QDMAMAN
03-04-2008, 04:12 PM
The QDMA has repeatedly offered to plant foodplots on state lands at "0" cost to the tax paying citizens of this state only to be told that as long as there are union personel that are on layoff no volunteers are allowed to do such a service. I wonder how they reconcile this.
BTW I tip my hat to the volunteers who are giving their time to do this valuable service.
Volunteers help clean out Algonac State Park brush
Efforts to remove invasive shrubs key to the ecosystem
Bobby Ampezzan
Special to the State Journal
ALGONAC - Beneath a bright blue sky, a group of more than a dozen kids and adults set to work destroying shrubs in the Algonac State Park.
From about 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, the volunteers clipped sassafras and buckthorn, piled the brush and dabbed severed stumps with herbicide.
The carnage was just what Laurel Malvitz, natural resource steward with the state Department of Natural Resources and volunteer coordinator, wanted.
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Algonac State Park is one of the few in the state that has high quality lakeplain prairies, an ecosystem favorable to rare plants, insects and animals. Buckthorn, honeysuckle and other invasive shrubs are a major threat to the ecosystem, she said.
The state is trying to manage the prairie back to its original shape, a herculean task considering "99.9% of the shrubs" the volunteers got busy clipping were non-native invasive species. Some, like the sassafras, have complex root structures.
"Our goal - it would be a lofty goal to say we'll get all the invasive species out - but we're focusing our attention on the highest quality natural areas, and in those areas I think (the volunteer effort) can make a huge difference," she said.
Chris Skvarce, 56, of Algonac came out with the right attitude.
"State parks, I know their budgets have been cut, and if volunteers can help out with the menial stuff, it's good," she said. "And it's beautiful today. If it was raining, I probably wouldn't be here."
Skvarce and her husband Robert, 58, cross-country ski the state park's trails. Several volunteers such as Steven Tyrrell, 29, of Marine City said they hunt in the park.
Tyrrell said the invasive shrub brush chokes saplings, which grow in to trees that provide better sustenance and habitat for the deer he hunts.
Several of the volunteers were elementary- and middle school-age kids with the group Macomb County Young Marines, which operates out of Selfridge Air National Guard base. They have to log 50 service hours to earn their ribbons, but Elizabeth Gruno, 11, of Eastpointe, said she's just out to have fun.
"I'm excited about working (alongside) my (three) brothers," she said. "I kind of just like walking and hiking a little bit."
Malvitz called the volunteers a "good group," and she said on a good day their efforts can clear up to an acre of invasive species.
The group meets every month. In April and June, the plan is to pull garlic mustard, an herbaceous, flowering plant that spreads quickly and crowds wildflowers and saplings.
Big T
BTW I tip my hat to the volunteers who are giving their time to do this valuable service.
Volunteers help clean out Algonac State Park brush
Efforts to remove invasive shrubs key to the ecosystem
Bobby Ampezzan
Special to the State Journal
ALGONAC - Beneath a bright blue sky, a group of more than a dozen kids and adults set to work destroying shrubs in the Algonac State Park.
From about 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, the volunteers clipped sassafras and buckthorn, piled the brush and dabbed severed stumps with herbicide.
The carnage was just what Laurel Malvitz, natural resource steward with the state Department of Natural Resources and volunteer coordinator, wanted.
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Algonac State Park is one of the few in the state that has high quality lakeplain prairies, an ecosystem favorable to rare plants, insects and animals. Buckthorn, honeysuckle and other invasive shrubs are a major threat to the ecosystem, she said.
The state is trying to manage the prairie back to its original shape, a herculean task considering "99.9% of the shrubs" the volunteers got busy clipping were non-native invasive species. Some, like the sassafras, have complex root structures.
"Our goal - it would be a lofty goal to say we'll get all the invasive species out - but we're focusing our attention on the highest quality natural areas, and in those areas I think (the volunteer effort) can make a huge difference," she said.
Chris Skvarce, 56, of Algonac came out with the right attitude.
"State parks, I know their budgets have been cut, and if volunteers can help out with the menial stuff, it's good," she said. "And it's beautiful today. If it was raining, I probably wouldn't be here."
Skvarce and her husband Robert, 58, cross-country ski the state park's trails. Several volunteers such as Steven Tyrrell, 29, of Marine City said they hunt in the park.
Tyrrell said the invasive shrub brush chokes saplings, which grow in to trees that provide better sustenance and habitat for the deer he hunts.
Several of the volunteers were elementary- and middle school-age kids with the group Macomb County Young Marines, which operates out of Selfridge Air National Guard base. They have to log 50 service hours to earn their ribbons, but Elizabeth Gruno, 11, of Eastpointe, said she's just out to have fun.
"I'm excited about working (alongside) my (three) brothers," she said. "I kind of just like walking and hiking a little bit."
Malvitz called the volunteers a "good group," and she said on a good day their efforts can clear up to an acre of invasive species.
The group meets every month. In April and June, the plan is to pull garlic mustard, an herbaceous, flowering plant that spreads quickly and crowds wildflowers and saplings.
Big T