It’s springtime and if you’re a Newton Conservator that means invasive plants pulling season.
Every spring the Conservators provide a great public service to the City. They recruit a hardy team of volunteers to fight back against the relentless invasive plant species that spread through our parkland
Two weeks ago the enthusiastic volunteers led by horticulturalist Bruce Wennings pulled mountains of buckthorn out of Cold Spring Park and left the park much improved.
Last weekend’s outing to Hemlock Gorge didn’t go nearly as smoothly. The plan was to pull all the poison ivy plants. A big crew of volunteers went to work yanking out bagfuls of the highly invasive vine. A few hours later trouble began to surface. All of the volunteers began breaking out in itchy sores all over their legs and arms.
Said Conservators president Beth Wilkinson “it was a nightmare. Nobody could figure out what had happened. Hours later, after feverishly scouring the internet, Brandies ecologist Eric Olson found some disturbing information about the plant. It appears that with some individual the plant is known to cause those symptoms. Said Olson “It just goes to show, there’s always something more to learn in this field. That’s why I love it.”
President Wilkinson personally apologized to the volunteers on behalf of the Conservators and reassured them that “we’ll never make that mistake again. Next year we’ll take that nasty stuff out with a 55 gallon drum of RoundUp”
@Beth: say it isn’t so!
Mistakes are always possible. We will do better next time. To get back on track Beth is organizing a woolly adelgid scrubbing at Hemlock Gorge. She has arranged for ropes and harness’ for our volunteer team to reach every branch and twig to hand wash out all the nasty little bugs. Volunteers will be carefully weighed to determine how far out on the branches they can reach. Dan Brody has suggested a long release form….. but we’re all friends. Shouldn’t have to worry about paperwork.
Ahhh! 8:15pm – Is it okay to say that April 1st is my favorite day of the year on V14?
You guys are great! I actually had people ask me if Greg was running for mayor. I said, “No, Greg is really great. Fabulous even. Maybe the best ever. I’d support him bigly if he’d run, but he’s not. Period.”
So sorry I learned about that plant’s nasty properties after the fact — no wonder its called “poison” ivy. Dang. Later, with more research on the internet (great source for detailed accurate scientific information about dangerous species in nature) I learned that if you want to gain permanent immunity you simply have to eat wads of the leaves. I’m going to try that this spring and I’ll let ya all know how it goes.
That’s why I love the Newton Conservators. Aside from being stewards of our park lands, they also recruit the best top scientific minds with a deep personal commitment to the work.
I think of Eric Olson as our very own Madam Curie.
wikipedia:
“If poison ivy is burned and the smoke then inhaled, this rash will appear on the lining of the lungs, causing extreme pain and possibly fatal respiratory difficulty. If poison ivy is eaten, the digestive tract and airways will be affected, in some cases causing death.”
I should have read this first. I ate lots of poison ivy to cure me on the cheap. It worked! – that is after one final bout. … even though I spent 4 weeks in ICU and $230,000.
10:56pm. still on.
What a team! Scratch, scratch . . .
If you really want to improve things at Hemlock Gorge, please come to the Friends of Hemlock Gorge Cleanup on Saturday April 28 from nine to noon
It’s part of the Charles River Cleanup.