Scott Little
Parks Conservancy
??
??
On our sixth visit, Henry and I volunteered in the Presidio of San Francisco where multiple invasive species had taken over an area near a construction site. Our job was to dig up and remove these invasive plants, including radishes, nettles, thistles, and other weeds. The reason these plants are so dangerous is because when the majority of them came from Europe in the 1700s, they were and still are not affected by the diseases and predators of the Americas. Thus, they are allowed free reign to grow and outcompete native plants by not giving them any room to grow. In order to restore the area to its natural state, we used pickaxes and our hands to dig up and pull out the weeds, and then planted native species in their place.
This painstaking process went on for hours as we worked our way down the site. But while the work was hard, it was incredibly gratifying to see the progress we had made. What had been large patches of prickly weeds were now neatly planted plots of native species. And also after six visits, I began to make bonds with some of the members that I had encountered multiple times. We talked at our break time about our love for nature, and even were lucky enough to get a lecture from one of the volunteer leaders. He taught us about asters such as sunflowers, which are actually hundreds of tiny flowers that come together to form one larger “flower.” We were then able to look at examples of asters in a nearby garden, and this learning experience to me really made me realize why the work I was doing was worthwhile. We were helping to preserve the natural beauty of our local world, one day at a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment