April Forecast

Springtime!!! A beautiful time to be at the Park. But alas, the Restoration Initiative will not be meeting this April. So use the break to soak in and appreciate the beauty of the park this time of year and to appreciate our stunning progress! Between the arrival of spring birds, flowering plants, and exotic plant decimation, there is so much to appreciate at PKP this time of year!

So what's with the hiatus, you ask? Well, April has become extremely busy for me, partly due to the upcoming Georgia Big Day on April 27th, 2024. My buddies Patrick Maurice, Josiah Lavender, and I will spend 24-hours straight in a grueling search for birds from Athens to the Georgia coast, hoping to spot 200 different species from midnight to midnight. 

As we did last year, we are using this endeavor as a fundraising opportunity to refresh the Pendleton King Park Restoration Initiative's piggy bank. Last year's funds of around $4700 went a long way for the park's birds and native habitats, and we hope that this year's funds will do the same. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgia-big-day-pkp-restoration-initiative

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So fear not, the restoration train keeps rolling! In fact, here are two more little news items to hold you over in the meantime:

1. On March 21st, Anthony Simmons and I got together to carry out the long awaited English Ivy spray day. Conditions were ideal, with lots of fresh and tender growth on the sprawling English Ivy patches that we reserved for herbicide applications. This condition made for a highly vulnerable state for the ivy, which was subjected to a ruthless application of 23 gallons of Garlon mix.

By March 30th, herbicide effects were evident! This is happy news. Since we have already removed ivy from trees and removed woody exotics in these patches, spraying the monoculture of English Ivy on the ground was the last big hurdle for these treatment areas. And this will save us from the back-breaking effort of pulling nothing but dense Ivy.

2. More good news on the press front: my best buddy Mac McCall worked up a really awesome article on the Ivy League's work for the April issue of Augusta Magazine. So if you are a subscriber, check it out! I'll be sure to post when the article becomes public online.

So relish in this lovely April weather and save up your energies for a May assault!

March Madness

 No, not all that basketball stuff-I'm talking about PKP MARCH RESTORATION MADNESS!!!

And there was plenty to be had on our two workdays of the month. On the first Saturday of the month, we gave life, while on the third we took it. But all for the same cause and with equal importance. It was kind of a special time for us this month as we celebrated our one-year anniversary. I didn't get to scheme up anything grand, so I guess our celebration was our continued fellowship and progress.

Well then, let's get to it. A little recap of our 3/2/24 fun. It was finally the occasion to team up with our Azalea Garden Club volunteers to fill in the gaps that resulted from our removal of Bradford Pears and Japanese Privet along the beautiful Azalea Walk. The Azalea Garden Club has been so gracious to the Restoration Initiative in terms of both volunteer contributions and collaborations. I'm so thrilled that they sought to improve the value of the Azalea Walk to birds and other wildlife!

So out went the Asian imposters and in came six large tree specimens: four Tuliptrees and two Sweetbays. By the way, Sweetbay has recently been petitioned by the Georgia Native Plant Society to replace the exotic Cherokee Rose and represent Georgia as the state flower (see https://gnps.org/conservation/advocacy/). I am in strong agreement with this movement, and I think it's very fitting that we decided to incorporate this beautiful and valuable native tree in the park's landscaping, especially since some mature specimens occur naturally in the wetland portions of the park.

Anyway enough musing, here are some pretty photos of the efforts of our volunteer crew, 11 strong!

It was a very nice day of indulging in our spring fever. I'm so excited to see these trees flourish and provide some shade for the Azalea Walk. And one little neat fact to conclude: this day marked the planting of our FIFTIETH native tree in the park for 2024!!!

Spring forward to Saturday, March 16th and the crew has reassembled. Fresh spring growth from our trees planted at the last gathering was an encouraging start to the morning.

And after that? SHEER and UTTER CARNAGE. Gosh was it a beautiful sight to behold. Our band of 10 strong amassed to take back the swamp. In our previous year of work, we had mostly skirted the wetlands proper, but this day we dove in head first. At first glance, the habitat looked chock full of our usual invasive exotic assemblage: Chinese and Glossy Privets, Taiwanese Photinia, Nandina, Chinese Holly, you name it. The size of Glossy Privets here in particular was disturbing. Soon our progress began to unveil just how drastic the invasion was. After a few hours of the muddy grind: the swamp had opened up dramatically. Now we could appreciate the majestic overstory of Tuliptree, Sweetbay, and Southern Magnolia. There were several occasions when we all just paused to appreciate the sheer size and dominance of the Tuliptrees in this area of the park-trees that must be well in excess of a century in age.

Little of any value remained in the understory after the removal of exotic plants. This is an indication of a severe state of invasion. But the occasional natives that we encountered: Doghobble, River Cane, Yaupon Holly, were left to bask and prosper in the now vacant niche. Hopefully the River Cane in particular steps up to the occasion of reclaiming the valuable wetland habitat.

Have a look at these visual accompaniments:

Another kickass day, another one for the history books! As usual, I am so proud and thankful of our determined volunteers! You all rock! Let's keep it up Ivy League! Bring it on, April!!!

Green Thumbs (and lots of em)

 Well the APB for an all-hands-on-deck effort was certainly well broadcasted, especially in the forums of higher education at Augusta University. It seems that I wasn't the only one dreaming of spring and bursting buds.

