Watering the newly planted natives.
Photo by Sheri Knauer.

The November 2 work day at JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary was another one of those days when multiple projects needed to be undertaken. We had 19 volunteers divided into two teams and four very different tasks to accomplish.

Before splitting into teams, all of the volunteers trekked over to the LeSabre Pool hauling fencing, posts, shovels and containers of water – everything except the plants (which had already been brought to the work site). Then a small group split off to head back to the storage shed to pick up tools for another task.

Under the leadership of Gerco Hoogeweg, the larger team worked on the first planting for the vernal pool restoration project that will continue through 2025.  An area above the pool had been cleared of invasives to make room for planting 19 native trees and shrubs and 23 herbaceous perennials. (All were propagated from seeds collected at JK Black Oak.) While digging the holes for the plants, we encountered plenty of rocks, roots and very hard ground. We could have used more than the one pickaxe we had.  It took us just over an hour to get everything planted and watered, and to put a fence around the planting area to keep out deer.

Spreading wood chips from the utility sleds. Photo by SA Ferguson

The smaller team, under the leadership of Sheila Ferguson, was spreading wood chips around the plots that were planted in the meadow during the October work day.  Wood chip borders approximately 4 feet wide and 3 to 4 inches deep had already been established, but needed more wood chips to complete them. We loaded up utility sleds from the mound of wood chips, pulled them over to the planting plots, and distributed the chips where they were still needed.

After a short break for water and snacks, it was time for the teams to move on to the next tasks.  The planting team became the tree-caging team.  The team needed to install over 60 tree cages to protect tree seedlings around the Wood Duck Pool. Would it be possible to get them all done before the end of the work day?  To make the process more efficient, all tree cages were distributed to where they needed to be.  Then five volunteers pounded in the wooden posts for the cages. Once the first few posts were in,  other volunteers started putting the cages over the posts and used zip ties to secure the cages to the posts, leaving a gap of 4 to 6 inches at the bottom (to facilitate invasive removal). It took around 75 minutes to get them all installed.

The wood chip team continued to work in the southwestern meadow, but switched to controlling goldenrod in a nearby planting area.  Since this area was planted with a variety of natives in October 2022, two species of goldenrod had completely overtaken the area.  Some of the plants remain, but they are being outcompeted by the goldenrod.  Since the ground is completely dry, pulling out the goldenrod was not an option.  So the five members of the team used hand clippers to take out the goldenrod and bag them up to keep the seeds from spreading.  Clipping the goldenrod while avoiding the other natives made it slow going, so a few of the volunteers will come back to work on the patch again while the fluffy seedheads remain intact.

To protect the environmentally sensitive habitat and rare species, JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary is not open for general public access.

The post Tree Seedlings, Cages, Wood Chips and More for the November Work Day appeared first on Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.