Crow’s Nest: Many thanks to our volunteers for our Spring Cleanup!

This Saturday ten volunteers came out for a morning of tree planting, hauling trash out of two banks near French Creek, and pulling garlic mustard. This is our annual Spring Cleanup and was attended by neighbors, hunters, and Natural Lands Trust Force of Nature volunteers.

The trees and shrubs we planted along a stream that flows into French Creek as part of a restoration of newly-acquired land. Previously the lawn was mowed most of the way to the stream and we plan to create a buffer with native shrubs.

There were also two old dump sites overlooking French Creek and between the two we hauled out a full-size truckload of trash and another of scrap metal for recycling. The second site the group travelled to by haywagon.

We also pulled another full-size truckload of garlic mustard from the area around the shrub planting. Since garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) contains a natural fungicide that can inhibit the growth of trees that depend on mycorhizal fungi, removing the garlic mustard will help trees grow on this site.

This project is also listed as part of the annual Schuylkill Scrub, a project to clean up the Schuylkill River and the tributaries that flow into it.

Many thanks to Brian Piersol, Jack Stefferud, Gale Pfaehler, Dave Sautter, Lizzie Sautter, Rich Skubish, Bob Grimley, Bob Yiaski, Chris DeMont, and Ron High for all of the work Saturday. I am thrilled with what we accomplished!

Posted by Daniel Barringer on April 16, 2012.