Saturday, May 22,2021- Five Intrepid volunteers joined forces to battle invasive species in the Lake Mansfield Conservation Forest. As is often the case at these work events, lots of ideas and enthusiasms were shared and folks got a chance to meet others who care for our Lake Mansfield environment. Kate Ritter and Brad Roblin we helping to lead the day, they are enthusiastic about becoming forest stewards, you may remember reading their article in the Spring '21 Lake Mansfield Newsletter.
In the forest, one of our biggest challenges are aggressive invasive plant species that block the sun and crowd out our native plant species. These include garlic mustard, burning bush, honeysuckle and barberry. Volunteers needed to be able to identify the plants we were aiming to remove - and this focus on leaf, twig and form immediately bring our attention to the native plants we are bringing to light as we remove the invasive ones. It is so satisfying to clear the way for starflower, canada mayflower, jack-in-the pulpit and the saplings of striped maple, spice bush, sugar maple and black birch. Laura Gratz shared a great tool for identifying unknown plant species, she used google lense to snap a photo of a plant we were wondering about and quickly learned that it was Canada mayflower, a really lovely early flower at home in our local forests.
As we worked, we made a plan to create a regular monthly Lake Mansfield Forest & Trail workday. If your interested in teaming up to help, email us at: info@gbland.org and we can add you to the roster! In the meantime, remember to visit the forest trail, the rapid greening of the woodland is breathtaking!
Resources:
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb - an excellent fieldguide for plant identification
Peterson Field Guide: Wildflowers, Northeastern/ North-central North America by Rogher Tory Peterson/ Margaret KcKenny