecological impacts that extend up to 100 kilometers beyond the ecosystem they invade," explain the authors of the study. "While we often categorize invasive species as aquatic or terrestrial, our results suggest that the impacts of invasive species often transcend the aquatic-terrestrial interface."</p></blockquote></div><div class="ck-content"><h4>Receive all my reports on tree rescues!</h4><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><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></div> |