Volunteer Day at Burr Oak

We spent about 3 hours yesterday helping the Central Indiana Land Trust pick up trash and eradicate Bush Honeysuckle from their Burr Oak nature preserve. The preserve is located just west of the intersection of 206th Street and Highway 37 on the White River.

Central Indiana Land Trust is the entity that recently bought the Logan family's Coke Oven Hollow in Parke County, where Sara's family camped for over 20 years. Follow this link to their web site, if you want to see more. (They named the Parke County property "Mossy Point.")



Here is the group getting a briefing before we split into two groups, one to pick up trash and the other to work on the honeysuckle.










Our Land Trust leader explained that the honeysuckle is a more vigorous plant, leafing out earlier and staying green longer than the native plants. It was originally imported from the Orient as an ornamental yard plant, but soon spread to Indiana woods, and has been taking over. Here is what the area looked like when we finished.










There were 15 people working on the honeysuckle. Some of us used loppers to cut off the plants at the ground. Others hauled the brush away, and Jerry and the Land Trust leader sprayed herbicide on the stumps to prevent the plant from sprouting from the roots.










Here's the team after a morning of hard work.












This mound of trash bags is the result of the other group's efforts picking up trash from the property.