Dog Day X2

 Hello PKP Restoration fam!

Summer has definitely been pretty low key for workdays at the Park, but that's okay! We managed to squeeze in a badly needed workday to give our tree saplings from earlier in the year a little TLC and another to rehabilitate the Memorial Tree Garden. Here's these workdays went down:

8/17/24

Seven determined restorationists convened for a somewhat drizzly but productive day nurturing the saplings that have survived the moderate chaos of a PKP summer. Our survivors have been in desperate need of additional staking, flagging, and mulching. It took a good combined effort to accomplish this, and Tracy's work truck and Beverly's sugary treats helped us to accomplish all that we needed to. Check it out!

It warms my heart to recount another fantastic day of ecological restoration and community bonding in the best park in Augusta!

8/31/24

The last day of August was a monumental day for the 13 PKP restorationists that convened to rehab the somewhat forgotten Memorial Tree Garden. This garden/arboretum was a late 90's project and has needed a little refreshing in terms of dead tree removal and pruning.

Though we ecologists are fond of dead trees, this area is pretty visible and forms Hole #16 on the disc golf course and definitely necessitated removal of several petrified Dogwoods to create space for new tree plantings set to occur as early as this fall. For those who have not yet discovered this corner of the Park, it's behind the Dog Park. It's a lovely area of reflection with some stately planted trees and a nice gazebo. Hopefully our hard work and loud saw-whetting made the area even lovelier.

I was ecstatic to have such an amazing turnout of hardworking volunteers because the work was tough and pretty involved. Shoutout to Tracy for bringing his work truck to shuttle debris, Jenna for providing some extra shots, and to the AU crew for mustering up some extra eager hands! Lots of photos for this productive and sweaty morning that concluded with a nice little reflection in the shade of a Chinese Elm 😂

Although our primary objective of the day was to tidy up the landscape, nearby exotic plants beckoned for our attention, and we couldn't resist taking them out. We removed one particularly stout English Ivy vine from a Cedar, an absurdly large Wisteria trunk, and a profusely loaded Chinese Privet that Anthony waged war against, to name a few. 

Morale was high with some sunny weather and our recent news of the huge 50K NFWF grant. Times are good at the Park, and the future is oh, so bright. Come on out and play in the woods with us next time!

***JACKPOT!!!***

 HOLY SMOKES Y'ALL I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM SAYING THIS!!!

We won the jackpot.

And yes all of those cliches are correct: persistence and hardwork pays off, shoot for the moon, etc. What does this mean? This means good news for Pendleton King Park and its flora and fauna: really good news. 

Back in February, the Pendleton King Park Foundation submitted a grant application for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)'s Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program (special shoutout to Peter Stangel for planting the seed). It was an involved undertaking that necessitated the development of a plan, budget, and partnerships. Pendleton has been the beneficiary of this exact grant in the past through the Phinizy Center for Water Sciences. But this time is different-there is no intermediary, and the Pendleton King Park Restoration Initiative is calling the shots in conjunction with our partners: the Georgia Native Plant Society, Augusta Council of Garden Clubs, Walton Options for Independent Living, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Birds Georgia, the Augusta-Aiken Audubon Society, and the Georgia Rehabilitation Institute. 

This month we received official word that our proposal was approved: NFWF will supply $54,300, which along with the match from our partners and us ($40,900) leads to a total project amount of $95,200.

There's no way around it-that's a ridiculous and jaw-dropping amount that is going to lead to a lot of tangible habitat improvements. We're talking new trees, signage, wildlife habitat, the list goes on...

Check out the public announcement and look under Georgia:

https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/nfwf-five-star-20220823-gs.pdf

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

It's Summertime

Hey PKP Restoration fanatics! Apologies for the sleepiness on the blog of late-I've been relishing in the summer atmosphere.

Since I last dropped in back in April, we have met for one workday in both May and June. Here's how they went down:

May 5th

Nine tough PKP restorationists elected to kick their Cinco de Mayo celebrations off with a little English Ivy ass-whoopin. It was a fantastic way to celebrate, and we dropped the hammer down on the swamp bridge area, focusing on English Ivy and some straggling woody exotics where we've made a ton of progress. It was a great concerted effort with excellent camaraderie and some good wildlife sightings. Check it out:

June 1st

On the first day of June, three faithful PKP warriors returned to eradicate more English Ivy at the swamp bridge area. We've kept at this spot pretty hard, and the results are becoming quite apparent. It was a nice summer morning, and we had some nice learning opportunities to appreciate the native plants that are thriving in our treatment areas and the extremely active Red Fox den near our work area.

//Other PKP News\\

I'm going to conclude this post with a bit of bad news and a bit of good news. On Friday, June 28th I was horrified to see that all but one of our planted Shortleaf Pines in the entrance area to the Park had been destroyed. The destruction was apparently deliberate, with uprooted or cut saplings strewn across the lawn. No disturbance to the protective stakes was visible, so it appears that someone intentionally sought out to remove these trees. This is a very sad event considering the massive volunteer effort and restoration funds that went into this planting project 😔😔😔

And to conclude on a good note, our Big Day team launched on April 27th to try and see 200 bird species in Georgia in 24 hours and to raise money for our initiative. Well fell short of our species goal and landed 183 (see https://ebird.org/tripreport/225843), but we raised $2699 for our cause between GoFundMe and direct donations! Sounds like we're getting some more native plants!!!

I hope to see y'all in July. My schedule is a bit hectic this month, so I will keep everyone updated on when we can get together!

Viva la Parque de Pendleton!!

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

//

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!!!