One day, Big memories
Graverson is one of the most beautiful parks in Waltham and when I heard it was battling a strong invasive species I was delighted to help that battle.
On Tuesday July 28th, I worked with the Waltham Land Trust to remove the Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum). This is an aggressive non-native plant in North America. It was originally brought here as an ornamental garden plant by people from Asia and Europe before we knew better. The Purple Loosestrife grows from 2 to 10 feet tall and 2 to 5 feet wide. It is a known invasive in New England because it chokes out native plants by forming dense monocultures meaning that the singular plant is growing and spreading in one area excluding other plants from growing in that area.
Photo of the Purple Loosestrife plant we removed at Graverson Park in Waltham, MA
The crew and I went to the back of Graverson Park near the wet areas and were tasked to cut the Loosestrife as close to the ground as possible. The idea was not to rip it from the ground because of the seed dispersal causing it to resprout. I went in with boots, gloves and poison ivy tech repellent because we were in a moist area with a field of poison ivy under our feet! Loosestrife tends to grow in wetland areas. We were cutting the Loosestrife, while the bees were pollinating it. This was a little bit of a scary experience because I was trying not to provoke them!
What was unknown to me before we did this job was that some of the Purple Loosestrife did not have flowers yet, but the indicator of the plant was the directly opposite leaves, which revealed to me a whole large portion of Loosestrife! Cutting this plant was not hard, but realizing you were surrounded by a field of Poison Ivy was the hard part. I was very cautious about getting Poison Ivy so I kept applying the tecnu product every time I went in and out of the area.
We then began to re-build a path to the meadow at Graverson. Prior to my volunteering, there was a path made there by the Waltham Land Trust. The plant generally took it over so we just continued to cut some plants out of the way to introduce the pathway again. We also saw some Bittersweet vine and that is always good to cut down. After a hard day at work, I said bye to the crew and wished I could do it all over again.
Clearing out the Loose strife or any invasive plant from the environment always makes me feel better about the impact I am making. It was another awesome experience and I am looking for more to come.