#deveg

There's another section of our lovely overgrown railway vegetation cut back, trees cut to boundary and ground cover left untreated as we found numerous little lizards and newts along the route. Last bit of Bedford complete for XYZ rail for us, onto the next big project 👍 #treesurgeon #treesurgery #rail #railway #deveg #devegetation https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfto2TBBN9/?utm_medium=tumblr

We want to say thank you to our park vegetation crew and all who came to work with the Mount Rainier National Park Associates last Saturday. The crew worked at the Thompson Property in the Northwest Corner of the Park (where the Carbon River Ranger Station is located) where we filled over 20 garbage bags of Herb Robert (aka Stinky Bob) which secretes a chemical through its roots that is toxic to our native plants. Combine that with its dehiscent seeds (meaning the plants pits its seeds away from the mother plant) and you’ve got a plant that is very good at taking over large areas very quickly. We also pulled Fox Glove and Bull and Canada Thistle which are also quick spreaders. While it’s unlikely we will ever fully eradicate these species from this area of the park, keeping them under control and away from visitor centers and maintenance staging areas helps us prevent their spread into other areas of the park where have not yet colonized. Thanks to all for your hard work!

Please contact John at [email protected] to let him know you are coming so he can plan accordingly.

A reminder from John Titland:  The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 16th.  This will be the annual Mount Rainier National Park Associates Exotic Plant Removal work party, which we refer to as the "deveg".  We will be working at the site of the new Carbon River Ranger Station, and the Marsh Property, both located a few miles west of the Carbon River Entrance of the park on the Carbon River Road.  The ranger station occupies a building that was formerly identified as the Carbon River Ranch.  The area is still referred to as the Thompson property.  The property extends all the way from the road down to the Carbon River. Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel, or your favorite weed removing tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear.  A warm jacket would be good to include. We will meet between 8:30 and 9:00 AM in front of the ranger station.  Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. If  you plan to attend this work party and have not already contacted John, please reply to volunteer(at)mrnpa.org and provide him with the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you.

From John Titland: The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 16th.  This will be the annual Mount Rainier National Park Associates Exotic Plant Removal work party, which we refer to as the "deveg".  We will be working at the site of the new Carbon River Ranger Station, and the Marsh Property, both located a few miles west of the Carbon River Entrance of the park on the Carbon River Road.  The ranger station occupies a building that was formerly identified as the Carbon River Ranch.  The area is still referred to as the Thompson property.  The property extends all the way from the road down to the Carbon River. To participate in the Exotic Plant Removal work party there is no need to know about native plants.  The NPS crew members we will work with will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area.  There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and use.  Safety helmets are not required. Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel, or your favorite weed removing tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear.  A warm jacket would be good to include.  We will meet between 8:30 and 9:00 AM in front of the ranger station.  Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. If  you plan to attend this work party, please reply to this email indicating that you are coming and give me the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you.  I need an estimate of the number of volunteers who will attend. A second MRNPA volunteer work party in July In the advanced stages of planning is a potential MRNPA volunteer trails work party on Saturday, July 30th at Lake Tipsoo at Chinook Pass.  The project would be to remove and replace one of the foot bridges on the path around the lake.  Howard Selmer, the seasonal ranger at Lake Tipsoo, tells me that it would be a good day to wear rubber boots or an old pair if tennis shoes because wading in the water will likely be involved.  Sounds like a fun project!   And the work site is only a few paces from the parking lot .  But that has a down side too.  Saturdays in July can be  pandemonium at Lake Tipsoo.  We may need as many volunteers to assist Howard in crowd control as we need volunteers to work on the bridge. Part of the uncertainty of this project is - on such short notice can we assemble a big enough MRNPA crew to do the whole job in one day?  If you are interested in participating in this project and really do think you can attend on July 30th, please reply to this email to tell me you can come and if you can bring additional volunteers with you.  This really is a case where I need to know now how many MRNPA volunteers will be coming.

Do you recognize this plant? If you said "Self-heal" (wrong!), you need to join our Longmire Meadow de-Ajuga-fication Project to learn more about a rapidly spreading NON-NATIVE groundcover commonly sold in garden stores. Yes, this is Ajuga reptans, aka Bugleweed. Visitors, volunteers and rangers walking along the Trail of the Shadows may have seen it at any time over the last several years and have dismissed it as Self-heal, a native species very similar in appearance. Consequently, Ajuga has spread dramatically, and now is choking out native species in an area covering at least 300 sq. ft. We need you to help us eradicate it. We have to get it before it sets seed! Soon! Now! On Wednesday July 6, we will gather on the porch of the Longmire Administration Building (the big stone building) at 9:30 AM. It's a very short walk to the site (about a tenth of a mile). There will be a quick botany briefing to assure that we only remove Ajuga, and then work will proceed on a grid similar to that used at archaeological digs. This will ensure that we get a high percentage of the plants. It is fairly easy to pull, but many of the plants are tiny, so if you have latex or nitrile gloves, please bring them. For those tougher specimens, we'll have a few dandelion forks on hand. Volunteers should be able to sit on the ground or kneel, so if you have a pad, bring that as well. Please RSVP to Crow at [email protected] with the number of volunteers you'll be bringing.

It's time to start thinking ahead to summer! Mount Rainier National Park Associates has released the dates for their summer Saturday work parties. During 2016, MRNPA will be conducting six volunteer work parties at Mount Rainier, consisting of four Saturdays of trail maintenance and two Saturdays "gardening in the Park." Please mark your calendars to join us on any or all of the following dates. The locations will be determined by park staff about two weeks before each volunteer work party. April 30 - trail maintenance (a great day to get that first spring outing at Mount Rainier) May 21 - trail maintenance June 18 - trail maintenance July 16 - "deveg" (exotic plant removal) August 13 - trail maintenance during the day, followed by a pot luck dinner and an overnight camp for the volunteers who have worked that day September 10 - "reveg"  (planting wildflower seedlings to re-establish alpine meadows) I hope to see you on one, or more, of these MRNPA volunteer work parties. John Titland Volunteer Coordinator Mount Rainier National Park Associates For more information, contact John at [email protected]

From John Titland: Greetings, The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 11th.  This will be the annual Mount Rainier National Park Associates Exotic Plant Removal work party, which we refer to as the "deveg".  We will be working at the site of the new Carbon River Ranger Station, which is located a few miles west of the Carbon River Entrance of the park on the Carbon River Road.  The ranger station occupies a building that was formerly identified as the Carbon River Ranch.  The area is still referred to as the Thompson property.  The property extends all the way from the road down to the Carbon River.  There will be an abundance of invasive, exotic plants to remove. To participate in the Exotic Plant Removal work party there is no need to know about native plants.  The NPS crew members we will work with will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area.  There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and use.  Safety helmets are not required. Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel, or your favorite weed removing tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear.  A warm jacket would be good to include.  We will meet between 8:30 and 9:00 AM in front of the ranger station.  Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. If  you plan to attend this work party, please email to volunteer (at) mrnpa.org indicating that you are coming and give me the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you.  I need an estimate of the number of volunteers who will attend. John Titland Volunteer Coordinator Mount Rainier National Park Associates