OAS Volunteers remove some of the weedy curtain on the forest below the Beech Woods

There was much cutting and pulling of invasive plants Friday above the bridge over Hickey Run below the Lilac Field. On a fairly cold but sunny day volunteers from the Organization of American States showed up to help the Fern Valley Staff (there were two of us this morning, one tonight) clean up yet another small but visible spot that had been overwhelmed by non-native invasive plants. We, mostly they, removed Ampelopsis, Lonicera, and other assorted plants to open up a view into a wonderful flood-plain forest.

This is just one more place that we are stretching a thin staff to try to recover. I know that few visitors will notice this area but we have done others and we will do more. Month by month, walking and driving through the Arboretum reveal fewer unsightly spaces. The experience just gets better and better. Not to mention the fact that with the shrubs and vines out of the the way it will be possible to walk through next spring and chemically attend to the Lesser Celandine that carpets this area and is choking out the Spring Beauties. Baby steps.

Quercus acutissimia...A good sunrise can even make a non-native tree look great!:

Here's another non-natie that is somewhat out of synch with the seasons. Everybody else, even most of the oaks, have lpst their leaves for the winter and here's the Sawtooth Oak trailing along happily.

This is an oak that seems to be relatively unaffected by the complex of issues that result in Oak decline, and have distressed and killed so many of our native oaks It has abundant large acorns (not this year!) that resulted in its being widely planted in a number of eastern states for wildlife. It turns out that the high tannin acorns are so bitter that they are only eaten by birds, but I guess that's good for turkeys. It is maybe not so good for the natural areas that now have another Asian competitor with a competitive advantage?