Report of Mary Scott Nature Park workday June 1, 2019
On June 1, 2019, nine Friends of Mary Scott Nature Park, including two students from Chamblee High School, worked to dig out, pull out, and cut nonnative plant material. Rock Spring Restorations had worked a couple days earlier cutting many of the nonnative shrubs, so one of the workday tasks was to tag missed nonnative woody material. There are nine yard waste bags filled with kudzu, winter creeper, English ivy, and Microstegium awaiting collection and composting by DeKalb County Sanitation.
We worked in the southeastern corner of the park which continues to be a tangle of the worst of the non-native flora that we battle. The area cleared in May by one of our experienced volunteers remained clear of non-native flora. Hooray! One cleared section. The resprouting privet was difficult to dig because the soil is so dry. We’ll work on it again in July.
The county has added some fine gravel to a short section of the trail.
Among the flowers in bloom are elderberry, purple coneflower, Stoke’s aster, butterfly weed, and beautyberry.
The next scheduled workday will be Saturday, July 6, 2019, 10-12 when we plan to continue removing nonnative plants. Please bring your gardening gloves, soil knife/trowel, and kneeler to help.