Bowers Springs clean up Episode 3

Larry Kunz has done a heroic job of organizing work parties at Bowers Springs. He continued to lead the effort on the weekend of 19 and 20 October

Saturday:

We got a lot done today given the small crew of 6 that were able to make it.

Area 3 – Allee down to ponds:

• Big pile of Bittersweet (BS), Multiflora Rose (MFR), and Poison Ivy (PI) cleared by Hemali along south side of Allee down near the ponds
• Lots of root-pulling at top of Allee through to South Meadow

Area 8 – North Meadow

• Blowdown cleared (“before” photo) and more BS clearing by Dan Kagan and Emily

Area 7 – Trail below lower pond

• Good section of trail shoulder cleared of BS and other junk by Gordon Wallis and Jan Johnson (no photo)
• Second installment of loam tailings on root-riddled path below lower pond by Rebecca using her Joe’s awesome tractor and dump trailer.

Sunday:

Area 3 – Allee from south meadow to ponds:

• Jim and Mary Alex did a day of heroic root-pulling on bittersweet and PI between the left side of the Allee and the South Meadow, clearing the view down to Tom Denney Nature Camp. Larry set up a test area to assess the incremental impact of root-pulling (if any) over the base plan of repetitive surface-cutting of invasives. We’ll track this area to see if the root-pulling is worth the additional effort.
• Prolific spiny vine was also noticed (looks like strawberry) that has taken over part of the South meadow perimeter. It spreads across the surface like a mat and is hard to remove. Larry has taken out a sizable area near the allee and we’ll see how quickly it returns. Research needed on this.
• Larry looked more closely at the sections that Hemali cleared of BS and PI yesterday and it was a much broader area than had been understood. More to do in this section of the trail, but this is a great start.

Area 8 – North Meadow

• Solomon Katz continued his mission on the North Meadow to save as many mature trees as possible by addressing the bittersweet that has been plaguing them for the past few years. He added another ~10 trees to the list in the north meadow that he has now isolated from the BS that has been growing up them from the ground below. We’ll make this part of our emerging seasonal maintenance plan for Bowers in general. We still need to collect the BS that has been cut, and dispose of it carefully along with its berries.

Area 7 – path below lower pond

• Maureen spread some of the tailings on the trail section approaching the beach, and we assessed the available downed timber I’ve located on site for potential trail siding on the areas to be resurfaced. This should be a top priority to finish before winter. We’ll lay the edgoing timbers in the next week or so, and finish the job when Keith returns and can use his Kubota to distribute the tailings.

Lots more to do at Bowers – see updated task list below.  Larry will  be organizing additional work parties during the week and on weekends until the weather interferes.

Thanks to all the new volunteers that offered to help in the future.