Good day!  A BRAT volunteer is a special person, someone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty or their pants wet.  Someone who likes to learn, enjoys wildlife, and likes to play in or on the water.  He or she goes boating, fishing, tubing, birdwatching, walking, biking, hiking or snowshoeing.  A BRAT understands that we are all a part of the watershed, that we all live downstream.  And a BRAT understands the importance of making a commitment to taking care of our river, of lending a hand when possible and helping to make a difference.

 

I want to thank each and every one of you for your past participation, your input, your future enthusiasm, and your support of what I'm trying to do.  Making the Black River a celebrated, vibrant part of all our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren.  I could not do a fraction of what I do without you.

 

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Well, we are on track for some knotweed-tackling this coming summer, so I wanted to update you on how that looks.  Please let me know which aspect(s) of the project you're interested in and available to participate in.

 

Mapping: if we want to control Japanese knotweed, we've got to know where it is and how fast it's spreading.  Using the maps from our Visual Assessment a couple of years ago, we will be canoeing and kayaking the Black River looking for knotweed.  Most attention needs to be paid to tributaries and erosion as you find stands of knotweed.  The challenge will be to go slow enough to actually map the knotweed fairly accurately in terms of where it is and how much there is in a given stand.  This will likely require a team effort; one person paddles, the other takes notes on a map.  Some parts of the river will be accessible by foot, and that's great ~ better, even, so long as you are able to walk parallel to the river on a road and not on someone's property.  We want to get a solid idea of where the knotweed is, and we can work on landowner outreach as we go.  Our hand-drawn maps will provide the basis for the more detailed GPS mapping of the stands, probably in conjunction with the Regional Planning Commission.  This will allow us to being developing a digital database of knotweed, which will have lots of applications as time goes on and the knotweed marches on.

 

So...we'll need mappers to grab a section or two of the river, anywhere from the headwaters in Plymouth down to Springfield.

 

I'll need someone to help me with a mass-mailing to all the  landowners who have river-front property or who are along a tributary stream that is infested.  This means label-sticking, folding, and stamping.

 

***  Another part of this multi-pronged project will be a demonstration site.  I have the enthusiastic participation of Tim at Alternative Printing on River Street (Route 106) here in Springfield.  His parking lot is bordered on one side by a thick stand of knotweed that fills a ditch about the size of a large mini-van, I believe.  The ditch does NOT have water flowing in it, so it is a good site for us to get active in.

 

The concept with this demo site is multi-faceted: we want to show the community what knotweed is, demonstrate techniques for getting rid of it responsibly and effectively, and show that we are a team committed to achieving results in a hands-on way, forming parnterships and making local connections.  To that end, I'm going to lots of press releases and photos, and try to get the local radio station involved somehow, plus local area public-access television.

 

My plan is this: there is an overall schedule that we'll need to adhere to as a group for managing this site.  Individuals can plug in and help with one cutting session or all of them, one stem-count or all of them, site setup or cutting removal, some or all.  You can be as involved as you like; every single bit helps!!!  I'd love to see the site up and running and then have a school class come over to check it out and participate.  I'd love to have a group of homeschoolers come and do the same thing.  I'd love for the Scouts to come and do a cutting or part of one, or for the local Rotary Club to lend a hand in part of it, or the Enviro Group at the high school.  Or the Tech Center's Natural Resources Department.  Get the idea?  It's a community project and I want to involve the community.

 

SO....if you're interested in the schedule for the demo site, or in helping to request items be donated from local businesses, PLEASE let me know ASAP so we can start the ball rolling.  I've got it all worked out on paper, we've just got to get enough folks on board to put it into practice.  I see this really going places and branching out as a project, and I see landowners coming to the understanding that BRAT is all about partnership and action, and NOT about regulation or petitions or anything like that.

 

There will need to be site set-up in April (map the site, photograph, stake it out and measure it).  In May, we'll estimate the stem count, do a first cutting and digging of roots, bag and remove the cuttings from the site.  This cut/dig/bag will get done in another six weeks, and then we'll cut every four to six weeks after that, until the end of the growing season.  I've got spades, but we'll need to find a place that will loan us loppers/shears.  I've also got canvas gloves from previous RiverSweeps, and I'm sure that 371 Restaurant will let us get ice water for all our hard work.  They share the parking lot with the printer.

 

Next year, after a spring assessment of the site, we'll hopefully be able to begin planting native vegetation to out-compete the knotweed that may remain on-site.  I'm going to talk to all the neighbors to get their opinions on what to plant, but I have a list of what I will recommend (lilacs for wind-break and privacy, jewelweed to combat the knotweed and invite hummingbirds, Joe-Pye-Weed for butterflies and more color).

 

That's all for THIS email...there are so many more projects coming down this pike that I'll be sending out missives to get input from you on the different events and activities.  Look for me in your inbox in the weeks to come!

 

Warmest regards,

 

Kelly

Projects: Knotweed