On a pleasantly cool day, Pete and Bev Fink, Brad Young and
I participated in a Shenandoah National Park Exotic Plants Management day at
Big Meadows. Four other people, who had experience with controlling invasive
plants joined ranger Cindy Blugerman.
We walked past the area where some of us removing oriental
lady’s thumb last year and saw that it was pleasingly free of invasive plants,
but a bittersweet vine cut last year had regrown. Further along the Story of
the Forest trail, in the swamp area, we started pulling lady’s
thumb, and some stilt grass and occasional garlic mustard. The plants were
unevenly distributed so people roamed far to find some of the plants. Although
we are well into summer, many of the lady’s thumb were not flowering which made
identification more difficult.
After lunch, which included cranberry oatmeal loaf, we moved
to an area where lady’s thumb were not merely weeds growing amongst other
plants, but ground cover. We worked on this area until it was close to finish
time, then headed back, with a couple of stops to pull trail side weeds. During
the day, we explained to several groups what we were doing.
It was a good day for invasive plant control; we saw areas
free of invasive plants, we cleared an area of lady’s thumb and saw an area
where invasive plant removal was successful. The Park Service was, as usual,
grateful for our assistance in keeping SNP natural.
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