which_chick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
which_chick) wrote2020-04-02 05:47 pm
which_chick) wrote2020-04-02 05:47 pm
Entry tags:
Things To Do During Covid-19 or... Social Distancing With a Purpose
As our dear governor has declared my profession "non life-sustaining", removed my ability to evict non-paying tenants, still expects me to pay my taxes and apartment building utility bills, and has now confined me to my domicile... I need some things to do that are NOT sitting in front of the computer hitting "refresh" on websites filled with depressing, horrifying, or world-altering news.
I know this stuff is happening. I try to keep abreast of current events, distressing and partisan (somehow) though they may be. But a day-long focus on this sort of thing is not good for me.
So I am trying to do other things. Productive, outside things.
While it is probably very difficult for some folks to have "outside time" that does not involve at least SEEING another human being, I do not have that problem. I live in the middle of nowhere and there are very few people around at the best of times, which this is not. I did not see, hear, or otherwise encounter another human soul while I was out and about today doing my Social Distancing.
My current project is Japanese Barberry Mitigation. This is an excellent time of year to engage in Barberry Mitigation. It's green and leafed out when almost nothing else is. So, it's really easy to spot in the woods.
It's reasonably hard work, good for getting out one's frustrations with the world while burning some of the "I am so depressed and I'm stuck at home all day, let me eat ALL THE THINGS" calories. I don't know about all ya'll, but if I don't make a serious effort to be Not In The House during a reasonable portion of the day, I will need pants two sizes larger at the end of this shit.
Japanese barberry is an unpleasant invasive species. It's got vicious needle-like thorns. It harbors the ticks that cause Lyme disease. It is inedible to our local wildlife and the berries remain on the fucking bushes through the winter because the birds don't fucking eat them. In the spring they drop and root where they fall, forming impenetrable thickets of the stuff. Japanese barberry is a blight upon the forests of the eastern US. Don't just take my word for it...
The PA DCNR hates it. UCONN says it harbors the Lyme disease ticks". The Fire Effects Information System has a fairly lengthy discussion of barberry, as well.
It is not a good plant. It is a horrible plant. It is a horrible plant that spreads rapidly along the margins of its existing growth. (Seeds sprout better near adult plants because adult plants make higher "local" humidity in a microclimate. This is also why ticks like them.) Adult plants also tip-root easily, like if a tree branch falls onto an existing shrubbery and pushes a branch to the ground, that branch will root and start being a new node for a plant to form. Japanese barberry is unpleasant to be around (ticks, needle-like thorns) and it replaces native FOOD FOR OUR WILDLIFE plants with shit they can't/won't eat.
But... it's easy to identify, especially this time year. It's also FAIRLY easy to remove, even for relatively large plants. But probably there's enough of it that someone might be overwhelmed before they even got started.
Tips for success in Japanese Barberry Mitigation.
1. Take a picture of your work area BEFORE YOU START MITIGATING.
2. Wear thick gloves. I wear a double layer of gloves, inside are soft fuzzy winter gloves, then outside layer is thick leather work gloves. Long sleeves and long pants are also a very good idea.
3. Wear sturdy footwear. Ankle protection might be nice.
4. Schedule time for Tick-Inspection afterwards. There are a lot of ticks in barberry thickets.
5. Have with you a pair of hand-pruners (like you might use for roses) and also a robust pair of loppers suitable for chopping 1" diameter woody stems.
6. Have a plan for what to do with your "mitigated" barberry plants. They need to be kept out of contact with the ground (or they will re-root) for long enough to actually die. I stack them on fallen trees or in crotches of trees. Gives the project area a nice "Blair Witch" feel to it, I think.
7. Day by day, take pictures of your mitigation efforts at the end of the day. This is so that you can get some morale out of it because it takes a while and you won't feel like you're getting very far. It's best if you stand in the same spot every day to take the pictures.
Small Barberry Plants: One to about four stems, slender and not big. Grasp plant firmly at base, pull steadily. It will uproot fairly easily. if you are doing a walkthrough of a relatively uninfested area, you can make very good headway with the small plants using just heavily gloved hands.
Larger Barberry Plants: These plants have a central crown close to the surface. You want to lop off the roots around the crown holding it to the ground so that you can lift up the whole shebang without tearing up the dirt forever around it. Disturbed soils favor invasive species, so try not to massively disturb the soil. Step on the barberry bush about 6" up from the ground. Kind of gather the stems with your foot, like you're trying to squish the whole thing flat to one side, and step so that the tops fall away from you. This will strain the roots on the side closest to you and (hopefully) lift up the soil a bit. Where the soil is lifted or where you THINK the soil is lifted, lop your loppers. Like, shove them into the dirt, close to the base of the plant, angled at about a 45 degree angle from vertical, pointing towards the center-base of the plant, and lop. Lop all the way around on the side you can get to. Then, step away from the bush, go to the other side, step on it again, lop the soil on that side, and see if the bush is freed from the ground. If not, continue until it is. This will work with quite sizeable bushes.
Massive Barberry Plants: Lop off all branches. Remove them from work area. When you get to where there's just a stump, tie surveyor flagging to nearest tree, come back in four weeks to spray with killer.
The hand pruners are to nail smallish roots that just aren't letting go.
Also, while you're out there, you can also take on multiflora rose and japanese honeysuckle. You're already in the woods and you already have loppers and stuff. Just sayin'.
