Hey everyone! If you hate those evil trees as much as I do, and you live near Tampa, come help us out!
(Reposted from email):
You were probably wondering if we were EVER going to organize another volunteer workday. Wonder no more!
The first workday of 2007 will be held Saturday, Feb. 24 from 9 a.m.-noon at Cargill Park in Riverview, at the mouth of the Alafia River.
This park is another of Hillsborough County's largely forgotten treasures. Located on a small parcel of land donated by Cargill Fertilizer, it could provide quality wetland habitat along the river, if the infestation of Brazilian pepper trees can be removed from the shoreline. That's where you come in.
Once again, we need volunteers to haul pepper limbs and branches to chippers so the harmful pepper trees can be turned into harmless mulch. County crews will pre-cut as much pepper as they can before the workday, so there will be plenty for you to do. They can chain saw more pepper the day of the workday if you finish all the pre-cut piles early, there's still pepper to be blitzed, and you have any energy left.
In return, we'll feed you lunch and send you home with one of our "almost world famous" Give A Day t-shirts, featuring a new, exciting design for 2007!
Please let me know if you can help, and how many will be in your work party. Because of the presence of chain saws and chippers, this workday is restricted to kids 14 and over with parental supervision.
IMPORTANT INFO
What: Brazilian Pepper Removal
Where: Cargill Park
6501 Riverview Drive
Riverview, FL 33569
What To Wear:
Long-sleeved shirts
Long-sleeved pants
Closed-Toe Shoes such as old sneaker (Mandatory)
Glasses or Sunglasses to protect your eyes from chipper dust and splinters
What To Bring:
Garden Gloves
Water Bottle
Sunscreen
A Pepper-Busting Attitude!
Thanks to your tremendous help during a series of workdays, Hillsborough County was able to declare Sun City Heritage Park in Ruskin the first "invasive-free" park in the county last year. Let's make Cargill Park the second!
Best regards,
Nanette Holland O'Hara (Yes, I got married recently!)
Public Outreach Coordinator
Tampa Bay Estuary Program
100 8th Ave. S.E.
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 893-2765 phone
(727) 893-2767 fax
e-mail: Nanette@tbep.org
Celebrating 15 Years of Community Partnership to Restore and Protect Tampa Bay
Tampa area Brazilian Pepper Cleanup
Will they be treating the stumps with herbicide to prevent them from resprouting? I haven't seen any Brazilian pepper trees in the FL panhandle, but it's probably only a matter of time.
Hmmm...that's a good question. I know that's the method the county recommends in the pamphlet they have, so I think they would. For liability reasons, they probably don't want volunteers handling chemicals so I imagine they would have their employees do that. I had two in my backyard, which were fast becoming way more than two. My dad hooked up his truck to them and just yanked the stumps right out of the ground. That's a good way to get rid of them too. Haven't had a problem with them since.
Instead of painting herbicide on with a brush, I have found it easier to fill a squirt bottle with pure undiluted Brush-B-GoneŽ and then squirt it on the stump. That way it doesn't get on your hands or get spilled.
Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that we chipped and shredded five county work trucks full of evil Brazilian Pepper trees. We were at a park that's right on the bay. It was Cargill Park (after the fertilizer people), but now it's called Mosaic Park (after the new fertilizer company). On the drive there were signs along the road advertising the company's partnership with an environmental group (I didn't recognize the name) to remove invasive plants. I thought that was really cool. By clearing the pepper trees we also expanded the park by what my dad estimated at a half acre. We also picked up trash along the shore. I just wanted to let you know there are people out there making a difference. And seeing all the piles this morning and knowing that we cleared them in less than three hours was amazing. When people work together, they can accomplish so much!
That's really good to hear! Maybe they can replant some good native trees in their place.
Our clean up made the paper!
Volunteers Clean Up After Invaders, Litterbugs
By YVETTE C. HAMMETT The Tampa Tribune
Published: Mar 1, 2007
Volunteers showed up by the dozens Saturday to transform a small county park into an "invasive-free" zone.
And they had their work cut out for them - literally.
Hillsborough County parks employees had been there ahead of time, sawing down huge piles of Brazilian pepper trees. The invasive species spreads to natural areas, squeezing out native plants.
"We have a lot of sites where we've done a lot of restoration work and the problem of invasives isn't so big," said Jennifer Roberts, Invasive Species Task Force coordinator for Hillsborough County. "But at some sites, there are some pretty bad problems."
Because Mosaic Park is on the Alafia River and near Tampa Bay, getting rid of the exotics is important because birds and water can easily spread their seeds, she said.
Donning wide-brimmed hats, gloves, closed-toed shoes and mosquito repellant, volunteers from across the region dragged and carried tree limbs to three giant chipper machines. County workers used the chipper to shred the wood, filling the first dump trucks within 30 minutes.
For volunteers, it was all about helping the environment.
Melanie Long, 27, of Lutz, brought along her parents to Riverview for the project, part of the family's effort to protect and restore the environment, she said.
"We've been trying to do as many environmental things as we can," including eliminating invasive plants from their home landscaping and focusing on drought-tolerant species, said Long's mother, Carolan.
"My daughter found out about this and wanted to come," she said. "We're definitely with her on this."
Melanie Long said she got the bug for environmental projects as a Girl Scout. She spends her leisure time gardening and taking long walks in Brooker Creek Preserve in Pinellas County to feed her love of nature.
"And I hate Brazilian peppers," she said. "I can only do so much in my yard, but here, it's a whole park, and the idea is to keep it looking like Florida."
Kyle Christensen and Donald Kendall, both 16 and honor students at Alonso High School in northwestern Hillsborough County, showed up to help the environment and get some school credit.
"We got up early for this to get community service hours for National Honor Society," Kendall said.
Bev Griffiths, a Riverview resident and chairwoman of the Sierra Club Tampa Bay Group, has a personal stake in such projects. She lives along the Alafia River.
Griffiths spent her volunteer time picking up litter mixed among the mangroves and oaks near the river's edge.
"I don't get it," she said, surprised by the large amount of trash she found. "I don't know if they are not teaching this in school or if it's a cultural problem."
Bob Minthorn, a Gibsonton resident and former member of the Alafia River Basin Board, agreed that litter is a big problem.
"Once you come out and do this, you will truly think twice before you throw things out your car window. Eventually, all this garbage ends up in a water body somewhere."
Tim Cobine of Tampa joined the cleanup with his wife, Jerri, to socialize and exercise environmental consciousness.
"This is a great way to get out and meet people," he said. "And if you take care of the Bay, it'll take care of you."
It wasn't Maryann Volk's first volunteer effort. The Sun City Center resident said she has been helping the Tampa Bay Estuary Program with projects such as the invasive species cleanup for several years.
"I like to do projects like this because you get to come out and do something useful and you see immediate results," she said.
Nanette O'Hara, who coordinates the volunteer efforts for the estuary program, said she has a string of volunteers she can count on, no matter which corner of the county they live in.
"I have volunteers who haven't missed a workday in five years," she said.
I found the picture of me that made the paper. That's my mom wandering around in the background.
Here's the caption: Melanie Long (right), from Lutz, hands off Brazilian Pepper tree branches to be chipped to Ron Kolson (left), Hillsborough County Mosquito Control Dept. This was part of Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Give A Day to the Bay, where volunteers converged on Mosaic Park along the Alafia River in Riverview to clear the invasive Brazilian Pepper trees and clean the park of trash. Photo: Kevin Howe/Tampa Tribune
This message was edited Mar 8, 2007 6:54 PM
