Greenbelt Guild (Almost) Restores Hidden Meadow
Greenbelt Guild (Almost) Restores Hidden Meadow
by Amy Martin, Greenbelt Guild coordinator
It was a daunting task. A small meadow along the Woods Trail, planted long ago with native grasses, had become overrun by privet and saplings, mostly pecan.
Should the meadow stay or should it go? The decision was a compromise: instead of meadow or forest, we chose savanna—an open area interspersed with trees.
First task was to greatly whack back a large leaf privet (glossy-leaf ligustrum) that was leaning out and consuming the meadow. What a chore! But Francis and Keith did it ably.
But before you look at the after pic, remember: Forest restoration can appear rough at first, like it had been savaged. Sometimes destruction precedes creation. I am a big fan of a book on this: How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper. It was reinforced by a five-week class I just took to become a Community Forester. OK, here goes:
We’ll give those saplings another couple of years to grow in sunlight and thin them again.
Rudy and Hala tackled the giant photinia crowding an ancient eastern red cedar. Last restoration day, the team took out a humongous, large-leaf privet. Now the cedar has an even greater chance to recover.
We also cut back saplings and privet crowding the trail. A trail that was so overgrown that hikers avoided it…
Now looks like this:
Francis and I lingered to love a bit on Big Mama, the Greenbelt’s largest and oldest pecan. She even survived a lightning strike! Here’s the before:
And now the after:
And the finale, the pile. We schedule our workday the Sunday prior to bulk trash pick-up.
We’ll return in November to finish working the other half of Hidden Meadow and continue liberating Big Mama. Without a giant privet and photinia to slay, it’ll go much easier. We’ll scatter some native wildlife seeds in the newly opened areas, which is always fun.
Join us on November 8 at 9 am! The group’s median age was 72. We need some younguns!
