April 2019 – Forest and Watershed Committee Update

The snow is finally melting, and spring is finally here!  Our Boreal Forest has made it through a tough winter without any apparent damage from the heavy snow and cold.  For those of you that were not able to visit this winter, we had lots of snow! It was waist deep around my cabin.  There are some advantages to this when it comes to our spring assessment of invasive plants.  The heavy snow has flattened all the vegetation and as new plants begin to sprout it makes it much easier to identify invasive species.

Speaking of invasive species, this winter a group of Northland College students and other BYC volunteers helped to remove a significant patch of Buckthorn.  Buckthorn is an invasive shrub that can form dense thickets that choke out all other plant species. There are still other patches that need to be removed and I hope that we will get more volunteers to continue with the removal process.

One of the priorities of the Forest and Watershed Committee this year is to help our Boreal Forest Citizens to identify and remove other invasive species on our shared property.  Watch for more information about this in the coming months.

This year at the Annual Meeting we will have tree saplings available to plant on our property.  White Spruce, White Pine, and White Birch are the species available this year. If you would like to get advice on which trees are appropriate for the habitat near your cabin, I would be more than happy to help you with that by visiting your place and making recommendations.  As part of this “site assessment” I would also be able to point out invasive plants that should be removed and native plants that need to be encouraged to grow.

Watch the BYC website calendar for dates of upcoming events related to the Forest and Watershed Committee.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer!

Steve Sandstrom – Committee Chair