Focus: Stewardship

The work on the trail continued this past season.  The donations the Friends made to the NY- NJ Invasives Strike Force (ISF) and to Wild Woods Restoration Project (WWRP) were well spent and well deserved since these organizations did some very impactful work on the trail.  Teatown staff and the NY-NJ Trail Conference’s Stewards also made some significant contributions.

The weekend of September 7 and September 8 started the fall season on the trail with the ISF

Twelve volunteers assisted the 6 Invasives Strike Force crew members in managing mainly Barberry bushes, plus many other invasive plants and bushes on Saturday, September 7, with assistance from one of the NY-NJ Trail Stewards.  They made enormous difference on the trail, so it will be safer for trail walkers with fewer dangerous tick-harboring Barberry bushes.  The Deputy  Supervisor of the Town of Cortlandt, Jim Creighton, came to cheer us on.

The group made a significant find: a whole cluster of invasive Linden viburnum bushes with red berries; the berries were carefully bagged for disposal and the bushes cut and flagged for treatment in the afternoon. Look closely for the red berries.

The plants removed were carefully distributed along the edge of the trail for future retrieval by the State Parks crew members.

Continuing the work

Five ISF crew members came to move further down the trail on Sunday September 8, along with 6 volunteers, including two moms with their 10 year old sons, both named Ben!  A trail steward also participated.

In the morning everyone worked energetically to dig out invasive plants and cut some of the larger ones and flag them to identify them for later herbicide treatment by the ISF crew.

They gathered up the cut ones for placement along the edges of the trail for the State Parks crew to remove at a future date.

In the afternoon  I took charge of the volunteers and brought them south on the trail so the ISF crew members could do the herbicide treatment of the plants that had been flagged, away from the volunteers.

We focused on removing stilt grass from some areas where we had found some native plants; this will encourage them to spread and flourish.

September 15, 2024 Native planting day

Thirteen volunteers and seven Invasives Strike force crew members including yours truly worked on planting with Linda Rohleder from the Wildwoods Native Restoration Project on the OCA.  They worked all day to do the planting, and then watered the plants along the way.  We drafted two additional OCA neighbors to help with planting and photography. Amazing work!

We planted a total of 507 native, ecotype plants across 5 locations on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail in the Croton-on-Hudson area. The sites had previously been cleared of invasives during past I Love My Parks Day events and on-going volunteer work. The total area planted was about 0.2 acres. The plants used include a few plants provided by Hilltop Hanover Farm, plants grown from seed provided by Hilltop Hanover Farm, plants rescued from Scenic Hudson’s Black Creek Preserve in advance of a parking lot expansion, and many plants grown from seed collected by WWRP volunteers. WWRP provided tree tubes and the Friends provided stakes for the spicebushes that were planted.

Site 1 (ostrich fern area): 32 White turtlehead (Chelone glabra) planted in a 856.3 square foot area.

Site 2 (alcove): 20 Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), 32 Blue heart- leaved aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), 32 Bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix), 32 White snakeroot (Ageratina altissima), 32 Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) in a 2748 square foot area.

Site 3 (wall): 11 Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), 64 White wood aster (Eurybia divaricata), 31 Blue-stem goldenrod (Solidago caesia), 64 Swan’s sedge (Carex swanii) in a 703.9 square foot area.

First, we staged the plants.  And then we got work planting them.

Here is what it looked like after we finished planting them and watered them.

Site 4 (Spicebush area): 20 Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), 64 Blue heart- leaved aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), 36 Virginia jumpseed (Polygonum virginiana), 32 White wood asters (Eurybia divaricata), in a 2756.4 square foot area.  We used tree tubes to protect the Spicebush saplings and special augers to dig the holes.

If you are wondering where Wild Woods obtained the seeds to grow these Spicebush saplings, look no further.  With permission, Linda gathered them for the Old Croton Aqueduct.  Spicebushes have separate male and female bushes; they both flower; the pollen from the male flowers are brought by pollinators to the female flowers which eventually produce lovely red berries.  Linda had no trouble finding enough to plant and nurture last season.  Here is a photo of Spicebushes on the trail taken in November of 2021; they are the yellow bushes thriving along the edges of the trail. If the saplings we planted thrive, this is what we can expect:

And for a special treat, take a look at this Spicebush caterpillar I found roaming on the trail in August of 2022, looking for a place to make its chrysalis.   I originally found it on a ventilator and I moved it to a nearby Spicebush.

Site 5 (Turtlehead area): 27 White turtlehead (Chelone glabra), 10 Honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis) in a 1633.6 square foot area.

This is a very special area.  The white flowers in the picture are mature Turtlehead blooms.  Last year Diane Alden gathered seeds after the blossoms were finished, Linda and her volunteers planted them and took care of the seedlings all year, and brought them back to this area to plant them in bare areas to increase the size of this patch.  Many years ago, this area was covered by invasive multi-flora rose bushes that were removed by volunteers and since there were Turtlehead seeds in the ground, the emerged.  So, this area is completely transformed.

Adventures in the Briar Patch

This photo was taken on May 4th during  I Love My Park Day.  The volunteers were digging out the Wild Chervil plants, a whilte flowering invasive plant, along with Wineberry, Multiflora rose and others and weighed them, for a total of 225 pounds.  They were led by crew leaders Leigh Draper and Eva Georgi from Teatown.  Eva suggested that although there were some good native plants interspersed, it would make sense to plant some native, aggressive roses to compete with some of the invasive plants that remained.

She offered to donate over 50 plants of Rosa Carolina- common name: Pasture Rose.  They were being maintained in a bed at Teatown as bare root and so we accepted.  We set a fall date of October4 for the planting since the NY-NJ Trail Stewards were available that day to help.

However in the meantime some invasive plants had taken over, including Stilt grass, Mug wort,  Wineberry and others.

