Howdy!
Here is what has been happening since the last update!
Winter has done the work of clearing out all the leaves from all the trees, so it’s easier to see and get around in the creek. There’s a certain beauty to the emptiness and quiet. This time is special to me and I like to use it to clean up trash and prepare for the upcoming season of invasive growth.
Trash:
I did two major trash pickups, both targeting the area directly under the Harris Branch Parkway bridge, which was FULL of all sorts of garbage. The first one was a community event (I sent out a mailer – if you signed up for updates on the Volunteer form, you should have received it), just after Thanksgiving. Here’s what we were able to pick up and haul out of the creekbed that day:
This actually only got about half of the trash! The rest of it, I went back out over the next month of December and picked up in bursts, on days with nice weather and as I had free time. I amassed a small pile under the bridge while waiting for Keep Austin Beautiful to come back from holiday vacation, and once they were back, arranged a pickup to set everything on the curb for ARR.
PHEW!
Now if only people could stop throwing their trash out their cars over the bridge…… or at all……… 🙁
Invasive Management:
I have just spent the past weekend pulling up and girdling invasive Ligustrum sinense / Chinese privet. There is a house that backs up to the creek that has a few, including one BIG one, that drops 1,240,851,303,530 new berries each year. Those berries are eaten and scattered by birds and other wildlife, and are also washed down into the area directly below the house when it rains. Some were small saplings I could yank up by hand, and others are too big and needed to be girdled. Girdling will allow them to slowly die in the next year or two, as the trunks will no longer be able to pass nutrients between the leaves and roots.
A large Ligustrum, pre-girdle:
The girdling technique – you chop off the smaller sprouts near the base, and on the larger trunks, you strip the outer bark completely, in a ring. Since the nutrients will no longer be able to pass between the leaves and the roots, it will slowly die. You just have to return every month or two and chop off any new sprouts beneath the girdle:
And, this is the progenitor. 🙁 I wish I could convince this house to remove this bad boy:
Then, I’m also preparing for Bastard Cabbage season. The rosettes are already… rosetting… in the ground — they can be yanked up now, so I’m doing that where I can, and the rest I’ll just have to pull once they shoot up a few feet into the air (and y’know, save my poor aching back). I’m also trying to make it easier for myself to get around by flattening all the old ragweed stalks from last year. All of that takes some EFFORT! I’ve been busy!
Miscellaneous / Me:
I’m becoming a Capital Area Master Naturalist! 😀 I’m in training through May, and after that just need to fulfill my annual volunteer hours to be official. I am learning so much and having so much fun, and cannot recommend the program enough!
Volunteer Events:
Nothing set in stone yet; I unfortunately have a schedule conflict with this years Keep Austin Beautiful Day (KABD) on April 12, as that happens to be one of my Master Naturalist training days. I will try to organize something on another day instead and keep y’all in the loop.