Northwood News ♦ June 2011

21st Creek Cleanup and Vine Vigilante Vengeance

By Carole Barth

We had great weather for the spring creek cleanup, and a very good turn out.  It was especially nice to see some new faces.  I always enjoy chatting and getting to know my neighbors better as we work our way down Lockridge Creek to the Northwest Branch.

The amount of trash was the highest it’s been for several years, although it wasn’t a record-breaker.  The most interesting item found was a gift card for a wine bar.  So the moral is:  if you don’t come to the creek cleanup, you don’t get to find the good stuff.

Since we had such a good turn out, we were also able to get quite a bit of work done on the invasive vines.  Workers of all ages commented how satisfying it was to save a tree from the vines that were killing it.  And once you save one tree, you feel a need to save the next tree, and the next.  At least it’s a healthy addiction.

Indeed, there seems to be enough interest to have an invasives work day before the fall creek cleanup.  If you would like to join us some Saturday or Sunday, send me your email.  We’ll pick a day that works for most of us and have at it.  (This is also a great way to learn about plants that are probably encroaching into your own garden as well as an opportunity to learn firsthand what a Weed Warrior does.)  We’ll show you how to identify the repeat offenders and how to safely bring them down.

Most exciting of all, I believe we are making progress in the battle to save our riparian buffer trees.  When you first start a project (especially if you’re working alone) it seems daunting, if not downright hopeless.  So you start off trying to save individual trees. But the truth is, you really can save a park from invasives.

Dr. Marc Imlay has demonstrated that a concerted effort by volunteers to remove large populations of invasives predictably yields control after five to seven years.  He uses a high-intensity program with regular projects conducted in winter, early spring, late spring, summer, and late summer.  This is followed by a low-intensity annual maintenance program for plants that were missed, plants emerging from the seed bank, and occasional plants migrating in from neighboring areas.

Although we have not launched that kind of all-out offensive, I am seeing definite improvement.  Last year I noted the strip in front of my house, and the portion of the stream around the last culvert on Lockridge had attained that maintenance phase.  Now those gains have been extended.  Nonetheless, there is still plenty to do along the creek, within the woods, and in North Four Corners Park.  So consider joining up, either as a Weed Warrior or as one of our neighborhood “militia.”

Finally, I need to recognize our “commander in chief,” Brian Morrissey, for organizing the cleanup and consolidating all the trash at the end of the day.   ■