Healthy Forest - Restoring the Wissahickon

White Oak sapling just planted

Wiegard, Ave. Wissahickon Forest, Fairmount Park

Weather: clear, cool, hi. 48 degrees F, lo 42 degrees F, wind 4 - 7 mph. Habitat: Oak-Hickory Forest.

I volunteered with Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers Sunday. It was a clear beautiful day in the Wissahickon Forest. The sky was clear and that warm blue of autumn.  The glowing gold of Sugar Maples brightened up the forest. The White Oaks still have their dry and crinkly brown leaves firmly attached to branches. Many Tulip Trees are bare. Brown bare limbs and crackly dead leaves litter the forest floor.

We spent two hours this morning cutting down and pulling out Multifloral Rose, Privet and Oriental Bittersweet. In their places we planted the native forest trees of the Wissahickon, White Oak, Red Oak and Sweetbay Magnolia. Black Gum was planted down by the water.

When new trees are planted, white plastic deer guards are wrapped around the trees to stop deer from browsing (eating) the tender young branches.  Deer generally don't eat the invasive species that we have to chop out of the forest. They eat the native species they evolved with over millennium.  The deer eat some non-native plants but not the ones which become invasive. If they did, they we could walk the forest each weekend instead of digging.

Red Oak firmly in the ground

When you buy a plant from a nursery that claims to be deer-resistant, you know that if it escapes into the woods, it can become invasive because the deer can or won't eat it.

The oak trees are planted according to their likes and dislikes. White Oaks like the deep forest best so deeper in  they go. We plant Red Oaks (Quercus rubra) at the edge of the forest because the Red Oak is not so picky.

White Oaks waiting to be planted

I like doing restoration work because I am doing something about the environmental mess we are in . If I just sit, all I can think of is the devastation. Restoration work gives me hope.  And I can see instant results. The invasive vines that choke and bring down trees are gone. Privet hedges that block the view of a beautiful creek are removed. The sun shines, Chickadees call and the forest is beautiful again.

Golden leaves brighten the forest

Falls along the Wissahickon Creek

Mallard duck pair on the Wissahickon Creek

Removing English Ivy (Hedera helix L.)

On Saturday, we ripped out some problems at the local library garden. I belong to the garden friends. For the last two years we have eradicated invasive plants and planted native ones. 


We were joined on Saturday by thirty teenagers on a community service project. They did a fantastic job getting rid of the problem plant, English Ivy.


English Ivy was bought to North America by European settlers as a ornamental plant. It's native range includes Europe, western Asia and Northern Africa


It is invasive because it rapidly grows covering forest floors. By covering the floor, the plant blocks native species from growing. By this it disrupts ecosystems. 


English Ivy can also grow vertically and wind its way up through trees. It covers branches and smothers the trees, slowly killing the them.


When I was a little girl English Ivy covered the front of our house. Birds used to nest in the thick tendrils. I remember the smell. It was an unpleasant sharp smell, that rubbed off on your hands it you handled it. 


In a way I miss the Ivy. I liked the way the birds flew in and out of it.

Garlic Mustard (Allaria petiolata)

Garlic Mustard an invasive species in Philadelphia

I found just two Garlic Mustard plants in my garden this past week. This is the result of pulling the plant up year after year. It can be controlled by hand pulling. I use my Hori knife to get down to the roots and get as much of the plant out of the ground as possible. Garlic Mustard only spreads by seed, so removing the plant before it seeds, is the best way to eradicate it. The plants die after producing seed. 

Garlic Mustard is an invasive species that pops up all over Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. It was probably bought to North America by early European settlers. 

I was in Fort Washington State Park last year on a bird walk and the plant was all over the place. It was in long groups along the trails. This was just the kind of place the plant thrives in shady areas and along streams. 

The park workers and volunteers ripped the plants out but more seem to pop each year. Perhaps at some point it will be eradicated.  From what I understand if you keep pulling it up , after five years it should be gone. After five years the seeds that are in the ground are no longer viable and won’t grow.

The space and soil nutrients that Garlic Mustard uses, take from a native plant that could be there instead. The plant quickly dominates the an area crowding out others. A native plant such as Coral Bells or Virginia Bluebells would provide nectar and fit in with the natural ecosystem. Native plants such as ferns can be planted to fill in so Garlic Mustard can not re-establish itself. 

I feel I am helping to restore and keep healthy the natural ecosystem that I live in.