It was a beautiful early fall day as a small group of PATC faithful gathered at the Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. First-timer Katharine Maus joined Iva Gillet, Bill Holman, Marian Styles and Ken Moss for a National Park Service event in support of National Public Lands Day. The group first took a short tour through the historical displays in the Visitor Center, guided by Ken who volunteers their on alternating Fridays. Following the tour, Park Rangers Cindy Blugerman and Abby Hydik gave a short presentation on the work plan to a total of about 40 volunteers (including our PATC group), which would be to remove a native invasive plant, black locust, with loppers and hand saws.
We walked across the Meadow to the northeast corner along the Rapidan Fire Road, where equipment was distributed to all. We then trooped through a small stand of trees to where we would begin to remove the black locust, a fast growing, woody, thorny bush of from 3 to 6 feet in height. Bill and Ken spent much time cutting bushes and fussing with dull loppers, while Marian, Iva and Katharine gathered the thorny cut brush and moved it off of the meadow. The process involved cutting a bush close to the ground and marking the spot with a small flag, so that a follow-on Park Service crew with herbicide could spray the remaining stump to try to prevent regrowth.
The work was not particularly hard, and with so many workers we soon cleared the initial area we were assigned, so we then moved to another area further south until noon. That marked the end of the work day. We then rewarded ourselves with a nice lunch at the Big Meadows Lodge...a fitting end to a day in which we all felt good to have done our part for such an iconic location.
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