What's New?

What Is a Habitat Restoration Project?

At the project site along Ridley Creek, we are joining the Chester-Ridley-Crum Watershed Association and other groups are working to turn a dense, impassible, tangle of invasive plant species into a natural area that can be a home to native plants and wildlife. This kind of transformation requires a lot of time, a lot of money, and many volunteers. Here are a few photos to give you a basic idea of the process:

Most of the site looked like the photo above - full of
Japanese knotweed and multiflora rose

Edge of project area after 2nd year of remediation

Cleared and planted with grass.
The tiny grass plugs may not look like much...

but before long they will grow in like
these and help keep down the weeds
 

As of September 2008, over 300 trees and shrubs have been planted on the site, along with 600 grass plugs. See our conservation page for more details on this project.

Open House Ends Summer Meeting Break

On September 9th we held a special open house meeting to start off the 2008/2009 meeting schedule. Our main goal was to encourage potential new members to come find out what we are all about. Although the weather turned out to be fine, the forecast was grim and for most of the day the skies were threatening. Perhaps that may have kept some people away, but we did have a few new faces turn out as well as a good showing of regular club members - especially for a September meeting. Special thanks are due to all of the club members who helped with the food, demonstrations, casting, and other preparations.

September 13th, 2008 - Grass Plugs

Due to the rains the prior day and overnight, the stream level was too high for planting grass plugs on the bank on the Ridley Creek Road side as planned. Instead, we held an abbreviated session to plant 150 grass plugs in the habitat restoration area. A good turnout from DMTU as well as the CRC and other groups made for a very easy work session for all. The following DMTU members participated:

 

Two members of the South Jersey/Ray Nierle TU chapter also came out to help us - Howard Brooks and Steve Moody. We thank them, as well as all of our volunteers, for helping out.

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING

July 19th, 2008 - Tree Watering

The trees and shrubs we planted earlier this year are doing well. Only a very small fraction of them have died this year - far fewer than last year. This is likely due to better weather conditions, but also our efforts to water and weed them as needed, as well as the use of cages instead of tubes to deter deer. The following members joined CRC Director Anne Murphy and CRC President Gary Snyder for two hours to water the trees and shrubs:

• Ed Collier
• Greg Shaffer
• Lynn Shickling
• Dave Wharton

June 21st, 2008 - Tree Watering & Weeding

The Following members spent 2.5 hours helping CRC Director Anne Murphy water and weed the trees and shrubs that were planted in April:

• Shane Campbell
• Lynn Shickling
• Dave Wharton

DMTU meets at 7:30 pm on the 1st Tuesday of each month (except July and August) at the Delaware County Field & Stream Association clubhouse.

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