On Friday, members of the PHCA, the AmeriCorps Public Allies, Polish Hill residents, and other volunteers converged at the end of Melwood Avenue.  On a rainy gray day, they began the work of clearing the site where the Knotweed Knockout project will take place.  They cleared trash and refuse, cleared debis and dead knotweed.  They tagged trees and native species that will remain at the site.  Then they started digging, and removed the knotweed root balls.

More clearing work will take place at the site, and then the difficult job of suppressing new knotweed growth will start.  In 2012, the project will shift into a replanting mode, recolonizing the cleared plot with native species.

(Photos by Terry Doloughty.  Top:  Connor Sites-Brown of the Public Allies hoists a knotweed root ball.  Middle:  knotweed is already sprouting on the hillside at the site.  Bottom:  volunteers at work on the hillside.)

The PHCA’s Knotweed Knockout is made possible by a grant from the Sprout Fund.