Weeding the Pine Bush

Sounds bad, right, but only weeding a couple areas on a little dune. In Albany, we have a natural pine bush left over from the last ice age, and the Palisades by NYCity was the dam, so we got the sand! It is so beautiful, walking out in it you think you will see the ocean as soon as you climb the next dune, but no, only the NTS Thruway! Over the years, roads have cut up the area, then lots of building, including a hugemongous mall, at which I personally try never to shop! Some of us old hippies still have our “things!”

One of the main things they are doing is killing off the invasives and replanting the natives. One of the worst of the invasives is the black locust trees, and school kids come out in the spring and help girdle trees. I did this last year, it is fun and hard work! Replanting scrub oak and pitch pines.

Also in the school program, lupine seeds are planted, and cared for until time to bring to the dunes and planted. In the top picture, all the little flags showwhere the baby lupines were planted by these school kid, and these kids were in lower grades! Also New Jersey Tea and Horsemint are introduced as native species to the pine bush.

I volunteer, and right now I have been trying to get the weeds under and around the lupines, because the seeds need bare sand and heat to break the pods for the seeds to germinate. Originally, lightening would spark natural fires, that kept the invasives out and helped the natives release their seeds. Today, they do prescribed burns in areas.

[caption id="attachment_269" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lupines in full bloom"][/caption]

Uncategorized | RSS 2.0 | Respond | Trackback |