A nice blanket of heavy, wet snow to finish our global warming half winter of record warmth and low snowpack. As I hiked through 'backcountry' Williston today I broke through crusty snow and ice into a foot of muddy muck underneath - it's all in one winter and mud season! But this last gasp of winter will be gone in a month (or less), the buds will be swelling and opening, leaves will be appearing, vernal pools will be forming.....spring will be here in earnest. And first in line to leaf out will be our good friends the invasives - buckthorn, honeysuckle, bittersweet, garlic mustard, privet, Russian olive, burning bush, and my personal favorite multiflora rose.
But from calamity comes opportunity. Because the invasive species leaf earlier it makes spotting them relatively easy, and because there's little foliage to restrict movement makes removal much easier. Late winter to early spring, when the snow is gone and before the leaves, is prime invasive removal time, and for me a great time to be in the woods, an in-between time before the world 'springs' to life. So it's a twofer - a time of oneness with a world in interregnum, after slumber and before waking, where life gathers underfoot and in secret places and readies for the big show; and a time for the work of freeing this world of a human induced malady. It's not the invasive plants' fault - they didn't ask to be here, and in a thousand years they will be functional parts of a balanced ecosystem. But right now they're a serious threat to ecosystem health and biodiversity. So - we brought them here, and we have to manage the problem we created. Spring, with its explosion of activity, brings life, and death, on many levels.
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