What to do?  I had arranged for the NY NJ Trail Conference’s ISF to spend the afternoon of September 15^th removing what they could, since they were already planning to help with the restoration planting led by Wild Woods Restoration Project in the morning and should have the afternoon available.  But no, Linda Rohleder brought so many plants that we could not get them all planted in the morning, despite the help of the 10 volunteers.  So, the Strike Force completed the planting that day as detailed above.

While I was thrilled to have so many plants in the ground, I expressed my distress that the invasive removal could not be done.  Hearing my lament, the ISF crew members suggested that I request that they return.  Request I did and my entreaty was granted.  All seven returned on September 29^th to work in the Briar Patch.  Although I was out of town Leigh Draper volunteered to return to provide guidance to the ISF crew.  Here are photos from that day.

Here are the invasive plants removed and all piled up waiting for our Parks crew to remove them when they can.

Since Eva recommended that it would be best if the roses could be mulched with wood chips, I arranged for a load to be delivered to the site the day before.

And then Eva arrived to deliver the roses.  We put them in a barrel of water while we arranged to make space for them (remove more invasive plants) and dig the holes.

Leigh Draper with verve and energy led the charge for one last ditch effort to remove invasive plants to make space for the roses.

Proud Trail Stewards with their bounty

We arranged to bring water to the site and the planting and watering began:

Then came the mulching

Here is a close up of one of the rose bushes:

Here is an overview of the site at the end of the day.

This is the group of Trail Stewards on their last day working on the Aqueduct.  The previous blog included many photos of their invasive removal work during the season.  And the blog about the Ossining Youth Bureau shows their work mentoring the high school students for two days of invasive removal work on the trail.

The final chapter of the story occurred in late December when the three newly hired Parks Crew members came with their shiny new green truck and removed all of the piles of the invasive plants that had been staged along the edges of the trail.  The trail is now ready for the emergence of native plants next spring.

The Ossining Youth Bureau collaborating with the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct This fall the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct (FOCA) responded to a request from the OYB to provide a volunteer experience for some Ossining students.

We designed a program to give the students some in-depth information about the Aqueduct Trail and two days of experience learning how to manage invasive plants. This included learning the rationale for doing this type of work, how to identify some of the invasive plants and then how to remove them.

Jennifer Arpi, Program Assistant from the OYB, worked to recruit the students, organized them, coordinated with the Friends including managing transportation, and then, by her presence, helped make the days a success. Six members of the Friends including three Board members collaborated to make this a valuable experience for the students. Two of the NY-NJ Trail Conference AmeriCorps Trail Stewards, who had been functioning as Aqueduct Trail Ambassadors on weekends and holidays this past season, collaborated with Board Member Diane Alden and Adrianna Waitkins to plan and carry out the invasive management section of this project. Adrianna handled many complicated logistics with aplomb and grace, including the delivery of the lunch-time pizza.

Below is a photo of Diane on the first day, September 21st, welcoming and orienting four of the participating six students, with Rosie, Trail Steward, looking on.

These are the two guys who did not make it into the group photo, collaborating in using the weed wrench. Joanna Riesman, the FOCA Board Administrator took the photo above and coordinated many of the logistics involved with this program.

Here is Stephen, Trail Steward, demonstrating the use of the weed wrench.

Jennifer Arpi and her sister Kaylee were proud to have been successful in removing this bittersweet vine by the roots.

The students collaborated with each other to help clear a section of the trail by a stone wall.

On September 28, nine OYB participants and Jennifer Arpi made their way by train to Dobbs Ferry and up the hill to the Keeper’s House to help with FOCA’s Aquefest. At the celebration of all things Aqueduct, students helped man the Aque-Duck flume and assisted kids in leaving their handprints on the banner celebrating 100 years of New York State’s park system. The students also got to tour the interior of the Keeper’s House and received a bit more information about the OCA’s history. Despite the drizzle, the OYB students and the crowd that came out to Aquefest had a great day.

On October 5, nine students accompanied by Jeffrey Santos, Youth Bureau Youth Advocate, received a tour of the Croton Dam in Croton George Park, including a lecture by Board Member Tom Tarnowsky. Tom described the history of the Dam, and led a walk up its west side to the stunning view of the reservoir. The group then took a hike led by Joanna Riesman across the Dam, down the east side to the beginning of the OCA trail, and back to the park. Joanna reported that the weather could not have been lovelier.

On the second day of invasive removal, October 12, eleven students participated; five of them were present on the first day, with only one drop-out of the six who came on September 21. Diane posed in this picture showing thumbs up for the success of the day. The folders in the students are carrying contained photos of the targeted invasive plants to help identify them. They also went home with a pamphlet listing the Prohibited and Regulated Invasive plants of New York State.

Jean Zimmerman, Board Member, came to take photographs, including the one above and then helped us keep track of which invasive species we were removing and how many, substituting for Adrianna who was keeping the tally. Here are Jean’s comments about the day: “I hope you’ll say this about Saturday: The event was great! It really got some urban kids thinking about nature, and how they themselves could make a difference to protect and restore plants. That’s no small thing. I loved seeing their excitement pulling up invasives small or large and using tools. They especially seemed to like using tools! I can see that some of them would want to revisit the Trail, given the chance. Bravo Diane and Trail Stewards and Adrianna! Great job. And please quote me on that!”

Special credit to Rosie and Stephen, the NY-NJ Trail Conference Trail Stewards who provided enthusiastic guidance to the students,and also helped plan both invasive removal days. They set up the station on both days. Our system was to divide the students into three groups, one led by Rosie, one by Stephen Mesa and one by Diane. We rotated the groups during the day so each group got to work with each of us, with three sessions each day.

An enormous thanks to Jean for coming to take photographs and for being a support and special presence during the day. Here she is helping to pack out some of the supplies.

