Operation Wild Lands at Tilles Park

On September 19, 2015, Open Space Council’s Operation Wild Lands hosted a honeysuckle hack in Tilles Park near Ladue, Missouri. The weather was simply beautiful, cool, dry and pleasant where our location was situated near the pond hearing ducks in the background. We had a small group which was experienced and anxious to start. Dale Dufer, a local environmentalist and artist, showed up wanting to experience an OWL’s honeysuckle hack to gain inspiration for his up-cycling project of making useful benches/tables out of honeysuckle branches. Our volunteer’s workday was to remove the invasive remaining honeysuckle plants and weeds, followed by spreading mulch. Previously cut honeysuckle shoots and stumps were removed by the roots. The invasive honeysuckle plants that were accessible were removed by a bobcat, provided by the maintenance crew, while others were removed by hand with mattocks and our newly acquired tool, the pullerbear.  You can learn more about this tool here. Eric jumped on the honeysuckle removal. Fred spread countless wheelbarrow loads of mulch, Danielle & Brenda pulled numerous weeds, while Kathy moved a great amount of brush to the pile at the northern edge of the woods. Everyone switched around from different jobs as the project progressed, giving each other time to experience all tasks, preventing any activity from becoming monotonous.

What an amazing beginning to our Operation Wild Lands season.  We hope you will join us at one of our upcoming events.  Visit our volunteer link to see opportunities today!