Belmont Conservation Volunteers Need Help

By Leonard Katz and Dean Hickman

For several years, Belmont Conservation Volunteers has led spring Saturday morning garlic mustard pulls, which are succeeding in controlling this damaging plant in the most high-priority affected areas of the Lone Tree Hill Belmont Conservation Land. However, there remains much else to do to protect Belmont’s conservation lands from other plants that threaten native plant communities.

In the past year, we broadened our group activities to go after Akebia quinata in September, October, March, and April. This ‘chocolate vine’ displaces native ground cover. It also threatens to end natural forest renewal by smothering the young trees needed to replace old trees as they die.

Volunteers have made good progress. However, complete extirpation is needed to protect Lone Tree Hill’s woodlands from Akebia spreading from the small area that is currently infested. This spot is across the seasonal Junction Brook from the kiosk above the Pleasant Street entrance to Lone Tree Hill (below marker 12.)

We have not yet succeeded in recruiting the volunteers needed to finish this work—or to become a sustainable community group and to achieve our goals of restoring and maintaining the health of our woodland and meadow conservation land.

Please join our Google Group at groups.google.com/g/belmont-conservation-volunteers to receive our event email announcements and join us and perhaps help lead our efforts.

We plan to restart weekly Saturday morning Akebia control again on Saturday, September 13. We are also active in less regularly scheduled ways, such as going after winged-knotweed especially after rains (when digging it out is most effective).

Please help us build our Belmont community group to protect our local plant communities and restore our natural spaces for you and everyone to enjoy!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to us at belmontconservationvolunteers@gmail.com. You can find out more at www.sustainablebelmont.net/belmont-conservation-volunteers/ or contact us directly via email.

For more information on our group, some of our leaders, and our work on Akebia, see belmontvoice.org/volunteer-group-tackles-invasive-species-at-lone-tree-hill/

Dean Hickman and Leonard Katz are leaders of the Belmont Conservation Volunteers.