Invasive plant removal at Thompson Creek
On May 12 a small but determined group of volunteers met at the North Coast Land Conservancies Thompson Creek site to do battle with the blackberries and scotch broom. I met TVTU members Travis Walters and Jeff Price at the Hillsboro Fred Meyer and we carpooled to the site where we were joined by Celeste Coulter, North coast Land Conservancy Stewardship Director, and volunteers David Lebo, Tyrone Snelling and Sharon Cook.
While there were some small amounts of scotch broom on the property most of the work consisted of blackberry removal. If you have helped out with this in the past, your hard work has really payed off. There are so many fewer blackberries now that removal is mainly patrolling for new growth and clipping stems at ground level.
We went for a walk upstream before getting started and enjoyed the spring weather along the creek.
The first order of business was to choose your weapon.
Then the work began. It was a sunny and warm day in Seaside!
We went over the property cutting all the blackberries and scotch broom we could see.
The hill provided the best site for large blackberry canes.
All in all we had a very enjoyable day. The weather was great and the work was not too taxing.
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| From left: Michael Ellis, Celeste Coulter, Travis Walters, Jeff Price, David Lebo |
