Ben Johnson | Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail

We must have made over 200 brush piles in the Buckthorn Alley since late November; well, Andy Buchta made most of them. Green and wet as they may be, now is the time to make them go away. I don’t want to look through them for 9 months to see past them. The landscape demands a clear view!

I had two opportunities this past week to light up the Buckthorn Alley and it was my great pleasure to be joined by Rich Csavoy, Dick Jenks and Ben Johnson. On Monday we started with piles right at the parking lot on Hwy ZZ.

Rich and I prepped the piles with chainsaws and I did the lighting. Dick helped the fires burn completely by consolidating the burning piles and fanning them with the leaf blower. The snow was soft and deep, and it was an effort to move from pile to pile, but we managed to get 33 lit.

I worked the fires until 5:30pm and used the technique we recently learned from Gary Birch of disbursing the ash piles with the leaf blower.

The sun was on it’s way to set behind a bank of clouds as I made my way up to the Indian Campground. I really appreciated and enjoyed working with Rich and Dick again!

Yesterday, I heard the whine of Dick’s chainsaw shredding the morning stillness as I arrived around 8:30am.

Last November, Dick suggested we save the “nice” buckthorn logs, cut them into firewood, and offer it to Ottawa Lake campers (donations to the Wisconsin DNR are welcome!) He followed up by creating this brochure to advertise…

… and by actually doing the work. Dick, I’ll bring that sawbuck you gave me to The Springs tomorrow!

The air was moving when I began lighting piles and I made good progress initially. Then, I looked up and saw Ben Johnson carrying a 12′ aluminum ladder and dragging a sled full of birdhouses and tools.

Dick split his time between cutting firewood and tending the 25 brush piles I lit, while Ben meticulously scouted sites and mounted 26 bird houses.

At the end of the day Ben and I retraced his steps and he collected GPS data points for every birdhouse location.

For some reason, the late afternoon light, or maybe it was mother nature herself, cast a most beautiful soft blush on the landscape.

The sun was setting as we arrived on the Indian Campground…

… but I wanted to watch the grand finale from the Marl Pit bridge.

See you at The Springs!

I’ve never been in a street fight, but I imagine it might leave one feeling like I did this morning. Yesterday, Ben Johnson, Zach Kastern and I picked a fight with gang of mute, motionless, defiant and ultimately, defenseless, buckthorn that had invaded “our” territory at The Springs. Their thorny branches and stout, gnarly, trunks were no match for our sharp, steel, chains and our saws whirred their death knell in three part harmony.

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Fortunately, we’re not working alone at The Springs, and a team of dedicated volunteers is coalescing to undo the damage that has been inflicted on this “world class site”. I’m energized and encouraged by the growing level of commitment — the fresh blood (no pun intended) — that all of the new volunteers bring. It’s going to be a great year!

The last time we were at The Springs, The Buckthorn Man got skunked and left the Buckthorn Alley with his tail between his legs. With victory so close, it was a hard loss to bear.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Reinhold Niebuhr

I returned to the buckthorn alley yesterday determined to “change the things which should be changed!” There is a relatively thin curtain of buckthorn separating the trail here from a good sized wetland.

I started one of Andy’s brush piles on fire and was soon joined by Ben Johnson and Zach Kastern. We got our saws in tune and they began to sing.

John Hrobar, who has quite a voice by the way, joined the chorus and stoked the fire with freshly cut brush while Sue corralled this wild unicorn that was roaming north of the old barn site.

When the rumble was finally over, and slain buckthorn littered the alley, we gathered round the fire to savor and celebrate our success.

We left enough daylight to take a walk around The Springs, enjoy the scenery and catch the sunset.

The river bend.

The big valley.

Pati joined us for the sunset at the Indian Campground.

We finished the day walking the north end of the loop trail from east to west scoping out the last stretch of the buckthorn alley and hanging out by the fire…

See you at The Springs!