We have now spent 3 weeks at the Fort Worth Nature Center. The work is tiring but seeing the progress we make at the end of our sessions is rewarding. In past ecology classes I have learned about the harmful effects of invasive species and I feel like I am getting to now see it first-hand. I had not heard of privet until this class. It is easy to identify since it seems to grow as much as it can and spread far and wide. It is easy to cut once you can figure out where it is coming from. Seeing the base of the plant makes its impact more clear. No other plants are underneath where the privet is -- it is crowding them all out. I noticed that there were numerous dead trees around where the privet is and I'm not sure if they're related but I imagine that the privet is hogging a lot of the ground water for its roots.
In the first class we were trying to tackle bamboo. This was a physically challenging day due to the thickness of the bamboo. I had not even known that it could be found in Texas, let alone that it was acting as an invasive species at the Refuge. After doing some research into it, I found out that bamboo has an aggressive underground root system. I was glad to hear that they got a machine to help them clear it out.
I have really enjoyed feeling like I'm helping the Nature Center. What a team of us can accomplish in a couple hours saves them time/effort that they can now divert elsewhere. Moreover, when you can look back and see a clear area that was once completely taken over by an invasive species gives me hope that the native vegetation and animal life will be able to return. The photo I captured below is a region I helped clear!
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