March 26 - After the Burn

Liz K and Barbara H and I went for an "After the Burn" walk to the RR bank and to the meadow.   The big surprise -- actually the big shock was seeing what looked to me like mugwort.   I'm not possitive, but I'm afraid that's what this is.   

The bench is in the foreground so you know where to look

Here's a closeup

There's a lot of it 

We also discovered that it's somewhat dangerous to walk through the meadow.  

It's been burned and mowed but there are short stiff sticks throughout the meadow

that are hard to see and easy to trip on.   

The next two photos show greenbrier growing on  trees in front of two large beautiful oaks --  This is alongside Trail 16.   Bob Wells pointed this out on an earlier walk -- that the vines are obstructing the view of the oaks. 

The next photo shows vines covering the ground -- in a few weeks they will be covering the small trees nearby.   These trees are in the meadow close to trail 16.   My guess is that both the vines and the trees should be removed.

The bank above the RR trail has many burned branches and trees.    Barbara H says she saw the men with the flame throwers working along this bank.  So apparently the fire did not jump Trail 16, the burn of the RR Trail bank was deliberate.   I'm no expert, but it seems to me that there's no need to remove any of the burned trees or limbs.        I did not photograph the singed trees in the meadow.  They are so obvious, there's no need to point them out.   Some of them might require pruning.  Here's a shot of the RR bank.