Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Birders helping Birds: Dead Creek WMA Volunteers needed July 7, 2022

 BIRDERS HELPING BIRDS – Invasive shrub honeysuckle is bad for birds. They eat the berries but the fruit doesn’t provide the high-fat, high-nutrient food they need before starting their fall migration. And nest predation is higher with shrub honeysuckle than with many other shrubs. In addition, invasive honeysuckle outcompetes just about everything, quickly becomes the dominant species in the forest understory, and reduces biological diversity by killing off native wildflowers, ferns, etc.

 We all can help! On July 7 (9 AM), join us for a honeysuckle cutting party at Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison. Amy Alfieri and her colleagues at VT Fish and Wildlife have chosen two sites, one along the entrance drive to Brilyea and the other in the woods at the parking area at the end of that drive. Bring loppers, saws, gloves, etc. If you don’t have these tools, come anyway and help by dragging away the cut plants. Stay for an hour, two, three, or all morning.  Please let me know if you plan to help out – for the birds we all love!    Maeve Kim

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Pollinator Plant Sale 2022 Community Center in Jericho

Photos from the conclusion of the 2022 plant sale to benefit 
the Community Center in Jericho.


Special thanks go out to Jen Greenwood for meticulous administration and communications. Kudos to Jane Sorensen for growing great native plants. 


Thank You to all who purchased plants. We wish you a happy growing season!

The sale contributed $279.00 to the Community Center. 











           















* We can recycle (reuse) the planting trays from the plant sale if you care to drop them off at 320 Browns Trace anytime. 






Thank You for Supporting the CCJ at Our Plant Sale!
From Jen Greenwood • Community Center Manager

The Community Center in Jericho Operating Committee would like to thank Bernie Paquette for organizing, Jane Sorenson (River Berry Farm) for growing, and our friends and neighbors for supporting the CCJ through our Pollinator Plant Sale. As Bernie says, "planting a mixture of perennials, shrubs, and trees that support pollinators and the overall web of life of our community."

Your purchases also helped contribute $279 to the Community Center to help us continue to provide a setting for a variety of activities such as parties, meetings, and classes and to host events that strengthen a sense of belonging to, caring about, and enjoying where we live.



There are a few Oak saplings (grown by Bernie) still available. Contact Bernie if you would like one.  A donation of your chosen amount to the Community Center in Jericho is appreciated.


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The Community Center in Jericho and Bernie Paquette bring you the 2022 Community Plant Sale.


                                                                                                              

Five plant collections for different sun/soil conditions, utilizing mostly Vermont native plants, each offered in two tray sizes, 9 plants or 21 plants. All grown in Fairfax at River Berry Farm.


See Full Details at Community Pollinator Plant Sale

Mail checks to Community Center in Jericho, P.O. Box 1018, Jericho, VT 05465

Includes a new Soft Landings* offering (See definition of Soft Landings below).


This is a benefit sale for the Community Center in Jericho, Vermont. The sale is open to everyone in Vermont.  

River Berry Farm is an organic vegetable and small-fruit family farm located on the Lamoille River in Fairfax, Franklin County, VT.  We are about 1/2 hour from Burlington, 20 minutes from Saint Albans, and Cambridge, VT. We sell plants for pollinators at the farm in Fairfax, VT, from June 1st to the end of September. Visit our website at River Berry Farm or read our Guideline for Selecting Plants and Planting a Pollinator Garden at Northeast Pollinator Plants.

The Community Center, is located at 329 Browns Trace, Jericho, VT. provides a setting for a variety of activities such as parties, meetings, and classes and hosts fun events that strengthen a sense of belonging to and caring about our community. 

Bernie Paquette is an advocate of habitat biodiversity, planting a mixture of perennials, shrubs, and trees that support pollinators and the overall web of life of our community. Biodiversity enhances ecosystem function. Planting native plants help ensure the plants will do well on their own requiring less care such as watering and fertilizing. Native plants are more likely to support our local pollinators than would non-native plants. Habitat restoration is an action we all can take on to help the soil, plants, insects, and other life restores themselves.

*NEW Soft Landings offering (Option #4): Soft landings are diverse native plantings under keystone trees or any other regionally appropriate native tree. These plantings provide critical shelter and habitat for one or more life cycle stages of moths, butterflies, and beneficial insects such as bumble bees, fireflies, lacewings, and beetles. In addition to plants, soft landings also include leaf litter, duff, and plant debris. 

Planting tip for any potted plants: Break up the bottom third of the plant plugs to help ensure the roots grow out and do not continue in the shape of the container they were in.

Spacing of plants, guidance from Jane Sorensen. 

I recommend 4 s.f. per plant, 2’ apart, so 21 plants would need 84 s.f.  

You can certainly plant closer, as close as 1 s.f. per plant, which would give a more meadow effect and then only need 21 s.f.  So a big range.  

Again, my preference is 2’ apart to allow the plants fully express their form.  

But, the plants will grow just fine much closer, and the pollinators really won’t mind either spacing or anywhere in between!


