A new team mascot...plus Japanese knotweed

Update from the field:

Along with a CVNP Staff member, the SCA Native Plant Team helped spray a 5 acre site infested with Japanese knotweed.

The Japanese knotweed had been over our heads a few weeks ago but we went in with pole saws, brush cutters and a brush mower chopping them down. We waited for it to resprout before going in to treat the site.

This was the first time the team had boom sprayers (4 nozzles attached to a backpack sprayer) and from the get go you could tell how fast an area could be covered with them.

Japanese knotweed has been spreading along the Cuyahoga River edge for years now. It is helped by flooding and its ability to regenerate and resprout quickly using rhizomes.

Also due to the flooding you find a lot of garbage scattered and buried along river edge sites (some photos below). It is a very unfortunate sight to see but the goal of CVNP and our team is to clean up these areas and seed them with native plants while also picking up as much garbage as we can.

Btw we found a new team mascot :)

Until the next update,

Best wishes