Here are a few photos taken by Jean on the second day including some of the tools involved.

The students quickly mastered the technique of using the weed wrench to pull out bushes, shrubs and small trees. It seemed to be particularly empowering for the young women to be so successful. This is Kimberly using leverage to get the roots out.

Suyana was also proud to have been successful at removing this Siebold’s viburnum up by the roots. No resprouting of this very invasive shrub.

Using smaller tools, the students learned to be carefully persistent at getting the plants out by the entire root, even when they travel horizontally. Kaylee was pleased with her work!

As was Brian.

The students added their contributions to the piles of invasive plants and bushes removed by the volunteers and the Invasive Strike Force earlier in the month. The tally for the second day of invasive plants removed was a whopping 308 plants, probably an undercount.

Here is a photo showing the students at the end of the second Invasive Removal Day; the raised hands indicated they especially enjoyed becoming proficient at using the weed wrench. Turns out that using that tool was an empowering experience for them; it appeared that learning to use this tool effectively was the high point of this event.

The trail is now safer with fewer Barberry bushes, and the removal of many vines which could eventually grow and entangle our valuable trees. Kudos to all involved.

On October 19, the last day of their adventures with the Friends, ten of the students accompanied by Jennifer, received a tour at the Ossining Weir so they could see the inside workings of the tunnel on which they had been walking during their time on the trail. Sara reported that she enjoyed working with the students and that she was sure they enjoyed the experience.

Jennifer Arpi, Program Assistant of the Ossining Youth Bureau was asked to provide comments about our collaboration and provided the following statement:

“The Ossining Youth Bureau is very passionate about providing opportunities to the youth in our community and highlighting the importance of the environment. This year we had the pleasure of collaborating with the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, to create and run a program for high schoolers focusing on the impact of invasive species. I was present at each activity and can say that it was so much fun, bringing all different types of youth together. We were so lucky to be able to get private tours and amazing mentors to teach us, and assist us patiently. We were exposed to new places, learned new skills, and made connections. I was thrilled with the outcome and I hope there is more opportunity for our organizations to unite in the future.”

Some of the students who participated provided their individual comments:

“I liked the program! This was a very good way to spend my time and learn new things. I got to know more places and meet people. This was a very good experience.” -Kaylee Arpi

“The environmental program was an amazing experience” – Kimberly Villa

“Not only is the environmental program useful for community service hours but additionally you get to learn about Ossining old and rich history” – Derick Campos

“The environmental program was a very good experience and it was very fun to travel around and learn about the environment and how to protect it” – John Galarza

Jennifer created a video showcasing the highlights of the program.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

The Fourth was definitely with us on the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail for the 2024 I Love My Park Day held on Saturday May 4th.  Here are a few highlights.

135 volunteers showed up, the most ever!  About 60% of the volunteers had participated in previous years but 40% were brand new.  This was our 13th I Love My Park Day sponsored by Parks & Trails NY, Riverkeeper Sweep and hosted by the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct.  29 children, accompanied by 106 adults made an enormous difference on the trail. As in the previous year, the removal of invasive species was targeted to specific sections of the trail to encourage the emergence of native species and to make space for the restoration planting.  We appreciated the continued support from our VIPs, local and state officials, Dana Levenberg, NY State Assemblywoman, Elizabeth Feldman, Ossining Town Supervisor and James Creighton, Deputy Supervisor, Town of Cortlandt, who arranged for the Town to be an official sponsor of ILMPD this year and helped promote it.

A team of four signed in the volunteers, helped them select their t-shirts, complete registration forms, fill in the free raffle tickets and put on their name tags and orient them to the day. Pictured are Sara Kelsey (on the left), long time member of the Friends of the Old  Croton Aqueduct and Nina Sukumar.  Not pictured are Jeri Froelich and Kathy Carlisle.  All four have been serving as registrars for many years.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

The volunteers were led by a group of expert crew leaders, including Bob DelTorto, President of the Bronx River Reservation Parkway Conservancy, horticulturalist Pete Ström, Ryan Liam McClean Ecological Stewardship Program Manager of the NY-NJ Trail Conference, Linda Rohleder, President of Wild Woods Restoration Project, and Leigh Draper, long time mentor and ILMPD crew leader & Eva Giorgi, Preserve Coordinator, both from Teatown Lake Reservation.

Other crew leaders included Ryan McClean, former NY NJ Trail Conference Trail Steward, two enthusiastic leaders of the garlic mustard brigades of families and children: Jamie Friedman and Brenda Timm, Realtor, also one of our event sponsors.  Adrianna Waitkins, our newest crew leader led the pachysandra management work.  Pablo Mora led the volunteers restoring a stone wall along with a crew member from J & C Masonry and Landscaping, Inc, completing the work that was done in past years.

Tom Lewis from Trillium Invasive Species Management, Inc. and Brad Gurr, a professional arborist from SavATree, both of whom brought crew members and worked independently.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

Here are some of the amazing facts and figures detailing what was accomplished. The two groups of garlic mustardteers removed a total of 587 pounds of garlic mustard.

Jamie Friedman, one of the crew leaders provided the following comment about the work: “It was wonderful to see the kids and their parents’ commitment to the work – they climbed the slopes, treading carefully back down with their arms filled with bunches of mature garlic mustard; working alongside their parents.  It was beyond gratifying for the volunteers to see the fruits of their labor in the form of giant bags full of weeds and lovely, clear trailside slopes, and it was equally special for the adults to hear the children’s chatter about invasive plants, and what we can do to support native species, echoing along the trail.”

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney  

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

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Photo credit: Lynn Salmon  

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon  

Photo credit: Jamie Friedman

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon  

Photo credit: Jim Creighton    

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

In the very challenging briar patch, the volunteers led by Leigh and Eva, with assistance from Dana, removed 225 pounds of invasive plants.

