Saturday, August 9th – 9:00am to noon
Natural Area Preservation (NAP) Workday in Scarlett Mitchell Nature Area. Meet at the bench near the showcase at the main entrance to the woods, just south of the bus turnaround loop. NAP prefers participants to sign up in advance in order to save time City of Ann Arbor Volunteer Hub.
Volunteers will cut invasive shrubs such as buckthorn and honeysuckle. This work helps keep Scarlett Mitchell healthy and supports a diversity of native plants, birds, and wildlife.
What to wear and bring:
- Long pants, tall socks, and closed-toe shoes
- Dress for the weather—likely hot and sunny
- Reusable water bottle (water refills available)
- We provide gloves, tools, and instructions
- Bug netting if you have some.
Judy Schmidt wrote the following about the Workday:
I was only there for the first hour, but I believe Phil stayed for the whole thing and can add details if he wants to do so.
“Anyway – the next event took place around 9 am yesterday morning. NAP was holding a Work Day in the Woods. Though I had no intention of actually cutting buckthorn and honeysuckle, I had decided to attend if only to take photos for a collage. Given the prediction of hot and humid weather for the day I didn’t expect much of a turnout. NAP is now in the process of working with the City’s Parks Department through their Volunteer Hub site and communications are still a work in progress. Well, I sure was wrong about attendance! While Phil Huhn and I waited by the bulletin board and were joined by another co-op person, Peter Bednekoff, and a young man who looked to be around 14 or 15, a whole group of people were gathering beyond one of the blue construction barriers. The boy’s father drove over to tell him and pretty soon we were all over there where the initiation rituals were in progress.
I was amazed to see 15 to 20 participants gathered on the freshly laid asphalt of the new section of the parking lot! After the basics were taken care of they trooped over to the woods and the NAP folks – all of them new to me – led them into the Korshack section – behind the co-op – and set them to work cutting spindly buckthorn and honeysuckle shrubs. Most of the crew were in their late teens and early twenties, but there were a couple of older dudes in the mix, including Mark Charles, the steward of Mary Beth Doyle park about 3 miles northwest of Mitchell Scarlett. An even older guy, whose (first or last) name is MacGregor, fell down, startling all those who witnessed his fall. Though he managed to pick himself up again, I suspect the NAP folks were a little worried for the rest of the day. After taking a lot of photos, I said goodbye and went home just in time to tell Manfred, who was still asleep when I left, what was going on and take his blood pressure before napping on the couch for a half hour.”
My comment (Phil):
We knocked it out of the park. I overheard the NAP people saying they were going to need more things for us to do. We just moved a little west along either side of the trail. I moved into the hidden marsh area that is home to frogs (see Spring Peepers). I was able to cut down some 2 to 3 inch diameter buckthorns, which were over 20 feet high. As I understand it, NAP folks will return in the winter to treat the stumps with herbicide.
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