Category Archives: Barcroft Park

Barcroft Park Habitat Restoration May Work Party

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By Marion Jordan

Join us for the next Barcroft Park Habitat Restoration Work Party on Saturday May 19th at 9:30 am. This event is sponsored by the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists. The work party will be followed by a walk led by Jim Hurley to view the natives that have come up in areas that we cleared over the past year. We will also look for the champion trees that are in the park. This is a great opportunity for those who have worked with us in the past year to see the results of your hard work.

We will not hold work parties over the summer and the next one will be on Sept 15th.  So please join us on Saturday May 19th as we finish this season in Barcroft Park.

We will meet at the picnic pavilion in Barcroft Park. If you park in the Barcroft recreational area parking lot, walk past the soccer fields, bear right and then cross the stream on the wood and steel bridge. Wear long pants and long sleeves. Bring gloves and any favorite weeding tools, especially pruning tools and shovels if you have them. We will also supply gloves and tools.

This project needs you! Every pair of hands makes a difference for this valuable ecological site. Enjoy the satisfaction of clearing invasive plants to encourage growth of native plants which provide habitat for birds and other wildlife.

If you have questions, please contact Marion Jordan at mcjordn@verizon.net.

Barcroft Park Earth Day Work Party

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By Marion Jordan

Celebrate Earth Day by joining us for the next Barcroft Park Habitat Restoration Work Party on Saturday April 21 at 9:30 am. This event is sponsored by the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists. The work party will be followed by a natural history program on Freshwater Stream Ecology presented by Arlington Regional Master Naturalist Michelle Ryan.

We will meet at the picnic pavilion in Barcroft Park. If you park in the Barcroft recreational area parking lot, walk past the soccer fields, bear right and then cross the stream on the wood and steel bridge. Wear long pants and long sleeves. Bring gloves and any favorite weeding tools, especially pruning tools and shovels if you have them. We will also supply gloves and tools.

This project needs you! Every pair of hands makes a difference for this valuable ecological site. Enjoy the satisfaction of clearing invasive plants to encourage growth of native plants which provide habitat for birds and other wildlife.

If you have questions, please contact Marion Jordan at mcjordn@verizon.net.

ARMN First Anniversary of Barcroft Park Invasive Pull

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By Jim Hurley

Dedicated volunteers help monthly with Barcroft Park Invasive Pull, an important ARMN Focus Project. Photo by R. Ayres.

The March invasive pull was the first anniversary of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalist monthly focus work on Barcroft Park.  Having bought coffee and doughnuts (hint, hint), I arrived to the area of Barcoft Park we were going to work on an hour before start time to tag Multiflora Rose stems for clipping and digging.

But what was this?  Blue dye on the Rose?  And then in the same area, blue dye on Japanese Honeysuckle?

Up to twenty people were about to show up to work on the area.  And after that, another twenty members of the current Master Naturalist training class were scheduled to arrive for two more hours of work.  What were we to do? Continue reading →

February Invasive Pull at Barcroft Park

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By Jim Hurley

Barcroft workgroup posed with ARMN banner

ARMN Volunteers at Barcroft Park. Photo by J. Hurley.

We had another strong turnout on February 18 in Barcroft Park, as 15 volunteers, including Tree Stewards, Americorps, Master Naturalists and Wingate residents answered the call of native plants needing to be rescued from exotic invaders.  As has become customary, we began and ended the work with coffee and donuts, and in between continued to work on the stretch of the park between the bikepath and drainage ditch, near the picnic shelter.  Again, we did more good damage to Multiflora Rose, cutting the canes back to a foot to get access to the root systems, Continue reading →

1/12/12 Barcroft Sunny Workday Report

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By Jim Hurley

Last Thursday, January 12, Master Naturalist (and current ARMN Treasurer) Josh Schnell enticed some 15 of his USDA OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) colleagues to Barcroft Park for a couple of hours cutting and digging Multiflora Rose, English Ivy and Japanese Honeysuckle.  Five Americorps volunteers supported the effort, as well as four other MNs Workers in park(thanks Jim Clark!), and tools were supplied by Sarah Archer.  The day was sunny and a balmy 58 degrees, and with the ground wet from the previous day’s rain, the invasives were very vulnerable.  We took full advantage of the conditions, and massive R. multiflora clumps and root systems yielded to shovels and pickaxes.  We continued to clear the area between the bikepath and drainage ditch, exposing the Lesser Celandine that is the dominant invasive there.  There were large numbers of Ranunculus ficaria bulblets and tubers just below the ground surface, which, no longer protected by their cover of Rose and Ivy, are vulnerable to spraying in spring.  For more on Lesser Celandine, including a shoutout to our own Steve Young, see:  http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/rafi1.htm. Continue reading →

12/17/2011 Barcroft Park Work Day Report

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large group of people holding armn sign

12/17 Barcroft Park Volunteers, by R. Olsen

By Jim Hurley

We had another inspiring turnout December 17, with 26 volunteers (Master Naturalists, Tree Stewards, Americorps, Windgate residents, hikers, spouses and friends of the above) reluctantly ending the invasive work after almost two hours, in order to turn our attention to Deep Time.  We began the morning again with coffee, cider, and donuts on a cool and cloudy day, fueling more intensive work on the natural area between the bikepath and the drainage ditch.  Continue reading →

11/19/11 Barcroft Park Work Day Report

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By Jim Hurley

We began Saturday morning with coffee and donuts, which fueled 23 volunteers for more than two hours of intense, and intensely satisfying, invasive removal in sunny brisk weather.  The Master Naturalists, Tree Stewards, and Native Plant Society were well represented, and we had residents from Claremont and Windgate too.  We worked in the natural area between the bikepath and the drainage ditch, mowing through an impenetrable 1000 sq. ft. hedge of primarily Multiflora Rose, interlaced with Porcelainberry.  We cut the canes to a foot or so, and then used shovels and pickaxes to dig impressive old-growth root infrastructures.  Great fun.  Continue reading →