Turning Points » Adventures

Private Enemy No. 2

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:46:19 +0000

Close behind the oriental bittersweet on my list of unwanted plants is the multiflora rose bush (rosa multiflora). It was introduced in 1886 from China, Korea, and Japan as a rootstock for ornamental roses and then promoted by the federal government in the 1930s as a living fence for farmers and as a source of food and shelter for wildlife. It quickly escaped its bounds and now is endemic in much of the eastern United States. The rose rosette disease has begun to affect the plant, but the spread of the disease is slow and it is not officially supported as a means of control. There is also a species of wasp that arrived with seed from Japan in 1917 that deposits its eggs in the seeds and consumes them, thus slowing the spread of the plant. Some experts estimate that 90% of the multiflora rose in West Virginia is affected by the wasp, so it is likely that the wasp will spread to Southwest Virginia in the near future, if it hasn’t already done so.

Here is a picture of the business portion of the plant, taken by James H. Miller:

I wore a long-sleeve shirt, a long-sleeve flannel shirt on top of that and leather gloves and I was able to get in close to many large rose plants and cut the stems at ground level. I noticed that since the last time I did this, the deer had browsed the new green shoots. For once, I was happy to have deer on the property! They are so numerous in Floyd County that they are very much “rats on stilts”, as a friend once called them. But in this case, I’ll take any help that I can find! Once the plants are dead, they disintegrate quickly. Controlling multiflora rose is no easy task, though, because new plants spring up from the roots as far away as 50′ from the mother plant. The plant thrives in sunlight, so the fact that I have opened up the forest is going to create problems for me. But one step at a time. Fortunately, multiflora rose does not grow that rapidly.

Private Enemy No. 1

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:20:42 +0000

When I was in Floyd last summer for the first time, I was astonished at how lush and green the woods were. At the time, I had no idea how much of that lushness had been contributed by an invasive exotic vine, Oriental Bittersweet (celastrus orbiculatus), which was identified for me by Jason Rutledge a year ago. This picture, taken by Chris Evans, is a fair picture of the tangles of vines that I found on this trip.

I brought along a pair of Felco 23 loppers and a Felco 610 pruning saw and cut, over a period of 5 days, about 1,000 vines. Some of the vines were 3.5″ in diameter and had to be sawn. I had numerous instances where I found a tangle of vines such as is shown in this picture. The picture below shows a very small vine that I missed at first but cut on my last morning in Floyd.

You can see it twining around another vine on the tree in the foreground – it is only about .75″ in diameter, but given time, would grow much bigger. I gave no quarter to my enemy – I cut it and yanked it out by the roots, something that I didn’t do for 99% of the rest of the vines. To do so would have meant weeks of labor. I am satisfied that, if nothing else, I have set the oriental bittersweet back a good ways – it will take several years to make its presence known in a big way and by then, I’ll be living on the property and will be able to aggressively deal with it. In the meantime, the trees will have been given a reprieve from the smothering vines and will be able to flourish for the first time in many years.

Healing Forests

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:57:49 +0000

Last summer, when I hired John Sutherland and his Bull Hog, I was thankful that the machine didn’t scar the landscape any more than it did. The work he did was immensely helpful, because, for the first time, I could orient myself on the property and not be lost in thickets of briars and multiflora rose. Still, there was an awful lot of debris.

It isn’t easy to see in this picture, but there are three blue paint marks on the large oak on the right side of the picture. That was for the benefit of a logger who, after the marks were made, decided that there wasn’t enough marketable timber on the property to make it worth his while. That has turned out to be a blessing, because I rather like some of those twisted and unusually shaped trees!

Here is pretty much the same route, taken last week:

The fallen leaves are such a pretty carpet, aren’t they? If you didn’t know better, you’d never know that a machine had made this path, would you? The path made for a very nice stroll through the woods – no downed trees in the way to trip over and no thickets of multiflora rose to steer clear of.

Adventures in Asheville

Jeff — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:31:07 +0000

After a hectic three-day trip to Floyd County, VA, I drove south, to Asheville, where a recently retired friend of mine lives. I hadn’t seen him since March and he seems to be settling into retirement well, given the scary financial situation that all retirees are facing these days! He took me on a tour of downtown Asheville on the first day and we had lunch at Doc Shays, an Oriental restaurant which I thought served really tasty food. I’ve seen reviews that said differently, but I’d go back! I loved the architecture of some of the restored buildings in Asheville, though I didn’t take enough pictures. Here is a shot of the restored S&W Building:

Not the best shot, I realize, but those fancy street lights got in the way!

I’m a real sucker for doors, for some reason, and on one of the streets north of Pack Square, I found these beauties:

I love the rounded top and the rough texture of the planks that make up the doors! I suppose I could have used some kind of flash to eliminate the afternoon sunlight patterns on the doors, but I like those, too. Right next to these double doors was this single door:

Again, I love the pattern of the shadows on the door and the irregular width of the planks with the rough marks on them. I wonder if they were salvaged doors from an old church in Europe or whether they were locally made. Perhaps some denizen of Asheville will be able to tell me?