By Cecilia Black

Earth Day is the Super Bowl of conservation efforts for PCD’s Water Quality Team! The months leading up to this event are filled with promotion and planning, no easy task when juggling logistics for seven project sites. This year, volunteer sign-ups required us to purchase more tools to fill the demand. The new shovels, wheelbarrows, and grass knives will be used by volunteers in the future.

We were able to remove a whopping 4,000 square feet of invasive plants (primarily blackberry), at the time when they come out of dormancy and start trying to take over again. This huge upwelling of volunteer support means invasive removal this summer will be much more manageable. Early-season help for native plants impacts their long-term survival. Invasive species are especially harmful to our native plants during the growing months (late spring to early fall) because water resources are increasingly limited. Additionally, invasives are great at shading out native plants, which reduces the capacity of these beneficial species to establish themselves.

We look forward to seeing our Earth Day volunteers return throughout the year and would like to thank everyone who attended to support the important habitat restoration work we do.