'The Wetlands' WORKout!

A favorite pair of tired (almost wornout) loppers gets a rest
with some American beautyberries.

Well , 'The Wetlands' finally got lucky .... no snow (except for a surprise few, very tiny, fluffy flakes) and no rain so last week's Washout became this Saturday's Workout!  A small group of hearty volunteers and two sawyers turned out to work and I do mean work. At the end of a cold, tiring day, there was lots of talk regarding sore muscles and hot showers. Nevertheless, we could look out over 'The Wetlands' and see that a significant amount of cleanup had been done. Peter, from James River Parks, was smiling .... a lot! When the people we are helping out are smiling, well ..... that makes us really happy, too.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are some pictures from our day at 'The Wetlands' .... seeing is believing!



The day at 'The Wetlands' begins:

This is the sawyer version of "measure twice, cut once" as strategy for the day was plotted.

 

 

 

The work ... what we did and how it got done:

 

The crews got busy with their loppers .... briers and small saplings were the target.

When the saplings were too big for loppers, the chainsaws were called in .... the paint can with herbicide to keep the stumps from sprouting back was at-the-ready.

 

 

Smurfs were here! .... on a work trip?

Not exactly ..... the blue is a marker in the herbicide so you know which stumps have received the treatment. Lots of blue = a lot less invasive 'Tree of Heaven' in The Wetlands.

A nice tree getting a little TLC trimming & the resulting brush pile. Sorry about the fuzzy last picture, but you can still see the difference the trim-up made.

 

How much difference can a work crew make ... in one day?

Before: A picture of the meadow/cedar from last week's scouting trip.

After: A picture of the same area after this Saturday's work trip - Wow!!!

Meanwhile, over near the duck blind:

Before: This is what was left to clean up after the tornado ..... uh, correction .... sawyers ..... came through this area!

 

 

After: Lots of brush dragging as in picture on the left (it was a pretty good distance to the brush pile) resulted in the picture on the right .... and here comes the paint can to make sure the stumps don't sprout back. You can see 'blue' where a few stumps are already painted, but more unpainted ones were uncovered as debris was moved.

 

The end of a very productive day:

Multiple BIG brush piles at the end of this day's work line the road for pickup & hauling away later.

 

 

 

For those who stopped briefly to listen to the 'spring peeper' frogs sing and who also looked around carefully, there were small, visual treasures to be found in the mud and debris: 

 

A big buck footprint (depth of print & spread between the toes) and a delicate little bit of spring purple among the chainsaw chips.

Back at the cars, before heading home, a delicious reward:

Pop Quiz:
Who knows what the link is between Chocolate Pecan Pie
 and the most fashionable footwear in 'The Wetlands' on Saturday?

 A big "thank you" to everyone who turned out to work so hard on "The Wetlands"!!

(All Photos: Merlot)

 

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