Photo credit: Rick Lash  

Photo credit Lynn Salmon

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

In addition to collaborating with the Briar Patch crew, Bob DelTorto removed hundreds of feet of vines from a stately walnut tree.

Photo credit: Rick Lash

A month after we saved the walnut tree, a Walnut sphynx moth, was found under the walnut tree:  Amorpha juglandins.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Adrianna Waitkins, wrote the following:   “This was my first year as a crew Leader at ILMPD.  My group was responsible for the removal of a large patch of pachysandra.  In your garden, it is a welcome addition but, in the woods, it pushes out native plants and prevents them from growing. Working together we were able to accomplish the removal of most of the patch (61 pounds) … Besides giving back to the trail, it was enjoyable to meet new people and spend the day together working on the improvement and maintenance of this iconic trail.”

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Brad Gurr from SavATree: along with his crew of two and their equipment, razed 300 linear feet of a bramble hedge comprised of several species of invasive bushes.    He provided the following comments:

“Our crew was excited to arrive early to get our equipment into place and be ready to work our way out along the aqueduct… It was great fun to help out and to do our bit to keep the park looking better! We love our parks and love helping out!”

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

The stone wall crew finished the work begun in previous years and with help the volunteers, restored the last 33 feet needing to be repaired.

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

The stone wall restoration in this section has now been completed, a project that the volunteers and our stone masons have been working on during I Love My Park Days since 2022.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Ryan McClean, a former NY-NJ Trail Conference Trail Steward crew leader, returned to volunteer this year as an I Love My Park Day crew leader.   His group reported removing 15 pounds of Garlic mustard and Narrowleaf bittercress and 222 individual plants of Burning bush and Barberry.

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Pete Strӧm, our resident horticulturist and arborist, returned for the second year as a crew leader.  He wrote the following:

“Our group worked along a length of stonewall below the aqueduct.  Native species blackhaw viburnums and spicebush are growing in the area along with sensitive fern and wild geranium.  We worked to remove invasive shrubs to help prevent them from getting a foothold in the area… With each shrub removed we were rewarded with patches of bloodroot, cut-leaf toothwort and jewelweed seedlings growing happily.  The side of the trail was piled high with brush waiting to be chipped. We finished our time pulling vines from the stonewall exposing the moss-covered stones. The volunteers working with me were great and motivated.”

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Linda Rohleder, our long-time mentor and crew leader, worked in the morning in the “Secret Grotto,” reported removing 176 pounds of invasive Bittercress and Garlic mustard as well as 374 individual plants.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

In the afternoon Linda worked with volunteers in the Turtlehead Patch, an area of flowering native plants that are now growing in a section where invasive plants were removed in past years.  They removed 150 individual invasive plants.

Photo credit: Linda Rohleder

Tom Lewis and his crew managed 375 feet of invasive plants.  He came with his dad and the youngest volunteer, his son!

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Ryan L. McClean, Terrestrial Invasive Species Project Manager and Ecological Stewardship Program Manager of the NY-NJ Trail Conference reported the following: “our volunteer group worked with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference’s Invasives Strike Force to remove a number of invasives. While burning bush and garlic mustard were the dominant species at their site, volunteers were also taught to identify and remove Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, wineberry, Japanese honeysuckle, linden viburnum, and yellow archangel, a creeping nonnative ground cover, which was a surprising find! Removal of the small population will stop yellow archangel from spreading along the trail…. The site was vastly transformed after the removal of invasives and has now left ample space for natives to thrive”. This group reported removing 5436 individual invasive plants.

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney  

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Summary: If our math is correct, 7084 individual plants and 1134 pounds of bagged invasives species, mainly garlic mustard and narrow leaved bittercress were removed, plus many feet of vines threatening the health of an old majestic walnut tree anchoring an entrance to a section of the trail.

At lunch time we had our traditional prize drawing sponsored by longtime supporters, Feed the Birds and Robbins Pharmacy; Croton Running Company also donated a prize.

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

So, what happened to all those bags of invasive plants we removed?  This year we made a major improvement and used paper lawn bags and arranged for the Town of Cortlandt’s Sanitation crew to remove them.  They were very enthusiastic about our change and were happy to make a special trip to haul them away.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Special thanks go to our long-time financial sponsors: Terraces, Hudson View Auto in Croton, Marguerite Pitts and Brenda Timm, Realtor.  UPS Croton donated substantial printing services, flyers and lawn signs.

The contributions of the Black Cow Coffee Co. and Baked by Susan started the day with delicious morning treats and the provisions from Greens Natural Foods provided the lunch time nourishment that kept us going.

Giving credit where credit is due, we acknowledge the work of our photographers, Chris Mahoney, Tom Tarnowsky, Rick Lash and Lynn Salmon.

The special magic of the day was the camaraderie of the volunteers and crew who worked with such joy and enthusiasm while putting maximum effort into tending the trail.

(image: Wikipedia. By Hugo L. González – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

After its recent designation as the Bronx's first and only New York City Scenic Landmark, over forty volunteers gathered on Friday July 26 to clean up trash and show the pocket park some love. News 12 reported that the event was coordinated by The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, partnering with the Fordham BID and the Kingsbridge Road Merchants Association. A group of teens from Curriculum Kween's also lent a hand, using brooms, pickers, trash bags and gloves.

Organizers hope that the City will devote more of its budget to helping to keep these green spaces beautiful.

Read the News12 article HERE

Eleven NY NJ Trail stewards have been posted on the OCA at the entrance of the currently temporarily closed DEC owned Unique Area, rotating through in groups of three or four at a time during weekends and holidays since Memorial Day. Above is a photo of the 10 of the 11 crew members, taken in my backyard.

The Program Manager has agreed to have the stewards function as Aqueduct Trail Ambassadors, with the map posted at their table, selling maps as long as the customers can manage the on-line system our webmaster Katharine Gates designed, giving information to passersby and informing those rare visitors hoping to access the riverside that the Area is temporarily closed.

