The Green Herons

In 2023 Nolan discovered that Sticky Bedstraw (a noxious weed also called Catchweed) had taken over a large part of our ravine and become a serious nuisance. It was smothering our bloodroot patch and causing physical injury to other small plants by blanketing an area almost 20 meters wide.

In May of 2023 we started the process of hand pulling.

By the end of 2023 we had left a large area of uncovered ground that was quickly invaded by Garlic Mustard and Dames Rocket (more invasives) so we found some community support and were given a grant to restore the land properly.

In 2024 we found that a few areas had cleared and the sticky weed was only left in pockets around the edges (but still hand pulled 18 garbage bags of the destructive stickyweed, garlic mustard, and dames rocket).

With the help of the Invasive Species Center Action Fund we black tarped an area that was the worst with no other native vegetation, and restored the barren ravine with scattering blood root seeds (from our rescued patch), and adding potted ginger and Canada anemone.

Finally, after two years of a war on invasive plants, we have large areas of our ravine completely eradicated of stickyweed. This year we only had half a garbage bag of invasives…and a year 2 return of native plants taking over the area!! Gotta love good news stories!! Congrats to all our youth who are celebrating this success.