WEEK 8, June 21

The first day of summer was welcomed in by Barry, Glenda, Hedrik, Geoff, Marg and Isabelle at the Tuesday Invasive Species Group at FWG.



We decided this week to work closer together as a group and to take a scheduled break half way through rather than going off in small groups of 2 or 3 and taking breaks on our own, as we have done in the past couple of weeks. Our main work this week continued in the New Woods and the area south to Green Heron Road, as per our decision last week to revisit areas that had been cut before. Regrowth of DSV - as indeed its regular growth - has been phenomenal this year and it is denser than ever. Pods are already forming on plants in the best conditions (lots of sun) and these now have to become a priority.

Our specific activities included recutting with scythes and continuing to clip under and around trees. Geoff returned to the section he had been cutting three weeks ago.

Before Geoff's Work

By break time, Geoff had it all trimmed back again.

Hedrik and Barry worked in the New Woods proper, cutting as far as the western-most tarp. Hedrik has done a good job of clearing the Hedgerow path on the south side, from about the middle of the New Woods to its entrance at the ball diamond.

Glenda, Marg and Isabelle continued clipping and clearing around trees.

 

In addition to cutting and clipping, we rediscovered the virtues of pulling DSV up by the roots. This is arguably more effective than cutting in terms of setting back individual plants. In fact, the question was raised later and there has been some discussion of the relative merits of these techniques. While pulling is a good thing to do and will be the main technique in use during our upcoming work bees, scything remains the method of choice for cutting large areas quickly. It is simply not possible to pull large areas but it is very effective for plants growing singly and in small groups, especially where other plants we want to keep are competing against the DSV.

In between all the hard work, we also managed to squeeze in a relaxing break complete with getting to know a weevil that stopped by to hang out on Hedrik's arm and some bird watching along the way.