Mark McCormack’s (far right) Wilderness Trail Blazers class did en enormous amount of work clearing brush and planting dogwoods in preparation for the banding season. -DOL
Several days ago we attacked the buckthorn and walnuts that were taking over the site. We did a lot of cutting but were left with a huge amount of slash that I figured would take weeks to clear. But then Mark McCormack from Dunnville High School contacted me to ask if his class, Wilderness Trail Blazers, could come out to the site and….”was there anything we can do to help?” Hmmmm….as a matter of fact there is. There were two things I wanted to get done: 1) move the cut trees, branches, vines out to the edge of the field so that they could be chipped later and 2) replant some dogwoods from the edges of the road to the freshly cleared areas – we’ve found that migrants use the dogwoods a great deal, in fact the most effective net is in the middle of a dogwood patch.
Helenia (left) and Kassandra replanting gray dogwoods into one of the cleared areas. -DOL
The students worked hard and cleared ALL the slash while others dug up dogwoods next to the road (that would have been cut down by County Maintenance staff) and moved them into the cleared areas. If they take (and they should) and the rabbits and deer don’t nibble too many, the west end of the site will be an even better site for birding/banding. I figured that it would have taken a couple of weeks for me to do this. So I’m way ahead!
If all these dogwood plants take, this will be a rich birding area. -DOL
Rick
That help is an absolute windfall. How fortunate. It took me all summer by myself to clean up fallen trees from a tornado. I’m sorry I can’t pitch in and help. I’m in the Caribbean recovering from my surgery. there in spirit!