Silent Waters Summer Weed Whacking

The mid-summer jungle had gotten out of control along the RecPath at Silent Waters.  A work party had been scheduled for 2 weeks ago, but was rained out by thunderstorms.  You may find this hard to believe, but the recent rainfall and sunny weather have caused even more growth.  Luckily, we had a wonderful group of volunteer show up to tackle the problem.

Most of the work focused on the southern dam and bridge area overlooking Silent Waters.  A variety of hand cutting, hedge trimming, and weed whacking was done on both sides of the Path.  Val, Ellen & Mike directed the team there.

Mark Vollaro mowed both sides of the Path with the Gator and DR Mower at the start, then he headed down toward Pine Lake to take care of some unruly mugwort trying to take over the Path there.

Terry took the brushcutter up to the northern dam and cleaned up both sides of the trail.  Teresa and Mike showed up with the electric hedge trimmers to tackle the higher stuff.  

The burning bush is out of control over here.  It's an invasive shrub that crowds out the native plants, and needs to be wiped out in this area - probably a Fall task.  

The RecPath cleaned up nicely though.  Now it looks like a properly maintained main section of the City's trail network.

While we cut invasive species along the trails.  We try to not cut everything mindlessly along the trails.  We try to encourage some native plants where they are slow growing, they can help us control the invasives, or we just want them.  This patch of Woodland Sunflowers is a summer treat along northern end of the southern dam.  Look for them when you're enjoying the RecPath.

The southern section by the bridge cleaned up nicely too. 

The view of Silent Waters from the bridge was good.  Teresa cleared out a view of the pond from the north.  We need to work more on cutting out views of the pond that have grown up.  Possibly a Fall project also.

We cleared along the RecPath from Shelton Ave down to Pine Lake.  Mark mowed a lot with the DR and by hand.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help: Anne, Aidan, Athena, Christine, Noelle, Noian, Val, Luis, Ellen, Teresa, Mike, Mark and Terry.  It turned into a warm morning with a lot of hot work by everyone.  The RecPath was pretty busy and a lot of users thanked us for our efforts.

The Shelton Trail System is largely built and maintained by local volunteers.  The trails did not build themselves, and they definitely don't maintain themselves.  If people enjoy using our trails it behooves them to help on a work party from time to time.  Today's turnout in July was great - thank you again.

The Eversource Checklist

Here's a running list of the outstanding items at Shelton Lakes that Eversource representatives told Trails Committee members they would address. We don't know if they still plan on addressing these items because our requests now go unanswered. Item are sorted by starting at Buddington Road and heading north past Constitution Drive to Derby Junction:

1. Nells Rock Trail steps.  The top three steps were going to be leveled up. The Committee was not consulted about the creation of these steps and did not ask for them. The Committee asked for the original slope to be restored, since the fill on top was only needed temporarily in order to remove the old towers. The top half of the steps have treads that slope downhill and are  hazard when wet. A detour around the steps may be pursued, but would require a bridge and some earthwork.

The Eversource Steps

2. Oak Valley Trail marker. A marked 4x4 post was never replaced near Shelton Ave. We cannot find the post. 

Junction with the Oak Valley Trail (red) is missing a sign post

3. Kiosk at Shelton Ave. The kiosk was reinstalled poorly and is now leaning badly, exposing the contents to rain.

The camera is level, the kiosk is not.

4. Utility road surface between Shelton Ave and Independence Drive: Course, loose gravel and cobblestone. This is used by many people as a walking/biking trail, and in some section is part of the Paugussett and Turkey Trot Trails. Before the project, Committee members made clear that cobblestones are annoying to walk at best (and can twist an ankle) and were reassured that Eversource contractors would use road material that compacts and wouldn't be a problem to walk on. It is. 

Loose gravel and cobbles

5. Bridge near Turkey Trot Trail. This bridge is used by the Gator and DR for mowing points north along the trails. Because the height of the utility road was increased, the approaches to the bridge are steep and abrupt, making it difficult to pull the DR. Committee members asked that the approaches be graded out or the bridge raised. 

Bridge near Turkey Trot Trail

6. Paugussett Trail drainage. Where the Paugussett Trail joins the utility road near the top of the hill between Shelton Ave. and Independence Drive, stormwater runoff now drains down the trail from areas uphill that were work sites. Eversource staff said they would look into putting in a water bar to divert water from going down the trail. 