Every day they put out fresh water for dogs and stripe the parking area with sidewalk chalk and remove any trash they encounter. Tom Tarnowsky has already given them a lecture at the Croton Dam and Sara Kelsey is scheduled to give them a Weir tour on June 28; they will walk from Gerlach Park to the Weir so they will be in a good position to give trail walkers advice about how to navigate the trail.

You will note the empty chairs; this is because they have agreed to spend considerable time managing invasive species on the trail. So, while one or sometimes two stewards remain at the station, the others are out removing three invasive species that are currently getting ready to drop their seeds. They are working mainly on the hillsides, supplementing the work of the volunteers on I Love My Park Day, May 4 2024 who we did not want to send up the steep hills.

Here is Jaime, proudly surveying the area where she successfully cleared the hillside of invasive plants, making room for the native plants remaining there to flourish.

Here you can see three of them on the hillside, having cleared the lower section and working their way up to the top. Note the Christmas fern in the lower section of the photo just below the bag.

Each week the plants are placed in large landscape paper bags and taken to the trash cans in the Parking Area; I have arranged with the Cortlandt Sanitation Dept. to retrieve them on Mondays to bring to a landfill. The stewards weigh the bags and during May and June, they removed a total of 432 pounds.

Soon we will move to another section of the trail with a different set of invasive plants to manage, so the stewards will be learning to identify and manage a few at a time. They have each been provided with sketch books which they are using to document the plants they are studying and tell me that it has been a valuable exercise. Sometimes passers-by ask about what they are doing and showing them sketches has proven to be useful. I will begin to photograph their sketches when I can; they are very impressive.

The stewards have agreed to partner with me in September and October when 10 to 12 Ossining Youth Bureau members will be coming to the OCA to learn to manage invasive species on the trail; two days in the Cortlandt/Croton section and one day in Ossining, right by the Recreation Center where they are headquartered next to the Weir. It will be a good experience for the stewards (all recent college grads) to demonstrate and teach what they will have learned and I am sure they will be well received as tutors by the high school students. Joanna is working with the Youth Bureau to handle some of the logistics (transportation) and will also be present on the day Tom Tarnowsky will be giving the students a tour at the dam and most likely on the day when Sara Kelsey will be giving them a private Weir tour. They will also be given the opportunity to participate in Aquefest scheduled for October 5th in Dobbs Ferry. One of the Youth Bureau employees approached me on I Love My Park Day and requested that we provide the students with an opportunity to volunteer on the OCA, so Joanna Reisman and I have already had two meetings with the leadership to begin the planning process. In the July Friends Board meeting we will request approval for the funding that will be needed.

I Love My Park Day is organized and sponsored by Parks & Trails NY.

The Irvington Green Policy Task Force (GPTF) together with its partners the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, NYS Parks, Garden Club of Irvington, Irvington Recreation Department, O’Hara Nature Center, Greater Irvington Land Trust, Pollinator Pathways, and the Irvington Department of Public Works organized a special clean up on the Old Croton Aqueduct in Irvington on a sunny Saturday.

Enthusiastic volunteers of all ages gathered to remove a large amount of non-native invasive plants from the OCA in the central part of the Village of Irvington. Following the removal, the group planted over 20 different species of native plants in the OCA community pollinator garden thanks to financial support from The Greater Irvington Land Trust and donations from Bedford2030 and the GPTF members.

The crew was rewarded with a delicious vegan pesto made of garlic mustard and hummus, and fresh veggies.

There was a wonderful cheerful atmosphere filled with camaraderie. It was excellent teamwork. Everyone was happy to contribute to an important cause.

Renee Shamosh of the Garden Club of Irvington writes: Below are photos of our enthusiastic volunteers removing some of the invasive vines which have been taking down trees and destroying fencing.  Many weeds and debris were removed from our site.  

Meet Barbara and Larry Fasman, who have cleared tires and worse from Tibbetts Brook Park and the Aqueduct Trail for 3 years in a row. .. and they don’t even live in Yonkers. Cleanup organizer Norma Silva, in center, was awed by their persistence! Barbara knows her trash: note the safety glasses!

Larry found trash bags from an apartment building, 585 McLean Avenue. He hauled them to the Aqueduct Trail, then the marvelous Green Team of teens walked the bags up the trail to the main roadway. Eventually, Yonkers Dept. of Public Works picked up the whole sorry collection …. even the new squash racket Larry found.

Shanae Williams and Corazon Pineda Isaac also come every year. Shanae and Corazon are fed up with the regular dumping inside Yonkers parks! Here are Green Team teens with Yonkers Councilwoman Pineda Isaac (middle row blue shirt), and Ms. Williams (bottom right), who serves on the County Board of Legislators.

Here’s our total haul.

The Green Team is a dream-come-true when the hauling gets too heavy! These high schoolers, trained and employed by Groundwork Hudson Valley, cracked jokes and worked nonstop. They show up every year too.

Maybe we will catch and fine the medical waste haulers, lazy apartment superintendents, tire vendors and contractors who treat public parks as a dump site. The solution is obvious – street lamps and a camera at the site. We’ve tried for almost 2 years but nothing happens, except more dumping at the same site.

Here’s to persistence! Thank you volunteers!

Guess who took the aqueduct trail by storm on Earth Day 2024? Families, neighbors and school classes scoured the trail clean! Parks & Recreation and Public Works departments made it happen. Big thanks to Commissioners Steve Sansone and Thomas Meier for supplying volunteers with gloves, water, potted flowers to plant, and garbage trucks that picked up all along the trail!

The aqueduct trail is a GATEWAY INTO YONKERS. Manhattan walkers, Brooklyn bikers and tri-state neighbors get a first impression of Yonkers from the trail. Finding old shoes and exploring the leaf litter gave everyone a look into the recent past.

