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.