Well here goes nothin’!
Today was my very first day as a Vegetation Control Technician. Holy moly was it difficult! We are currently working on two properties in the area which I am going to refer to as MMY. On each property there are various projects for us to work on. Each day we decide what we are going to work on, we pick up our selected herbicides, and we head out to the job site. My partner, Matt, has already been at MMY for 3 weeks. He started as soon as he finished school and I joined him once I graduated.
On my first day, we started off the morning with some logistical things in the office and then we headed out to our first site. This site is called the barn because well… it’s behind a barn. Here we are working on removing barberry (Berberis thunbergii). It looks just like this:
This particular species is invasive to the United States, it was introduced in 1875. It is originally native to Japan and was introduced as an ornamental for its bright red berries and deep red/purple coloring in the fall. This shrub takes over the under story of the forest where all the saplings are starting to grow. It can grow very fast and take over an area quickly as it competes with native trees and herbaceous plants. Now they don’t call this plant barberry because it’s soft and fuzzy. There are prickles all over its surface making it very hard to work with. It is our job to help remove it from the area and this was the easy part of the day.
We stopped for lunch which was left over pizza today.
Then we headed back out to the next site where I would meet my worst enemy.
This is our next invasive to eradicate: wisteria. I cannot get over how terrible this vine is! It grows along the ground in a long row by the use of runners (like wild strawberries or walking ferns) to begin with, then it shoots up and wraps around trees like this:
It competes with the tree for its resources and uses it as a ladder to reach the top of the canopy and take over. Tomorrow I’ll add in a picture of what a tree consumed by wisteria looks like to give you a better idea of why we’d like to get rid of it. It is native to China and was introduced again as an ornamental in the 1800s. Individual plants can survive for more than 50 years! This particular species is very aggressive and can take over the habitat of native species quite rapidly. We use a cut stump method for removal where we cut the vine as close to the roots as possible and then apply very concentrated glyphosate (commercially know as Round Up) . This is a fairly common practice and it is used throughout the country for invasive control and management. It’s a tedious process to cut and spray each plant but we’re making it work!
I am covered in scratches and bruises and it’s only day one! Since I bruise like a peach I think it might be fun to keep track of what my legs look like each day, maybe my injuries if I have any, and of course a tick count! So at the end of each daily log you’ll find pictures and a status update. Enjoy!
The Plant Lady
Day 1
Forest: 1 Rachel: 0
Injuries: -possible slipped disc in my back -all the bruises ever (see picture below)
Tick count: 1
Tick Total: 1
And yes, those are bruises not bites.
theplantladychronicles 