On February 3rd, I watched half amazed as able hands trickled into the park as our normal volunteer turnout rapidly doubled and then tripled. They came on bikes, they came in cars, and they came to play. All told, a little over THIRTY folks heeded the call to plant native trees in the Park this gorgeous morning!

Shoutout to the AU contingent for rallying the troops for this tree planting effort; the sheer manpower helped the Ivy League accomplish a ton in a three-hour block! After a briefing and orientation session, we developed a process and got to digging. Boy was it a beautiful sight and a nice companion effort to our eradication. 

All told, we were able to get 32 saplings in the ground along the entire western half of the Park:

-18 Shortleaf Pines

-13 Tuliptrees

-1 bonus Swamp Chestnut Oak provided by Mary and GNPS

So you see, we're not just rampaging our way through the park's vegetation; we are transitioning from a broken, unhealthy and exotic-ridden landscape to a functioning native system that fosters all the birds and bugs that need this urban home as much as we do. 

It was so inspiring and touching to see some folks plant a tree for the first time in their life. And man is that a powerful thing- it's hard not to be invested in something when you play a part in giving it life. As a result of this morning's work, many more people have a stake in the ecological wellbeing of the Park and a connection to its plant life. 

Fortunately we had a surplus of native trees to distribute as a sort of form of rewarding the volunteers for their efforts: a win-win!

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Fast-forward to February 10th, and we're back at it. The last little package of trees-10 Flowering Dogwoods- finally came in. So in a sort of piggy-backed supplement to the previous weekend's planting, five of us convened to plant a total of 9 Flowering Dogwoods (one was a runt and has been potted for later) and two Longleaf Pine babies that I had been holding onto. Having perfected the process, we were done in an hour.

We were blessed with significant rain events as follow-ups to both of our planting efforts. Who can ask for a better scenario: awesome planting weather and then precipitation a day or two later to facilitate establishment!

How's that for some on-the-ground restoration!? I hope to get my hands on a few more trees of a few more species this spring, but that was certainly the majority of our tree-planting effort for this end of the year. Fingers crossed that we get some funds for bigger trees in the foreseeable future!

Great work everyone for the front end of February, and thanks for choosing to spend some of your free time beautifying and fortifying this urban gem!

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In looking at the remainder of the month, I think we'll just call this a successful February. I don't anticipate having another significant work event until March. Hopefully (I know I've said this for weeks) I can find some time in the meantime to get some English Ivy spraying accomplished.

 Until next time!

2024 Ain't Ready

 1/6/24

Eight people convened for OUR FIRST WORKDAY OF THE YEAR!!! on this Saturday afternoon. I was happy that the Ivy League was as flexible as we were since it rained all night, and wet conditions favored an afternoon meeting. 

We spent the day attacking woodies to minimize our exposure to the damp ground layer. Our campaign against the woodies connected us between our usual work area and the upper swamp overlook that is waiting to be revamped. 

As you can see from the photos, the English Ivy forms a veritable monoculture at ground level here. We'll have to follow up with backpack spraying to deal with that disaster. But alas, our work areas are gaining connectivity, and when we can find some time to spray the English Ivy, we'll have completed a true first pass of some of the most valuable wetland buffer areas in the Park. 

What can I say? Yet another great day of fellowship, park stewardship, and exotic plant butt-kicking. We can't be stopped!!

1/15/24

Today was a special day for the PKP Restoration Initiative not just because we convened on the day that remembers the remarkable legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. but because we hosted OUR FIRST WEED WRANGLE!!!

What's a Weed Wrangle you ask? It's a dedicated effort aimed at controlling invasive exotic plants, seasoned with a healthy dose of good publicity. The fantastic Georgia Native Plant Society oversaw this inaugural annual statewide effort in which native plant enthusiasts across the state came together to step up and fight the tide of exotic plants that continue to bear down upon our most precious natural areas. See:

https://gnps.org/32741-2/#:~:text=GNPS%20will%20host%20our%20first,trees%2C%20vines%20and%20flowering%20plants.

As I mentioned in my last post, the new local chapter of GNPS, Augusta's River Region Chapter, joined our hardy Ivy League to reclaim the sacred ground of PKP's woods. As part of this special effort, we bore down upon a heinously infested strip of woods between holes 6 and 7 on the disc golf course. Our hardworking group of 10 volunteers (and an accompanying photographer) ripped through the work area, to the relief of the overburdened native vegetation that has taken a stalwart stance against the invaders.

Dekay's Brown Snake

Red Salamander

These images of our hard work sure do make my heart sing. Hopefully this effort will be the first of many years of Weed Wrangles in PKP!!!

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IN OTHER NEWS

2024 ain't gonna be no slouch. Check out this production masterpiece by new PKP board member and Ivy League vet Anthony and his producer/director wife!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKDBfE6F8vc

I commend them for their vision and execution of this awesome production! How about that for a hype video for the Ivy League!!

And finally, in conclusion, it's time for the Restoration Initiative to switch gears a bit with our next undertaking. With spring rapidly approaching, the moment has arrived for us to give our "black thumbs" a rest and to cultivate our green thumbs. On Friday I will be picking up over 100 native tree saplings from the Georgia Forestry Commission for a massive native tree planting effort in the Park. We'll need all hands on deck for this coming workday Saturday, February 3rd. Come join the Restoration Initiative for a spring planting day and be rewarded with the usual cookies and also a native tree or two to take home!!

See you in the Park!