The slope patch...and a visitor

This week, we had a small crew, so we decided to work on the slope patch located in the middle of the park. It's our unofficial site but we like to remove invasives there, so they don't come to our site. The main invasive there is Phragmites which I will talk about later this season. This time around, we had a lot of burdock to deal with.

There's always a lot of it at the front of the site in the sunniest part, so it's a big job.

There was also quite a bit of thistle to deal with.  Now the trees will have a bit of breathing space.

 

We had a visitor at the site a couple of weeks ago, a gypsy moth which is an insect native to Europe and Asia that has been severely weakening trees across North America.

Gypsy moth on a green ash tree

However, even though the gypsy moth can do damage to trees, the ash tree in this picture will have a much harder time with the Emerald Ash Borer.

But I'm tired of talking about invasive stuff, so here are pictures of Blue Flag Iris and Swamp Milkweed  from a couple of years ago. I'm hoping to see a lot more of these plants this year on the edge of the pond. 

Blue Flag Iris (Iris Versicolor)

Swamp Milkweed

I saw this sign after stewardship a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a pretty cool idea especially since Riverdale Farm was my stewardship site for a few years and we still go there 2 or 3 times in the season to work on the site. 

This sign is on Broadview north of Gerrard, on the south of Riverdale Park East.

Invasives old and new

After the bedstraw last year, we now have a new invasive. It's called Avens (could be Yellow Avens or Wood Avens we're not sure).  Nevertheless, the site is now covered with it.  In addition, it's quite hard to pull by hand, so we are using trowels.  It grows in shady places, so the back of the site is certainly ideal for it unfortunately.

We also had to start digging out some Dog Strangling Vine (DSV) that starts to appear in small patches. The site is usually almost clear of it and we want to keep it that way.

 There has been a bit of vandalism as well last week, somebody thought it would be fun to break a post of the fence and throw it on the site. Or maybe there was a fight or something. Who knows what goes on in the wood behind the site.

We can now do water monitoring on a regular basis, there's plenty of water in the pond. We'll see how things are when we get to July.

Blue Flag Iris

 And just when we thought we got rid of garlic mustard, there's some new shoots coming out that will keep us busy next season.

Back to my old site

This week, we visited Riverdale Farm Ponds which was my own site from 2006 to 2009.  I had only been back here very occasionally in the past few years. The vegetation has grown tremendously since then but I can see that the work we did back then on garlic mustard has paid off. It's still around but much less so than before. I find it quite amazing since there hasn't been a regular stewardship team here for at least two years.

 However, there is a lot of stinging nettle especially on the paths where visitors walk along on the site.  We removed a lot of it last night.

The picture is a bit out of focus but it shows the extent of the stinging nettle on the site.  Plus there was quite a bit of garlic mustard right in the middle of it, but I had to clear the nettle before getting to it.

Some of the new stewards doing a great job at clearing the path.

Last week, the Don got flooded overnight after a torrential rainfall and the water level in the ponds is significantly higher. It could also be that there is a drainage problem and that the drain is plugged up.  Nevertheless, areas that are usually pretty dry are now covered in water.

One of the observation decks is completely covered in water.

I also noticed the blue-flag irises that we planted a few years ago and they are doing really well. This planting was one of my favorite activities.

The team of stewards after removing a lot of the invasives.

Four weeks already

A couple of weeks ago, we started doing water monitoring of the pond.  We tested dissolved oxygen, phosphate and PH levels. We'll try to keep on doing it every two weeks on average throughout the summer.

The water level is fine now but usually by mid-July, the pond is pretty much dried up.

New stewards working on Garlic Mustard. They alternate between Riverdale Park East and the Humber Bay Butterfly Habitat (HBBH) site every couple of weeks. It's a nice way to get involved with the stewardship program.

Like everywhere else in the Don, Garlic Mustard is thriving in Riverdale Park.  Luckily, we didn't have much on the site itself this year, this patch is in the woods outside of the site.  

 On our visit last week, we saw a Northern Oriole. It's a bit far on this picture but we can see it's bright yellow colour.

The stewards have been doing a great job on the bedstraw and we pretty much got rid of most of it.

A bit of history

The sign at RPE Wetland. It explains what took place here and it should probably be updated but at least we know it started in 2002.  Before that, it was just mown grass like the rest of the park.

This was the first planting that took place then with the Task Force to Bring Back the Don.  Unfortunately, the task force is no longer in function but this wetland is one of its legacies.

This is pretty much the same area as it looks like now. I found this website which gives a good account of the history including when the new wetland was inaugurated.

One of the newest invasives we've had to deal with the last couple of years is galium aparine, commonly known as bedstraw because in bygone days they were dried and used as straw for stuffing mattresses. They are covered with small hairs that hook and cling like velcro. Unfortunately, it can be extremely invasive, take over a whole area and it's like walking on a carpet. When we first encountered this last year, we were literally tripping over it everywhere and it was hard to walk around the site to do our work. We ended up rolling it away as you would roll a carpet.

 These pictures are from last year, so this year we decided to tackle it early to prevent it to spread like this.

There is not a lot of garlic mustard on the site itself but the area outside the fence has a lot of it so we worked on removing those in order to prevent it from coming into the site.

Meanwhile, another group was removing stinging nettle on the area we call the island on the site. 

We discovered a bird's nest with 4 eggs in it among the stinging nettle, so we tried to hide it again with leaves and branches to protect it from predators like a raccoon we saw nearby.

Next week, we're supposed to start water monitoring. I'm hoping the water level will be sufficient in the pond as it dries up very quickly.

Back for a new season

Well, it's May 2013 and I'm starting a new season of Stewardship at Riverdale Park East.  Lots of new faces this year and quite a few returning stewards from past years. We started promptly on May 1st this year and the site is still pretty bare.

Riverdale Park East Wetland looking East

Quite a good turnout

 There are a few patches of garlic mustard but not much compared to previous years, so I'm hoping it won't be a big issue this season.

Just a few patches here and there. Last year was pretty bad as you can see here. The picture was taken on May 8, just a week later than this year and the site was literally covered.

However, the stinging nettle is thriving again and I haven't noticed any change from previous years, even though we've been tackling it diligently every year.

Some of the shrubs are in bloom, another advantage of starting so early. I usually don't see the first early flowering.

One of the new stewards almost stepped on this little guy.

For the first time ever, there are ducks in the pond. I have to explain that it's such a small body of water that usually gets dried up by the middle of summer, so I never expect to see any wildlife in it.

 Another cute pic from a previous year. This guy was hanging out on our green box.