The Big Sweep event was on 9/5/26. As usual Big Sweep does a great job getting volunteers and organizing teams, with plenty of bags, vests and pickers. During Walnut Creek Center’s Mud Day festival volunteers from Carolina Wetlands removed over 222 pounds so all effforts were to areas around the Raleigh Greenway. The weather was perfect so we were able to have great fellowship as well as a productive day picking up trash.
For the invasive removal on 9/13/26, the Wetland Center needed us to remove a wide swath so they could gain access from the greenway to the creek, for education and testing purposes. The Japenese Hops had overwhelmed any native or exotic plant it encountered. It needed to be removed despite the heat because the annual was in flower and would soon seed. This may have been the most difficult plant I’ve removed. It was like removing interwoven sticky spaghetti!
Like a weed eater we cut a wide swath of the resilant plant that seemed to fight back, from the trail to the stream!! All while uncovering two elderberry trees and multiple river cane stalks. There were berries ready for seed on the elderberry and we spread them over a reclaimed area. Fingers crossed they’ll root and grow…..