Stormwater runoff now flows off the road and
onto the Paugussett here, eroding it

7. New tower site at south side of Wellington Ave.  The new tower that was constructed on top of the trail in a low area has been a morass and uneven to walk on. Prior to construction, this was never a problem to walk across and there was a smooth dirt access road and a turn-around for the gator and DR mower. The timber matting compressed the soil, causing water to collect, and the ground is uneven around the new tower. Eversource staff were going to look into whether the spot was a wetland and offered to spread some truckloads of fill if it was not to repair the gator road. No word back on that. The area has dried up somewhat since the spring, but is uneven and the gator got two flat tires trying to navigate it. 

Site of new tower on top of Paugussett

8. Constitution Blvd crossing marker.  The 4x4 Paugussett Trail marker was never replaced. 

We keep pulling the old 4x4 post
out of the weeds so it can be 
reinstalled

This checklist will be updated as we receive new information. 

Wasps! Because of Woodpeckers?

Hikers are given fair warning. The distant blazed tree on the left
was swarming with wasps.

Terry Gallagher was working on Shelton's 2024 hiking challenge when he stopped to marvel at a hillside covered with dying beech trees. He made a sweeping motion with his arm as he did so, and was promptly drilled by wasps. He made his escape by running down the Paugussett Trail towards the beach at Indian Well. 

Dozens of wasps were swarming. 
Note the sapsucker holes.

This usually means there's a nest alongside the trail, right? I made up some warning signs and set out to try and find the nest, inching down the trail looking for wasps, especially at ground level. Wasps often have a ground nest right next to a trail. Instead, I found a black birch tree swarming with wasps. This tree leans into the trail and is hard to avoid. Terry had walked right through a cloud of wasps. 

This family was alerted by the warning signs
and trying to decide what to do. 

I figured there must be a nest in the tree but couldn't figure out where the entrance was. We will go out at night and spray a nest if it's right next to a busy section of trail and people are getting stung, but you need to know what to spray. There was once a big nest of Bald Faced Hornets hanging over the Rec Path off Lane Street and the hornets were stinging anyone who just happened to walk down the path. We lugged in a ladder at night and sprayed the nest. For this tree, I needed to come back with some binoculars and leave the dog at home.  So I did that the next day. 

Bald Faced Hornet, yup

I hung around for about twenty minutes studying the waspy tree with binoculars. Mostly there were Yellow Jackets, but there were also a few Bald Faced Hornets. The tree was a Black Birch, also known as "Sweet Birch" due to it's copious sweet sap, and the trunk was full of holes made by Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers. These are small black and white woodpeckers that create a line of holes in trees so that sap oozes out of the hole. They drink the sap, as do many insects, and will return to eat some of those insects and drink more sap. Most of the holes were old, but there were a couple spots with raw wounds oozing sap, and this is where the wasps were landing.  The larger Bald-Faced Hornets were greatly outnumbered by Yellow Jackets but were still monopolizing the oozy spots. The Yellow Jackets seemed pretty agitated about this and were zipping about the tree trying to get some sap. 

Old holes and an ongoing tree wound oozing sap

I tested out my working theory that these wasps were just foraging and didn't have a nest there by putting on a thick protective layers of clothing in the 90 degree heat and spraying the tree with permethrin (the same stuff I use to treat my clothing for ticks). I started by hitting a pair of feeding Bald-Faced Hornets directly to take out the most dangerous players first, and after a minute or two all the wasps had disappeared. There was no nest. They wouldn't have left if there was a nest. 

I hoped the permethrin would keep them away, but a day later the wasps were back, with new sap oozing out over the areas that I had sprayed. I returned with some tree pruning sealer spray, but the sap gushed right over it (the dark areas on the tree are from that spray). It did help to show which areas were still active. 

Sapsucker holes oozing tasty sap for the wasps

During one of my checks, the guilty pair of Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers mocked me. Both were in the tree. Probably laughing. One was actively feeding from the tree wound near the blue blaze. 

A pair of Sapsuckers on the tree

The latest plan involved covering up the oozing spots with a layer of sticky Tanglefoot, then sticking some plastic sheeting to it like a bandaid, followed with more plastic sheeting with more Permethrin spray underneath. No idea if this will work. Will the woodpeckers try to peck through the plastic? 

At any rate, if you come upon the warning signs, keep your eyes open. If the wasps return and are swarming the tree, either slip by quickly and quietly, or head off-trail and keep your distance. They are mostly like the Yellow Jackets that pester us during a picnic, but all it takes is a few Bald Faced Hornets in the mix to liven things up. 

Sticky Tanglefoot over the tree wounds

Plastic over the sticky Tanglefoot

And more plastic

Update 7/10: So far, so good! No wasps today.