A father-daughter team from Elmsford picked up trail trash between Walnut Street and Palisade Avenue. They found construction debris, fast food plastic, clothing, furniture and a microwave. Why come from so far? Because they walked through Yonkers to earn their 26-Mile badges, and “We thought we could make a difference here.” What a duo!

Sarah Lawrence volunteers planted new flowers at Walnut Street on the aqueduct trail. The flowers, provided by the Parks Department and Commissioner Steve Sansone, will welcome walkers and bikers all summer long.

On a gorgeous Saturday morning in mid-March, 35 volunteers, including many children and teens, gathered to learn about native and non-native flora and fauna.

The event was organized by the Irvington Green Policy Task Force in collaboration with the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Irvington Parks Department, the O’Hara Nature Center and the Pollinator Pathways Project.

Led by the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct Horticulturist Peter Strom, and the Irvington Green Policy Task Force volunteers Jasena Sareil, Leola Specht, and Lisa Antonelli, the volunteers split into their chosen groups: non-native invasives and Spotted lanternflies egg masses identification and removal; expansion of community pollinator garden; and litter collection/removal.

The event helped create awareness of the benefits of non-native invasives removal and planting of natives to regenerate biodiversity and provided the community with a wonderful hands-on experience.

The Irvington GPTF is planning to organize with their partners two additional similar community events on the OCA later this year (spring and fall) to further help educate the community about the native plants contribution to the local ecosystem and sustainability.

The goal is to restore the OCA areas where the non-native invasives were removed in favor of native plants including small trees and shrubs suitable for the location to minimize soil erosion and support pollinators.

We are taking a great deal of action on protecting, preserving, and restoring Irvington’s portion (almost 2 miles!) of the Old Croton Aqueduct State Park!

Event organizer Norma Silva pulled together another very impactful ILMPD on a section of the Aqueduct that borders Westchester County’s Tibbitts Brook Park, sponsored as always by Parks & Trails NY (which provided the red t-shirts) in collaboration with Westchester Parks Foundation, River Keeper Sweep and Groundwork Hudson Valley’s Green Team. They were delighted to have their work acknowledged by the presence of City of Yonkers Council Member Corazon Pineda-Issac.

Amazing what 38 volunteers could accomplish!

They removed 126 tires that had been dumped on the Trail.

They also removed a significant amount of trash – 580 pounds worth!

They also removed 35 bags full of invasive plants, including Garlic mustard and Multi-flora rose, making space for restoration planting in the fall.

That took place in October when 48 native ecotype species of Goldenrod were planted in collaboration with Wild Woods Restorations Project, which supplied the plants and supervised the planting.

And on May 5 2024 Norma Silva will pull together the various community members and local organizations to host I Love My Park Day in the same location, building on the considerable successes of the past few years. Stay alert for the announcement that registration has opened, scheduled for early April.

Photo credit: Haven Colgate

For the May 6th, 2023 New York Parks & Trails' I Love My Park Day, the Garden Club of Irvington organized a day of removing invasive plants and planting native species along The Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in the Hastings-on-Hudson section. We had beautiful spring weather, and it was a true community event!

The Old Croton Aqueduct’s new Programs Coordinator, Rob Lee, joined us, as well as 22 volunteers from the Hastings Pollinator Pathway, Garden Club of Irvington, Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and our Rivertown’s neighbors. We worked next to the established Hastings Pollinator Pathway 5 Corners Community Pollinator Garden at the corner of Chauncey Lane and Broadway to ensure that there would be continued maintenance and to expand on the exciting work done there.

Photo credit: Elisa Zazzera

We removed 8 bags of Mugwort and non-native grasses.

Photo credit: Cat McGrath

And then planted 9 native shrubs: Witch Hazel, Ninebark, and Virginia Rose, plus two dozen native species including various Aster species, Mountain Mint, and Bee Balm, all of which are perennials and can be expected to return each year.

Photo credit: Cat McGrath

The native perennials were donated by Susan Weisenberg of the Garden Club of Irvington and the native shrubs were donated by Pinar O’Flaherty of the Pollinator Pathway Committee, Meg Walker, and Morey Bean. Our goal was to remove the Mugwort, but we were delighted to get all of the planting done as well!

Jasena Sareil took this selfie with her colleague Haven Colgate wearing the Riverkeeper Sweep t-shirt; Riverkeeper Sweep was another sponsor of this gathering and helped publicize it.

Photo credit: Jasena Sareil

It was a wonderful day, and we hope its beauty is enjoyed for many years to come!

A comprehensive report on trail stewardship for 2023

In 2023 the focus shifted sigificantly; removal of invasive species was targeted to specific sections of the trail to encourage the emergence of native species and to make space for the restoration planting scheduled for the fall; it took place September 22nd. Sections of the trail are now lush with native plants and whole swaths are free of those prickly bushes that have plagued trail walkers and served as a breeding ground for ticks.

The work spanned many months, from April through October and involved several different organizations as well as many volunteers. The work was anchored by the Parks & Trails NY which sponsored the 12th annual I Love My Park Day (ILMPD) that took place on May 6th.

Preparation began with the State Parks

The amount of collaboration and preparation for ILMPD on the part of the State Parks Staff went a long way toward the success of this event. In late April the crew came with a truck and chipper. They cleared the trail of the debris that had accumulated from past storms and tree cutting along the trail:

Photo Credit: Diane Alden

Photo Credit: Diane Alden

The following day, the ILMPD crew leaders came to walk the trail to make detailed plans about where on the trail they wanted to focus and exactly what they wanted to accomplish in those locations. Here they are.

Photo Credit: Diane Alden

We needed all of them to keep us organized and to provide expert guidance to the 90 volunteers who participated in ILMPD. During the walk-about they assessed which sections of the trail would most benefit from intervention and then divided up the sections and the work between them.

