After lunch today, I took a 1/4 mi walk over to the cemetery woods next to my neighborhood. I put on a podcast and walked around uprooting invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) seedlings. Burning Bush is a common landscaping shrub, but we now know that this non-native species invades natural woodlands and decreases their biodiversity. Existing plants should be removed and replaced with a native stand-in.
The weed pulling was not part of a grand management program, but I found it a welcome respite from the work-from-home isolation of a computer screen in my garage. I felt much better prepared for online work after setting my hands to pulling and getting my eyes on the 3D world.
You can do it too!
Yes I have been enjoying my daily walks, enjoying the spring flowers that are beginning to bloom and the tree frogs voices that I can hear in the distance.
Glad to hear! Thanks for commenting.
Pulled my first garlic mustard this week – right by the house, next to the AC unit. Sneaky little devils!
I don’t even try with garlic mustard anymore unless it’s a defined area that I know I can hit repeatedly over the season and over the years.
There is some early research suggesting that populations are naturalizing and reducing on their own.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160614121530.htm
Chris Helzer has some words of advice on how to avoid the whac-a-mole approach:
https://prairieecologist.com/2011/02/22/invasive-species-control-strategies-avoiding-the-whac-a-mole-approach/