Priscilla, Tom, Roy, Elizabeth, and Kurt. Jamie took the picture.
Yesterday a crew of six stewards, including me, headed out to clear the upper Sonoma Overlook Trail meadow of invasive Italian thistle. We made one complete sweep of the upper meadow and emerged with ten contractor debris bags full of the nasty weed, as well as some remaining invasive Yellow starthistle, which unfortunately was a surprise.
Elizabeth Garsonnin, Priscilla Miles, Jamie Nelson, Tom Sours, and Kurt Teuber came out to help with this important battle. If we hit Italian thistle hard now on the upper meadow, before it completely drops its seed, we have a chance of eventually eradicating it instead of allowing it take over completely.
Although we’ve been largely successful in pushing it away from the trail, we are still challenged in large areas where Italian thistle is gaining the upper hand. On the Montini Preserve, my focus has been simply to get it off the trail, as that is the only reasonable goal for that property at the moment. But on the Sonoma Overlook Trail property, we have an opportunity to eradicate it further back from the trail. Eventually, some years from now, my goal will to be to not even see it from the trail, but that is clearly some years out still, and may never be achieved on the Montini Preserve, where it’s fairly rampant.
Today I went out to assess the invasive Yellow starthistle infestation this year. I’m happy to say that it’s less than last year, but it’s still there. We may still be several years away from complete eradication.
I’ve been pulling Italian thistle (an invasive monster) since mid-November. It’s now mid-March and we still have very young plants coming in (see pic, gloved finger for scale). Today, I decided to call it the “third wave” but I have no idea if it comes in waves at all, or just constantly. Or if it comes in waves, how many can we expect? Five? Ten?
Recently I noticed that there was very little room to stand in front of our display at the top of the trail (see picture). Frankly, I couldn’t believe why that spot was chosen, when moving it several feet to the left would have been better by far. But whatever, it’s what we now need to deal with.
I finally gave up sooner than I would have otherwise, leaving a ridge of rock jutting up from the trail, since at the time I had no other choice. Perhaps later I can reduce it more, and create a smooth surface, but one battery’s worth of power is about all I can take on my wrist.