Another pre-event task was to rescue a number of rare native plants growing on the stone wall to be restored, so I worked with some helpers to dig up them up and replant them on the stone wall that had been restored in 2022.

Photo Credit: Diane Alden

So, we were ready when the day came at the Croton on Hudson location (physically located in the Town of Cortlandt)

Here is our group photo May 6, ILMPD participants

Photo Credit: Lynn Salmon

We staged a second group photo to include the late arrivals

Photo Credit: Chris Mohoney

Great support from our VIPs, local and state officials, Dana Levenberg, NY State Assemblywoman, Elizabeth Feldman, Ossining Town Supervisor, James Creighton, Deputy Supervisor, Town of Cortlandt, David Zeigler, District Office Assistant of NYS Senator Peter Harckham. They all spoke during the opening ceremonies and then I told the volunteers that they were the real VIPS.

We were pleased to welcome Liz Feldman since this was her first year at ILMPD. She is shown here with the event organizer, Diane Alden who has been hosting ILMPD events in this location since 2012, the inaugural year.

And then we got to work.

Painting the fence

The volunteers painted a 74-foot-long post and rail fence under the guidance of our all-around handyman Pablo.

Photo Credit: Lynn Salmon

Attacking the invasive and ubiquitous Garlic Mustard: the Garlic Mustardteers

Two groups of families with children enthusiastically filled 40 bags of this invasive plant, weighing a total of 744 pounds. (We used luggage weighers to weigh each bag.) Since we promoted this location as a family friendly event; 17 of the 90 volunteers who participated in I Love My Park Day 2024 were children, with parents in tow.

One group headed out to the North, led by Brenda Timm, Realtor, one of our event sponsors, and her children.

We were thrilled that our long time participant and newly elected NY State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg came to participate and to cheer us on.

Photo credit: James Creighton

We were also grateful that that our long time participant and Cortlandt Deputy Town Supervisor James Creighton lent his hands, his enthusiasm, and his photography skills to the event.

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Jamie Friedman headed South with her children and students, teachers and friends from one of her daughter’s second grade classroom, to form the second cadre of Garlic Mustardteers.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

Photo credit: Diane Alden

The Garlic Mustardteers experienced the satisfaction of completely clearing vast areas from hillsides bordering the trail and at the base of a stone wall. Look how joyful both groups of kids looked as they accomplished their mission!

Preserving native plants

In three sections featuring many native plants, the volunteers carefully removed selected invasive plants in order to protect the native ones growing in these areas; this was done with almost surgical precision under the guidance of the crew leaders.

Mathew McDowell, a horticulturist, naturalist, and curator for Wildflower Island at Teatown Lake Reservation mentored one group preserving a stand of Turtle head plants, along with Skunk cabbage, a very special native species.

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Bob DelTorto, President of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation Conservancy, our expert vine cutter who has been with us from the very beginning of our I Love My Park Days, came an extra day ahead of time to familiarize himself with the specific native and invasive plants in his assigned section. Just so he could help the volunteers very carefully target and remove invasive plants threatening the survival of the native species!

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Linda Rohleder, now the President of Wild Woods Restoration Project, who has been our mentor for many years, worked with other volunteers in the secret grotto to preserve native plants:

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Removing invasive plants, vines, and bushes from four heavily invested sections

Under the leadership of four experienced crew leaders, three from the NY NJ Trail Conference Invasive Strike Force, in addition to our newest crew leader, arborist and horticulturalist, Peter Strom from Strom Hort, LLC, the volunteers removed many stands of invasive plants, vines and bushes threatening native plants. We termed some of them Barberrians.

Zachary Keenan, crew leader of the NY NJ Trail Conference’s Invasive Strike Force Crew, and Ryan McClean, who heads up that program as the Terrestrial Invasive Species Project Manager, led the charge to dig up the prickly Barberry bushes that harbor ticks!

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

The seven crew leaders from the above sections kept careful track of the numbers of each species of plants removed; collectively they removed 834 individual plants in addition to 5 bags of lesser celandine weighing a total of 125 pounds and 4 bags of garlic mustard weighing 60 pounds.

SavATree

A professional arborist from SavATree, Brad Gurr, along with a crew of two and their equipment razed 192 linear feet of a bramble hedge comprised of several species of invasive bushes on both the East and West side of the trail, carefully avoiding stands of native blooming wild geraniums.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Trillium Invasive Species Management

Trillium Invasive Species Management, Inc., under the leadership of Thomas Lewis, provided a crew of 4 and managed 223 linear feet of invasive bushes and plants on the West side of the trail by cutting them and then applying herbicide using the cut-stump method, under a permit from State Parks. This method minimizes the likelihood that those plants will resprout.

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Photo credit: Chris Mahoney

Impromptu lunch time art project:

An enthusiastic group of youngsters spontaneously created their own art project from vines that had been removed and from branches along the trail, thus providing a whimsical yet effective barrier, unbeknownst to the youngsters who created it, to a dangerous embankment.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Restoring an Historic stone wall

Volunteers, under the guidance of a professional Stone Mason, George Cabrera from J & C Masonry and Landscaping, Inc. completed the restoration of 30 feet of the wall. George delivered the stones needed on the Friday before and brought two additional helpers to work with the volunteers.

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

The volunteers worked diligently and enthusiastically to break down the crumbling stones, cut them to size and then learned how to carefully place them to create the restoration with a level top.

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Prize drawing

This is a tradition; a free prize drawing raffle at lunch time. The prize drawing was sponsored by Feed the Birds and Robbins Pharmacy.

