Date of volunteer work: 06/29/2016.
Site Name: Mitchell Creek.
Number of hours worked: 2.25.
Species removed: blackberry, ivy, foxglove.
Estimated percent cover before removal30.
Approximate square feet of invasives removed50.
There is a large residential development being constructed above Mitchel Creek Natural Area and, as a result, Vrandenburg Road has become very busy with truck traffic. On this day, I saw several large trucks drove up the hill shortly after I arrived. I also observed a truck pulling a loaded semi-dump trailer drive down and then up the road five times during the two hours I was in the field.
I worked the area where I had left off the last time I was at Mitchell Creek, which is the area along the east side of a small, seasonal creek feed by a spring (now dry). I removed blackberry and one small ivy. I later crossed the creek bed where I continued to uproot blackberry in addition to a few foxglove plants I stumbled across.
After weeding, I drove up Vrandenburg Road where I discovered two illegal dump sites. One dumping was along the road in plain sight while the second dump site was on a downhill slope, not visible from the road. I found it after investigating off-road tire tracks. The trash at this site consisted mostly of liquor bottles.