Go Botany to determine if a plant is native to Vermont 

See a full list of links to Bernie's gardening posts

Also, Announcing a series of free presentations titled "Observing Life in Your Backyard - Meet your neighbors, a backyard photo insect tour".  Each presentation will be presented via Zoom by Bernie Paquette.

"Observing Life in Your Backyard - Meet your neighbors, a backyard insect photo tour" Series Listing


1. Mr. & Mrs. Butterfly, Moth, and Caterpillar 

2. Bee in your Backyard - Bee Specialist, Generalist, Solitary, Social...

3. Bumble Bees - The Buzz Pollinators of Vermont

4. Dragonflies and Damselflies - Catch me if you can

5. Romantic interludes of Insects

6. Beneficial and Garden Pests - Insects

7. Eat or be eaten - Predator and Prey of the insect world

8. You BUG - Me Human. True Bugs

9. Wasps - Jackets required

10. Flower Flies and Mimicry

11. Native Plants for pollinators and for You - Gardening Presentation. *Email plant/planting questions to me before the presentation.

12. Four Actions to help Pollinators (View with #2, 3, and 9)

13. Pollinator Myths (View with #2, 3, and 9)

14. Bees or Wannabees? (View after #2 Bee in your Backyard)

15. Rare Bees (Not constructed yet)

16. Pollinator plate (What food requires pollinators)

17. Pollinator Diversity (Detailed description of a few bees, butterflies, moths, flies, and moths)

18. A bee nest round the year 

19. How are the pollinators doing? (Partially included in #11)

20. Pollinator Trivia

21. How Bees See Color (partially incorporated in #2)

22. iNaturalist / brief introduction on using iNaturalist

Monday, June 13, 2022

Invasive Honeysuckle - Tillotson Drive Jericho Volunteer Action





    Jericho Invasive Plant Posse.

   Things are happening in the Tillotson Homeowners Association ~25-acre site in Jericho, Vermont.  After receiving permission from the H.O.A., one of the residents (Barbara) and I started cutting down invasive honeysuckle on the site. After a couple of sessions of cuttings, we had a volunteer from Underhill (Russ) join us. Then recently Amber, a wonderful young woman who lives in Jericho Center, volunteered and we did more cutting, this time freeing up an apple tree. In the past cuttings, we have freed up American Cranberry bushes, nannyberry, and other native shrubs, oak, cherry, and other native trees. 


   As a reminder, Bernie will purchase creemees at the Jericho Country Store for anyone who comes out to work with us on any one of our Invasive Honeysuckle Cutting meetups. 


   With the ten to twelve-foot thickets of Invasive Honeysuckle removed, the areas of the woods are now looking like they should and the view of the pond is improved.

   Now Barbara is pursuing a possible purchase of some native shrubs from the Intervale Conservation Nursery in Burlington for planting to help replace the invasive honeysuckle. 

   This effort by a band of a few people joining together in solidarity of land stewardship through a small bit of sweat, no chemicals, and a willingness to do continued management is encouraging. And the work is rewarding in meeting up with like-minded folks and getting instant gratification from seeing the native plants we give freedom to. 

   The management of the re-growth will be much easier as hand pulling or light cutting is all that is necessary. At some point, we might have the time and energy to uproot the stumps and roots.

   My partner Maeve has initiated a similar project (with Amy the F&W representative) on Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area land with a July volunteer date set. 

   Help me to convince the legislature to declare the third Saturday in May as VT Invasives Management Day. *Currently seeking support letters from any organization. Contact me (Bernie) for more details

   I think land stewardship starts with knowledge, and awareness followed by persistence and patience. In addition, caring plus contribution equals community. It makes me happy to be part of that mix.

Jericho Invasive Honeysuckle 

Volunteers' Action Hours


         
2023 June: 2.0 

2022, April: 15, May: 3.5, June 17.5 

2022 running total: 36 hours (Tillotson H.O.A.)

2021 total: 6 hours (Town right of way)

A demonstration of commitment, 

land stewardship, and community caring.



Path leading to the pond from Browns Trace

Buckthorn Management

Nov 20: 1.0 hour 

Bernie

Connecting Community with nature


More articles on Invasive Honeysuckle

Dead Creek WMA Invasive Management volunteer action: https://vtbirdsandwords.blogspot.com/2022/07/birders-helping-birds-at-dead-creek-wma.html


Jericho's Kudzu: Combatting Invasive Honeysuckle

 https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/05/jerichos-kudzu-combatting-invasive.html


Invasive Honeysuckle for VT State Flower

https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/05/invasive-honeysuckle-for-vt-state-flower.html


Join the Jericho Invasive Plant Posse

https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/04/join-jericho-invasive-plant-posse.html


Invasive Honeysuckle Removal Jericho Vt

https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2022/04/invasive-honeysuckle-removal-jericho-vt.html


Slow the Spread of Invasive Honeysuckle, Jericho VT

https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/06/stop-jericho-invasive-spread.html


Paul Revere rides again, this time in Jericho, VT.


Seeking volunteers for invasive Honeysuckle cutting along Jericho roadside.

https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/06/seeking-volunteers-for-invasive.html