This week has seen some gains and losses. In the losses department was the loss of three, yes three, huge native hardwoods from a yard several houses down. This included a White Oak, an Eastern Poplars, and an ash species. All were forty to fifty feet tall with a sight estimated DBH of 20-25 inches. DBH, or diameter at breast height, is a standard way to measure trees and arborists or dendrologists will recognize these were large trees. A drive-by suggested the ash had a rotted center, but the other two seemed perfectly healthy. I can't possibly guess why these trees were cut and they may have been perfectly legitimate reasons, but all I know for sure is that my southern skyline is now barren and this was a major blow to hyperlocal wildlife.
The removal took two days. Before work started on the second day the only Hairy Woodpecker I have seen here worked through the yard quickly and then perched high on the denuded trunk of the poplar before flying off. These were the trees in which the Pileated Woodpecker showed up a week or so ago. And even while the workers were in the tree and cutting pieces, a Red-bellied woodpecker landed hear one of them, looked back and for as if confused, and moved on. Now these trees are gone. What took probably third or forty years to grow was gone in two days.
Meanwhile on my side of the property lines I have been working hard to modify the habitat for the better. I have begun the arduous task of removing two large stands of Japanese Knotweed. This aggressive invasive plant grows incredibly quickly, deprives nearby plants of water, and it very difficult to remove because of a tough root system and weak stems. If you pull them the stems beak leaving the root to regrow. They also have a high capacity for vegetative reproduction, or spontaneous grown from cut pieces.
The smaller stand is in sub-prime habitat and the plants are a little smaller. I took to these stand will all manner of wrath and recklessness and I obliterated the plants with shoved, hand, and machete. The pieces were left to desiccate in the sun--a surefire way to kill just about any herbaceous plant. Of course some of the roots regrew but unlike a remediation site in a natural area, I live here. Every day I can come out and pull, cut and destroy until they have ceased to exist. I am making progress and this stand will soon be gone.
The second stand is more difficult. It is larger, in better habitat, and intertwined with poison ivy and multiflora rose. Removing the plants without rash or cuts is challenging. I have opted for chopping most of the plants down a few inches above the ground. This doesn't kill them at all, but it does allow me to see and avoid the poison ivy below and in general remove a lot of exotic biomass. The knotweed does not regrow as well after cutting as its initial growth in the spring, allowing me more time to deal with it and giving some struggling plants below a competitive advantage (which in my case include two native raspberry species and others).
In the additions category, I have purchased a 'Duke' cultivar of Highbush Blueberry and a wild type specimen as well. Blueberries were domesticated and bred here in New Jersey, so they are especially appropriate to have on the property. Neither of these is installed yet. I have also added a number of animals to the yard list, including False Potato Beetle, Green Bottle Fly, Great Blue Heron (a flyover), and Great Crested Flycatcher (heard off property and likely having bred nearby).
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