Balcones Invaders

It was a special Saturday workday at Woodland Church. The property was very cool, but it did have lots of invasives. We found nandina, confetti lantana, ligustrum, chinaberry, primrose jasmine, johnson grass and Chinese pistache (all invasives). We also saw the biggest mustang grape vine ever (a great native plant). As usual, we also found some cool stuff like pearl milkweed and deer antlers. We also removed quite a bit of trash. We did not finish the area and will have to return on a different day. However, we got a good start.

Haggard Ranch workday.

Cool fungi.

Good morning from the Haggard Ranch. The ground was damp today, but not impassable. We split up into two groups and made a lot of progress. It seems like it is never going to end, but we are actually getting there. Every workday gets us closer. We do love what we do.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Salsa Squad returned to the Haggard Ranch today. The ground was still wet, but we managed to continue working on removing tallow trees. We even found a large chinaberry tree, but left it for next week. It’s all good.

Today’s workday was at Headwaters at Incarnate Word. We worked on a final clearing of invasives on zone 4 near the Olmos dam. Unfortunately, there were many baby chinaberry sprouts. We worked for three hours, but unfortunately, did not finish the zone. We gave it our best, but the chinaberries got the best of us today.

The Haggard ranch was calling and we came. We split up into two groups, started on different ends, and will eventually meet up. We are working in a berm/dam area where there were a lot of downed trees. We worked to clear the area before we even worked on the tallows and Bradford pears (ouch). We didn’t finish and the invasives will wait until next time.

It was a wonderful return to the Haggard Ranch today. Folks brought personal equipment to use since we lost some last week due a lithium fire. We split up into two groups and we hope to eventually meet in the middle. It was great fun and we found the usual tallows, one chinaberry, and some Bradford pears. Lora and Tina from the new master naturalist class earned their t-shirts today. Congrats and thank you!