Hitch 8

Chapter 8: Fort Raleigh

Who you gonna call?

This week the crew ventured to Fort Raleigh, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to tackle two noteworthy nemeses; English ivy and Chinese wisteria. Unfortunately, we had lost one of our members, the mighty Joe Neumann. His deeds of service and feats of superhuman strength will not be easily forgotten. This one’s for you my friend, this one’s for you. With the help of park biotechnical expert Sara Strickland, the crew concentrated on two major sites, one located next to an Elizabethan garden and one located besides an outdoor theatre. Both of these institutions serve to commemorate Fort Raleigh, the site of the first English colony in the new world. Unfortunately, these two institutions harbor alien plant species that have escaped their boundaries and invaded the natural forest which surrounds them. However, these institutions were kind enough to offer us lunch and give us vouchers for the play, “The Lost Colony”, the longest running outdoor drama in America, which chronicles the mysterious disappearance of the Fort Raleigh settlement. We were also able to tour the Outer Banks and see two of the lighthouses in the region, the Bodie Island lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which we were able to climb. At the end of the week our valiant efforts were obvious and we were able to cover more ground by foliar spraying and cut-stumping than we had previously expected.