Before (Please note: EVERY BIT OF BRIGHT GREEN SHRUBBERY THAT YOU SEE HERE IS JAPANESE BARBERRY):
After (Everything on the right side of the picture that shows green is an uprooted barberry. There are no barberry on the right hand side, just piles of ex-barberry):
I know this stuff is happening. I try to keep abreast of current events, distressing and partisan (somehow) though they may be. But a day-long focus on this sort of thing is not good for me.
So I am trying to do other things. Productive, outside things.
While it is probably very difficult for some folks to have "outside time" that does not involve at least SEEING another human being, I do not have that problem. I live in the middle of nowhere and there are very few people around at the best of times, which this is not. I did not see, hear, or otherwise encounter another human soul while I was out and about today doing my Social Distancing.
My current project is Japanese Barberry Mitigation. This is an excellent time of year to engage in Barberry Mitigation. It's green and leafed out when almost nothing else is. So, it's really easy to spot in the woods.
It's reasonably hard work, good for getting out one's frustrations with the world while burning some of the "I am so depressed and I'm stuck at home all day, let me eat ALL THE THINGS" calories. I don't know about all ya'll, but if I don't make a serious effort to be Not In The House during a reasonable portion of the day, I will need pants two sizes larger at the end of this shit.
Japanese barberry is an unpleasant invasive species. It's got vicious needle-like thorns. It harbors the ticks that cause Lyme disease. It is inedible to our local wildlife and the berries remain on the fucking bushes through the winter because the birds don't fucking eat them. In the spring they drop and root where they fall, forming impenetrable thickets of the stuff. Japanese barberry is a blight upon the forests of the eastern US. Don't just take my word for it...
The PA DCNR hates it. UCONN says it harbors the Lyme disease ticks". The Fire Effects Information System has a fairly lengthy discussion of barberry, as well.
It is not a good plant. It is a horrible plant. It is a horrible plant that spreads rapidly along the margins of its existing growth. (Seeds sprout better near adult plants because adult plants make higher "local" humidity in a microclimate. This is also why ticks like them.) Adult plants also tip-root easily, like if a tree branch falls onto an existing shrubbery and pushes a branch to the ground, that branch will root and start being a new node for a plant to form. Japanese barberry is unpleasant to be around (ticks, needle-like thorns) and it replaces native FOOD FOR OUR WILDLIFE plants with shit they can't/won't eat.
But... it's easy to identify, especially this time year. It's also FAIRLY easy to remove, even for relatively large plants. But probably there's enough of it that someone might be overwhelmed before they even got started.
Tips for success in Japanese Barberry Mitigation.
1. Take a picture of your work area BEFORE YOU START MITIGATING.
2. Wear thick gloves. I wear a double layer of gloves, inside are soft fuzzy winter gloves, then outside layer is thick leather work gloves. Long sleeves and long pants are also a very good idea.
3. Wear sturdy footwear. Ankle protection might be nice.
4. Schedule time for Tick-Inspection afterwards. There are a lot of ticks in barberry thickets.
5. Have with you a pair of hand-pruners (like you might use for roses) and also a robust pair of loppers suitable for chopping 1" diameter woody stems.
6. Have a plan for what to do with your "mitigated" barberry plants. They need to be kept out of contact with the ground (or they will re-root) for long enough to actually die. I stack them on fallen trees or in crotches of trees. Gives the project area a nice "Blair Witch" feel to it, I think.
7. Day by day, take pictures of your mitigation efforts at the end of the day. This is so that you can get some morale out of it because it takes a while and you won't feel like you're getting very far. It's best if you stand in the same spot every day to take the pictures.
Small Barberry Plants: One to about four stems, slender and not big. Grasp plant firmly at base, pull steadily. It will uproot fairly easily. if you are doing a walkthrough of a relatively uninfested area, you can make very good headway with the small plants using just heavily gloved hands.
Larger Barberry Plants: These plants have a central crown close to the surface. You want to lop off the roots around the crown holding it to the ground so that you can lift up the whole shebang without tearing up the dirt forever around it. Disturbed soils favor invasive species, so try not to massively disturb the soil. Step on the barberry bush about 6" up from the ground. Kind of gather the stems with your foot, like you're trying to squish the whole thing flat to one side, and step so that the tops fall away from you. This will strain the roots on the side closest to you and (hopefully) lift up the soil a bit. Where the soil is lifted or where you THINK the soil is lifted, lop your loppers. Like, shove them into the dirt, close to the base of the plant, angled at about a 45 degree angle from vertical, pointing towards the center-base of the plant, and lop. Lop all the way around on the side you can get to. Then, step away from the bush, go to the other side, step on it again, lop the soil on that side, and see if the bush is freed from the ground. If not, continue until it is. This will work with quite sizeable bushes.
Massive Barberry Plants: Lop off all branches. Remove them from work area. When you get to where there's just a stump, tie surveyor flagging to nearest tree, come back in four weeks to spray with killer.
The hand pruners are to nail smallish roots that just aren't letting go.
Also, while you're out there, you can also take on multiflora rose and japanese honeysuckle. You're already in the woods and you already have loppers and stuff. Just sayin'.
Before (Please note: EVERY BIT OF BRIGHT GREEN SHRUBBERY THAT YOU SEE HERE IS JAPANESE BARBERRY):
After (Everything on the right side of the picture that shows green is an uprooted barberry. There are no barberry on the right hand side, just piles of ex-barberry):