Eradication of invasive species
I went up to Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve this morning to partcipate in an invasive weed removal I saw listed on the California Native Plant Society: East Bay website.
It was scheduled to begin around 9:30, so I left my house around 9 AM and drove on up, after packing a kit which included:
- heavy-duty vinyl-coated gloves
- lab goggles
- dust mask
- sun hat
- clippers
- water
- electrolyte drink
- snacky food
- directions
(If you're wondering about some of the items on that list, you haven't been out doing serious weed-whacking before. Trust me that goggles and a dust mask make the task much less onerous).
When I arrived there were no other cars in the lot. Huckleberry has only one parking lot, so I wasn't worried that I would miss the proper location, only concerned that I didn't see the merry crew of a half-dozen eager weeders I'd expected. After about fifteen minutes of watching obvious day-hikers arrive and set off in the gorgeous weather, I saw a lady pull in and start rummaging around in her trunk. Some hunch told me that this was probably one of the people I wanted to talk with, and sure enough I was right! She was happy to see me, gave me a basic rundown on which plants were good and which were bad (ie. non-native, invasive species), and gave me permission to begin wherever I liked.
Then I realized that I hadn't brought any bags. Did I have any spare supermarket bags floating around in my car anywhere, I wondered?
Sure enough, a search turned up one of those giant IKEA bags, which I proceeded to stuff near-to-bursting with thistles and thistle flowerheads, thanks to my nearly impenetrable gloves. I still got poked a number of times, somewhat inevetably given the size and ferocity of the spikes on those weeds!
I got many strange looks and questions regarding the dust mask and goggles, but nearly everyone seemed to understand why I wore them when I explained what I was doing.
I arranged at the end of the morning to come back next Sunday morning and do some more weeding. It's really the best time of year to do make some inroads on the thistles, too - they haven't yet gone to seed, and everything is still soft and moist (both soil and weeds) from the recent spring rains. I'm going to ask Alan to bring home the camera for next weekend so I can take some pictures of the "before" and "after", so hopefully I can show you all this instead of just writing!
I had been debating up until the previous evening whether or not I was up for going out and doing this. Now that I actually went and did it, I'm so happy! There will be several thousand less thistles annoying the world this year, all because I went out and whacked them.
I'm doubly glad I went out because we were the only two people there, and to think of what wouldn't have been accomplished had I not gone out really encourages me to think of my efforts as valuable, even if I can't save the whole world.
It was scheduled to begin around 9:30, so I left my house around 9 AM and drove on up, after packing a kit which included:
- heavy-duty vinyl-coated gloves
- lab goggles
- dust mask
- sun hat
- clippers
- water
- electrolyte drink
- snacky food
- directions
(If you're wondering about some of the items on that list, you haven't been out doing serious weed-whacking before. Trust me that goggles and a dust mask make the task much less onerous).
When I arrived there were no other cars in the lot. Huckleberry has only one parking lot, so I wasn't worried that I would miss the proper location, only concerned that I didn't see the merry crew of a half-dozen eager weeders I'd expected. After about fifteen minutes of watching obvious day-hikers arrive and set off in the gorgeous weather, I saw a lady pull in and start rummaging around in her trunk. Some hunch told me that this was probably one of the people I wanted to talk with, and sure enough I was right! She was happy to see me, gave me a basic rundown on which plants were good and which were bad (ie. non-native, invasive species), and gave me permission to begin wherever I liked.
Then I realized that I hadn't brought any bags. Did I have any spare supermarket bags floating around in my car anywhere, I wondered?
Sure enough, a search turned up one of those giant IKEA bags, which I proceeded to stuff near-to-bursting with thistles and thistle flowerheads, thanks to my nearly impenetrable gloves. I still got poked a number of times, somewhat inevetably given the size and ferocity of the spikes on those weeds!
I got many strange looks and questions regarding the dust mask and goggles, but nearly everyone seemed to understand why I wore them when I explained what I was doing.
I arranged at the end of the morning to come back next Sunday morning and do some more weeding. It's really the best time of year to do make some inroads on the thistles, too - they haven't yet gone to seed, and everything is still soft and moist (both soil and weeds) from the recent spring rains. I'm going to ask Alan to bring home the camera for next weekend so I can take some pictures of the "before" and "after", so hopefully I can show you all this instead of just writing!
I had been debating up until the previous evening whether or not I was up for going out and doing this. Now that I actually went and did it, I'm so happy! There will be several thousand less thistles annoying the world this year, all because I went out and whacked them.
I'm doubly glad I went out because we were the only two people there, and to think of what wouldn't have been accomplished had I not gone out really encourages me to think of my efforts as valuable, even if I can't save the whole world.