— from Izabela Janecek —
The Orcas Island Youth Conservation Corps started off an exciting week with a trip to Bonnie Brae, a OPAL community in Eastsound. The purpose of our visit was to eliminate the noxious weed Yellow Archangel which resided in the back of the residential area. The infestation started when someone planted it as a groundcover, not knowing better. They moved away and the plant just took off. We worked hard clearing brush so we could pull the invasive plant.
When we were clearing the area we came across yet another noxious weed: Oregon Clematis. This plant does not live on the ground like Yellow Archangel, but climbs up trees. We tried our best to eliminate this plant, too. After pulling up all the Yellow Archangel we covered the area in cardboard and then mulch to prevent the weed to grow back again. Hopefully we eliminated the area of noxious weeds for future generations to come in Bonnie Brae.
The next two days we worked in the site of the future dog park area at the backside of Buck Park, to designate trees that would stay for future dog park shade. We trudged through the forest and looked for older/larger trees that we deemed worthy to have in the dog park. We needed to clear the area around these trees so that the later-to-come excavators would know that these were the trees we wanted to save. This proved tricky in itself because of all the fallen logs and small trees surrounding that we had to cut with hand saws to clear the area around the tree or trees we wanted.
We also had to cut any low limbs or branches on the tree so people could see their dogs around the tree. We cleared around about 5-6 clumps of trees over the course of two days and also did some trail maintenance so that the big machines could get through the forest when clearing the rest of the land for the dog park. Overall it was successful and at the end we were rewarded with Watermelon.
On Saturday had a booth at the farmer’s market so we could do outreach and raise funds for future programs. We sold Stickers, Bandanas and T-Shirts all with the OIYCC logo. We also talked to people about our program and projects we had previously worked on. Some kids handed out brochures about noxious weeds while others pulled bull thistles behind the band shelter. Hopefully we encouraged people to donate and got people more interested in our program.
This is such a great program and thanks to all of you who have been working so hard to make our island home even better. Loved reading about some of the things you have done.
Thank you for your hard work ! Removing noxious weeds takes time and is not always fun. This youth group is doing important work for our island communities.