It’s time for some maintenance on the Oatka Creek Park Trees for Tribs sites! We will be inventorying the areas and collecting plastic weed mats, straightening and/or removing tubes, and generally cleaning up and tending to the trees and shrubs that our wonderful volunteers worked so hard to plant!
OCWC & Seth Green TU member Rick VenVertloh recently went out and did a preliminary assessment of the sites, and the good news is that he found that many of the standing tubes do have tree growth in them. However, areas right next to the Creek are still under water, so it was not possible to see the condition of plants there. DEC Region 8 Forester Gary Koplun tells us that this last winter season was really tough in low riparian areas and flood plains and we might find some plants crushed from the repeated flooding and freezing causing ice to form on the protective tubes. He recommends pruning any heavily damaged seedlngs right back to the root flare, so bring your hand pruners just in case!
Come Join Us!
Date: Saturday, April 14
Where: We will be meeting at the Fisherman’s Parking Area off Union Street
Time: 9:00 AM
What to bring:
- hammer/mallet
- zip-ties
- knife
- bottle of drinking water
- sun screen
- insect repellent
- waterproof boots
- gloves
- sharp hand pruners
What to expect:
There will be an initial overview of the maintenance activities and then we will get to work. We will be checking tubes to see if plants are growing or dead and will need a record on how many dead trees are encountered. We will remove tubes/stakes/ plastic weed mats from dead plants and realign and secure tubes and stakes for live plants. We will provide wood pellet bags for plastic weed mat disposal. Tubes and stakes are to be placed in piles and we will pick up & store these for other projects. If you have any questions, please contact Pete at lent@frontiernet.net
Hope to see you there!
