Report on Bowers Spring Cleanup September 2019

Day 1 Saturday

Great turnout at Bowers Springs today for Season 2 — Episode 4 of the Invasives Clearing Work Party.

Area 1 (see Areas listing below) — Steve, Millie and Betsy worked on Area 1 – the completely engulfed stone wall along Flanagan Rd by the parking lot. They got about a quarter of it cleared, generating a huge mound of cuttings. More to come.

Area 2 – David Wiley, Betsy, my grandson Ethan, and I attacked the jungle-patch of vines and brush just beyond the telephone pole railing at the edge of the parking lot, clearing a view into the meadow by hauling out bittersweet, multiflora rose, and other invasive brush going for the roots wherever possible to make the improvement last. More to come tomorrow on the remaining side-edges of the parking lot. BTW, this fall we’ll be partnering with DPW to install concrete curbing and a restored surface to the parking lot. We marked proposed boundaries today.

Area 3 – Dan Kagan cut dozens of low-hanging branches, stubs, and dead branches that were offering bittersweet a pathway (actually a highway) to the mature trees along both sides of the allee in Area 3 (sorry no photos). Maya Parekh and Milan Siano (Star-level Scout in Bolton) cut and pulled armloads of bittersweet from the majestic pines along the upper part of the allee. Milan will be back tomorrow to continue the crusade. Gordon and I mowed and DR’d the shoulders of the main cart-path down the allee toward the upper pond to suppress the bittersweet and PI that have taken over that part of the original campground walking area. Lots more to come but we’ll keep after it until the invasives have given up (more photos tomorrow).

Area 4 — Gordon also DR’d the new path along the upper edge of the upper pond (where the TDNC campers had installed two new bridges two summers ago). A little more tune-up to do an that one.

That gets us a little less than a quarter of the way through Season 2’s objectives.

Tons more to do:

bittersweet/multiflora rose/Poison Ivy/etc. removal in Areas 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8;
more mowing of the trails shoulders in Areas 5, 6, and 8; and
distribution of the loam tailings to cover the exposed roots along Area

Day 2 Sunday

Day 2 of Episode 4 — was busy and productive as well (see below for Saturday’s Report). And even more new volunteers joined the effort for Sunday. Here’s where we took things by area: (see map attached for area locations)

Area 1 – the Flanagan street wall clearing is on hold at about ¼ done. Need PI-tolerant volunteers to finish it off. See Saturday report for initial progress.

Area 2 – the parking lot perimeter. Dave Wylie and occasional helpers finished off the jungle-patch by the telephone pole fence (see before and after) with the exception of a final monster root ball that Bob Roemer is hoping to get a friend to attack with his mini-Kubota bucket loader. Rebecca is planning to get proper seed types for re-planting that now-empty patch. Dave has put some stones on the surface to curb erosion if it rains in the meanwhile.

Li Liang (a new volunteer) and Bob Roemer completely cleared the shoulder of the entry driveway back about 8-10 feet, revealing the trunks of some mature trees and clearing sight lines to the large Conservation Property Sign with its list of rules. Li offered to maintain that section going forward and suggested that we systematize the maintenance of all these invasives areas so that we can cumulatively break the regrowth cycle on them. I like the idea of scheduled maintenance and will bring it up for discussion at our next TC meeting.

There’s still more to clear on the Exit Driveway shoulder, and on the southwest corner of the parking lot.

Area 3 – the allee from the parking lot to the ponds. The team made impressive additional progress on this area on Sunday. Bob Roemer cleared all the remaining low-hanging branches by the meadow eliminating the pathway up for new bittersweet vines, and making it feasible to maintain the underlying ground area by tractor going forward. Views from the allee to the meadow are now clear — most likely in line with the original design by the property donor. Further down, Gordon and Winslow finished mowing back the shoulders on both sides of the cart-path and cleared a 6-8 foot strip behind the pines along the edge bordering the North Meadow. Once the fall mowing of the meadow itself is done, this section will be the best we have seen in years. Finally, Ethan and I mounted the bat house about 12 feet in from the southern edge of the meadow heading toward the TDNC area. There are remnants of a wire fence attached to the tree that it’s mounted on, and you can see a TDNC shed in the distance.

Area 4 – the path with the recent TDNC foot-bridges above the upper pond. Gordon finished clearing the path and bridges on Sunday with the exception of some material off the sides and at the end of one bridge. Otherwise, Gordon’s got this path in great shape.

Area 5 – path from upper pond out to Bear Hill Rd via the Czekanski Eagle Scout culvert bridge — still on the wait-list for basic maintenance. Needs work on some duck-board bridges and lots of trimming, and a partial blowdown to be dealt with. Volunteers?

Area 6 – path between the ponds – in pretty good shape as is but could use some additional pulling of bittersweet and some string trimming of edges. Let’s target for Episode 5 in October.

Area 7 – the path around the lower pond. No trimming or bittersweet work done yet, but we did spread the trial patches of loam tailings between the roots on a short section of path before the first beach with help from Dan Kagan and Emily. This area will be the main focus of Episode 5 in October. We’ll get started on installation of edge-logs for the trail resurfacing project and on kicking off the bittersweet/PI remediation over the next few weeks.

Area 8 – North Meadow – the mission here is to do the edge clearing and bittersweet clearing that can’t be done by the tractor-mower. There are 6-7 mature standalone trees in the meadows including the famous “climbing tree” which are seriously threatened by bittersweet left behind by the mower. The climbing tree recovery was started by Gordon, Hinglan and me in Episode 3 (August) and almost completed on Sunday by grandson Ethan and me. One more session should do it.

A new volunteer, Bob Serio, is particularly attached to saving the handful of mature trees in this meadow from the invasives. He did a complete rescue job on the large maple at the bottom of the meadow, cutting and/or pulling vines, and ground-clearing a donut area below the reach of the branches. He’ll let us know when he’s planning a session and we can team up if needed. This tree-specific clearing work will eventually connect to the tractor-clearing of the meadows that will happen in the coming weeks.

One more item for a future Episode — the culvert under the path from the North Meadow which carries a seasonal brook from the West into the upper pond was plugged this past spring and caused general overflow and flooding on the path. We will need to clear this culvert before winter.

Once again, our heartfelt thanks to all our volunteers for their efforts on this massive project. And special thanks to our new volunteers including Hinglan from Episode 3 in September and our 11 new volunteers — Dan, Emily, Li, Solomon, Bob, Charlotte, Maya, Milan, Jana, Jim and Mary — who’ve either just starred in this Episode 4 or offered to help on future Episodes. It takes an army…and we’ve only just begun. Stay tuned to our trailsvolunteers mailings, the Bolton Trails website blog, and to occasional announcements in local papers. Hope to see you for Episode 5 the weekend of Oct 19,20. Feel free to contact Rebecca Longvall concom@townofbolton.com our Conservation Administrator and Trails Committee partner with any comments, suggestions or concerns.

Thanks again and Happy trails to you…

Larry Kunz