Weeders 2006 Review
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Weeders in the Wild participants really get into nature. To promote
biodiversity we take
weeding to the fields and woods.
EO Wilson says “On a
global basis…the two
greatest destroyers
of biodiversity are, first habitat
destruction and, second,
invasion by exotic species”
It’s
a big job, and we are seeing progress; this was our second year cutting and
spraying Phragmites at West Creek Reservation. We have removed 2 large
sections and in 2007 will go into the fenced in areas by the signal towers.
Phragmites can be 15 feet tall dominating large areas by crowding out native
plants, creating a monoculture and it has the largest distribution of any plant
in the world.
We removed invasive
Buckthorn shrubs from a Cranberry patch in South Chagrin Reservation. Cranberry
is so rare the Cleveland Metroparks put a fence around it to protect it from the
deer. But the fence didn’t keep out the non native, invasive Buckthorn. We
cleared all the Buckthorn inside the fence and most of it around the fence. The
Cranberry patch once again has room to spread and thrive.
We
flagged Lesser Celandine south of Lagoon Picnic Pavilion and pulled Garlic
Mustard at Brookside Reservation. We ventured into the muck to remove Buckthorn
at Sandy Ridge Reservation and cut, dug and pulled Japanese Barberry at the
Chippewa Picnic Area in Brecksville.
Last
year we had 31 participants
in 6 locations. If time really was money you could say we donated $1,000.00 in
free labor. Weeders in the Wild participants included: Bill and Nancy Agardy,
Stacy Allen, Maribeth Barrett, Carolina and Bob Chandler, Gregory Cznadel, Sonia
DiFiore, Dave Dvorak, Ruth Evan, Bob Gardin, Chris Grames, Marilyn
Gunsch, John Krock, Duane
Kurapka, Dave LeGallee, Cathy Lehn, Terri Martincic, Cal Ochendowski, Dennis
Petro, Kim Petro, Tom Pukelnick, John Rob, Tom Romito, Frank
Shultz, Mary Ellen Stasek,
Adrian Staeven, Heather Triplet, Wendy Weirich, Barb and Nydia.