Jennifer Frum
We had a wonderful day on May 5, Statewide Invasive Removal Day, which happened to coincide with our regular Invasive removal event in the HOG Woods.
HOG (Haley Park/Oakridge Elementary/Gunston Middle School).
Our event was co-sponsored by ARMN. We had a bonus of forty-five young energetic members of a local church, so the supervision by our regular Friends of Haley Park Group, Members of ARMN, Master Gardeners and Tree Stewards, plus Arlington County RIP Coordinator, Americorps volunteers, and County staff was invaluable. We even had a volunteer with his own chainsaw and tractor with front end loader!
We worked at sites all over the HOG area – in Haley Park, in Oakridge Woods, and had many teams in Gunston Woods. Groups worked to clear areas around native plants to give them a better chance of future success. Bush Honeysuckle was cut down and hauled away in many dumpster loads; ivy was pulled; garlic mustard was bagged; artemisia vulgaris (mugwort) and euonymus fortunei were cleared; Japanese knotweed was cut down; autumn olive was cut down and hauled away; wisteria was cut away from the trees it was swarming over; daylilies were uprooted; ligustrum was cut down. Trash was bagged and removed.
All in all, sixty-one volunteers contributed to the HOG Pull service project on Statewide Invasive Removal Day this year!
We are most appreciative of all the great support. This is making a difference – here’s a quote from one of our ARMN leaders, Jim Hurley:
“Great job, Jennifer, Marti, Mary Ann and Bill. I hope you walk through the park with increasing, deep satisfaction. Let me report a very concrete result of the work: I walked a short way up the trail to the school, and there’s a pretty clear transition zone from English ivy infestation downhill to clean forest floor uphill. An Ovenbird was foraging on the clean forest floor under Hickory and Oak saplings, clearly skirting the English ivy infestation. As the work proceeds, we will see more and more wildlife activity in coming years.”