The Pennypack Trust hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service today,
Monday, January 21, to take advantage of people's day off work and
school, and their interest in volunteering. We had about 10 volunteers
from their early teens to retirement age who came out to help us prepare an area for reforestation.
The
volunteers spent most of their time removing branches and logs from a
woodland near the Visitor Center that had been heavily invaded by non-native plants. This is a
young woodland, and the incomplete forest canopy allowed sunlight to
penetrate to the forest floor, encouraging non-native plants to thrive.
In many
situations, downed wood (coarse woody debris) is an ecological asset.
It provides habitat for salamanders and all sorts of invertebrates at
the lower end of the food web, plus the wood decomposes and enriches the
soil with organic matter
and nutrients. But in heavily invaded woods like this one, logs and
branches prevent the stewardship staff and volunteers from keeping the
vines and non-native shrubs under control until the forest canopy
closes, so in this case we made the decision to remove the downed wood.
We'll
plant new trees in the woodland gaps in the spring. Over time, I hope
that we'll have to come back to this reforestation spot less and less
frequently as the leafy canopy fills in and casts the invasives into eternal shade.
Submitted by David J. Robertson
Executive Director.
