A volunteer workday removing invasive privet from the floodplain along Wolf Creek in south Georgia.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Snails, fish, insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located.
Another day at the
Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve, another day of sweat and mosquitoes, getting dirty, and a feeling of doing good - knowing we are doing good. There were only 3 of us today but we were armed with new tools -
root jacks, aka weed wrenches - tools for pulling these shrubs out of the ground by the roots. And we were after this
invasive privet Ligustrum sinense.
From the UF website
Ligustrum spp. is capable of invading natural areas such as floodplain forests and woodlands. The aggressive nature of privets allows for the formation of dense thickets that out compete desirable plants. The amount of seed produced by privet is another mechanism for its prolonged survival. Even though privet is still used in the landscape and available for purchase at garden centers and online distributors, it is an invasive weed and should be treated as such.
More piles below the fold.
As I said, just the 3 of us and while the 2 women maybe were a bit older than me, maybe a bit more dedicated too. There was a lot of bending over work to get the seedlings and suckers. Beth, who has been working here since the preserve first opened in 2010, says it is much improved!
Any root left in the soil may resprout so this is an ongoing task. We will beat them back for awhile but given that this is a floodplain and privet is widespread along most roads around here, new plants will land here eventually. We can make it better for now and certainly keep it from getting worse. Just think, a couple of the larger trees that were cut had @ 60 rings. That's 60 years of growing and seeding and spreading, so anything we do to slow it down is great.
Another pile - I got a kick out of mounding them up. I worried about the next flood pushing them around and covering in soil to regrow but the biologists say they die quickly once pulled.
We did not move more than 50-60 feet from where we started this morning. It can get depressing to turn around and see so many more but Beth was quite happy. Here is one of the reasons we are working so hard on this -- Butterweed
Packera glabella.
One more trip to Wolf Creek is planned for May 6 and then it is what it is till we return late next fall to prep the preserve for the next season of Trout lilies and Trilliums and all the other little goodies nature gives us. Jump on in the comments with your observations of the day. I may be out checking my little bit of wetland for a small colony of privet I have been fighting back but boy - it sure is muggy today here in North Florida!