Northwood News ♦ June 2008

Spring Creek Cleanup Easier

By Carole Barth

The Spring creek cleanup netted a small amount of trash this year.  Not only was the volume down, but there were no large items like tires or bikes.  This may be because heavy rains before the cleanup washed things down into Northwest Branch.  It will be interesting to see what happens at the Fall cleanup.

Even with less trash overall, however, we still found our share of odd things.  The trash theme seemed to be clothing this year.  We found a pair of athletic pants, a beaded shawl, and a scarf.  We also cut porcelain berry off the trees and pulled garlic mustard.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were on hand to supervise our work, and there were also killifish to see and tree frogs to hear.  It was a gorgeous day and there were plenty of spring wildflowers in evidence.  We enjoyed spring beauties, golden ragwort, pinxter bloom azaleas, and star chickweed.

If you missed the fun, don’t worry.  We will have another cleanup in the Fall.  Of course, you don’t have to wait until then.  In addition to picking up easy-to-reach trash as you walk or exercise your dog, there are always invasives to cut or pull.  You don’t have to tackle the whole park, just pick a convenient tree and make it your mission to save that one tree from porcelain berry, Japanese honeysuckle, and English ivy.

Don’t know garlic mustard from Grey Poupon?  Don’t worry.  We will be having a special weed-warrior training for our community.  I will also be preparing some “how-to” sheets you can take into the field as well as posting weed warrior alerts to the list serve and our new web page.  In the meantime, if you have a yen for yanking out invasives, email me [contact information redacted] and I’ll get you started.   ■