Restoration Work Day

On Saturday I went to the Grove to do a restoration work day.

We were told to grab gloves, large cutters, and goggles. Then we headed out to the very back of the property.

The man that was leading our group told us that we were going to be cutting down buckthorn. Buckthorn is something that we learned in class already. It is an invasive species. The reason that it is especially a problem at the Grove is because the Grove's forest was predominately all oak hardwood. But because the buckthorn has grown all over the forest's floor, the seeds of the oak trees cannot fall and reproduce on the ground. The buckthorn is shading the light of the ground and the oak trees are unable to grow. Also the only importance that buckthorn provides to the animals and environment of the grove is, the deers use the tree to rub on and also get rid of their antlers when it is time.

The picture on the left is a picture of the distinctive color of the inside of buckthorn bark. It is an orangish pigment and when I cut into the tree it looked as though there was an orange circle going around the outer part of the tree.

To begin with, almost all of the forest floor was covered with the invasive tree, but at the end it looked more like the picture to your right. We made many piles of buckthorn.

These piles will be burned and the stubs remaining will be poisoned by workers at the Grove. It was a great experience and I'm glad that I was able to help out my community, i can't wait to see if the oak forest is able to grow back!

BUCKTHORN EXPERIENCE

Yesterday, Anastasia and I were a part of the North Branch Restoration Project, and cut buckthorn at Harms Flatwoods. When we got there, we signed in and went went to the west side of the forest preserve to cut buckthorn. With us were normal volunteers and also students from New Trier. The person in charge of the group told us that buckthorn was being a problem in that it surrounds native trees like the oak tree and doesn't allow them to reproduce. He told us that whatever was green, was buckthorn. Buckthorn was the only plant still standing with its leaves, so it wasn't hard to miss. When me and Anastasia got to the site where we were going to cut buckthorn, we saw SO much of it! It was everywhere. It was taking over everything else. When we went inside the forest preserve, we took a clipper and we went and cut buckthorn, while the experienced people were putting up controled fires so we can burn the buckthorn. For some odd reason, this computer isn't leting me upload the pictures onto the post, so see Anastasia's. SORRY.

Anyways, Anastasia and I thoguth we'd be cold so we dressed up so warmly, and when we got there, with the four fires and the hard work, we were dying of heat. It was pretty interesting in that me and Anastasia helped the forest preserve from this invader, buckthorn. It was a lot of fun, and I would do it again any time!

Buckthorn Adventure!

Today Vicky and I went to Harms Flatwoods. When we got there we signed in, and they explained to all of us what buckthorn is. Buckthorn is an invasive plant that causes a big problem. It out-competes native plants for nutrients, light and moisture threatens the future of forests and serves as a host to other pests.
We then walked to the forest preserve and there they gave us saws, and clippers.

Materials we used:



Clipper



Saw



Me cutting buckthorn



Buckthorn





Buckthorn was EVERYWHERE! We knew what plants were buckthorn because they had marked them with orange paint.

After cutting the buckthorn we took it and added it to the fire they made. The purpose of the fire was to burn the bucktorn down. They had set up 4 fires and this is how they looked:



Fire

We had a lot of fun!