New stewardship site

For the summer of 2010, I decided to switch to a different site although not very far from Riverdale Farm.  It's actually right across the river on the east side.  It's still in Riverdale in Toronto, thus the new name of my blog.  A few years ago, a new wetland was created at the base of Riverdale Park and last year was the first year a stewardship group was formed at this new site called Riverdale Park East Wetland.

It's a small site with a woodland at the back and the pond in the middle almost always dry up in the summer.  Because of its size, it can be managed easily with a small team of 4 or 5 people which seems to be the size of the team this year.

This is what the pond looks like in the middle of May so I can imagine what it will be like in the summer.  There isn't a lot of water there.

However, like any other site in the valley, there is no shortage of garlic mustard and it was about time we started pulling those.  Donwatcher has just written an interesting post about garlic mustard.

 

We also saw an abondance of this plant which according to the Field Guide to Wildflowers may be either Cleavers or Wild Madder.  If it's Cleaver, the stem should be very scratchy with recurved prickles.  I'll have to wait until next week to verify that.  In any case, these species are alien and their presence is not a good thing.

There is however a Silver Maple which is nice to see.

The team will also be working at Chester Springs Marsh.  There used to be a stewardship team there but it stopped a few years ago mainly because it's not very easy to access.  Luckily, from Riverdale Park East, it's easier to get there and we will go a few times in the summer.

I'll keep you posted throughout the summer with the progress of my new stewardship team.