Photo credit: Tom Tarnowsky

Photo credit: Lynn Salmon

Ossining ILMPD

Daria Gregg, hosted a separate ILMPD event, a short walk south in Ossining. Daria is an Ossining resident and Citizen scientist who has adopted a section of the OCA in Ossining for invasive plant management and has established pollinator friendly meadow there. 15 volunteers came to work with Daria, many of whom were returning volunteers from previous years.

They removed 214 invasive plants, vines and bushes in addition to 8 large bags of garlic mustard. They planted 101 ecotype native plants to replace them in 4 sections, including in an existing meadow created in previous years.

Perks for volunteers were also provided at this site: t-shirts, a free prize drawing raffle, snacks and water. Our peripatetic Dana Levenberg came to encourage them, and took this selfie with a few of the volunteers. (Daria is on the right; Dana on the left.)

Photo credit: Dana Levenberg

Credit where credit is due:

Photography: there were so many interesting and informative photos that it was very difficult to select those to include here. Thanks to our official photographers Tom Tarnowsky, Chris Mahoney and Lynn Salmon, who also quickly posted some of her gems on Facebook.

Registrars: Gratitude to our three registrars: Nina Sukumar, Sara Kelsey, Friends of the OCA advisory Board Member. and Jeri Froelich who helped set up, served as the welcoming committee, registered the walk-ins, checked in those already registered, distributed the t-shirts, provided the name tags and the raffle tickets, coordinated the communications during the day, served the lunch time garlic hummus and then helped pack up at the end of the day.

State parks: Special commendations to the State Parks personnel who helped prepare the site ahead of time, chipping, mowing, arranging for our commodious facilities, opening the gate for the delivery of stones for the wall, helping to set up and break down, participating with the volunteers during the day and picking up all those bags of garlic mustard for disposal. Steve Oakes the OCA Historic Site Manager, Kevin Franklin, Rob Lee, Dawn DeLucci, and Robert Suda, hats off to you.

Perks for volunteers: t-shirts were provided by Parks & Trails NY and Baked by Susan gave us a wonderful, delicious breakfast goodies to start the day. At lunch time we broke out the bananas and granola bars donated by Greens Natural Foods, along with veggies, chips and hummus (specially flavored with Garlic Mustard, as is traditional for us). UPS Croton helped out with some of the printing and Croton Running Company donated some swag for the prize drawing.

Additional sponsors provided funds to run this show: Hudson View Auto and Terraces on Hudson. Riverkeeper Sweep helped with publicity to recruit volunteers.

Four board members of the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct participated.

Fall Invasive plant management

But that is only the beginning of our ongoing saga to tend the trail in the northern section of the OCA in 2023.

During the fall, the NY-NJ Trail Conference’s Trail Stewards who had been posted on the OCA during the spring, summer and fall weekends to educate possible visitors to the temporarily closed DEC owned Unique Area also served as Aqueduct Trail Ambassadors and as additional invasive plant managers, as time permitted. In the fall, during several weekdays they worked with volunteers in targeted sections of the OCA. Here are some of them working with volunteers to clear the smothering Stiltgrass, thus permitting the White Wood Asters and Hay Scented Ferns growing in the area to flourish.

Photo credit: Teresa Shen

Here they are at the end of another day, having carefully removed a variety of invasive plants along a stone wall to encourage the many native plants we found there to thrive.

The piles of invasive plants removed are spead in heaps along the trail waiting for the State Parks to clear them away or shred them with their mulching mower. One can see the daylighted stone wall and the many native ferns that are standing out amidst the native plants.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Proud stewards posed along the stone wall for this photo.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

Here they are working to remove Stiltgrass from the Turtle Head patch we have been tending for years. Robert Suda from State Parks who was doing a tree assessment showed up and cheered them along.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

In late September Crew Leader, Ryan McClean worked with some volunteers we had recruited to dig up many red fruited Barberry bushes. I turned up to insist that the berries be bagged prior to disposal to prevent re-seeding. Here I am, very pleased with the amazing amount of work done on this last day for the season of invasive removal work. See all the bushes lying along the edge of the trail that will no longer provide a safe harbor for the disease carrying ticks!

Restoration planting

But that is not all; on September 22nd, Linda Rohleder, President of Wild Woods Restoration Project, arrived with her crew of 16 volunteers and planted 600 eco-type native species in areas where we had removed invasive plants. Here is one section that was quite barren that we expect will be very different next Spring when the plants start growing, encouraged by the torrential rain that fell in the next few days.

Some of those 600 plants were planted in a section where we have been carefully tending a New York Aster patch for a number of years. This section of thriving wildflowers had been blocked off at the edge of the trail to prevent mowing and then encouraged to grow by volunteers and Trail Stewards who have been delicately removing the Stiltgrass and other invasive plants threatening to engulf them. The new plants were installed in back of the Aster patch and some in-between the asters to fill in spaces where invasive plants had been removed. Yellow goldenrod plants are predicted to attract even more pollinators than the purple Asters can do on their own. A wonderful synergistic collaboration.

Vine management: Winter work

Winter is the ideal time to manage vines on the trail with minimal exposure to Poison Ivy and ticks. Invasive vines strangle trees and shade their ability to photosynthesize, eventually causing the trees to die. Not only is this detrimental to the ecosystem of the trail, it also presents a hazard to those who enjoy traversing it. This year the Friends supported engaging a professional arborist Peter Strӧm who worked with our newest volunteer to clear a section of the trail of vines engulfing trees and bushes.

Photo credit: Diane Alden

We look forward to May 4 I Love My Park Day 2024. Save the date and continue the amazing transformation of this part of the Trail.

Work is planned during the spring to do additional Garlic Mustard removal, in the fall to manage Stiltgrass and then we are planning a volunteer event to target Barberry bushes under the leadership of the NY NJ Trail Conference’s Invasive Strike Force, assuming our application is approved. Volunteers are encouraged to be involved in all of these initiatives; we will keep you informed. We might even qualify for another round of restoration planting!

Guest post by Jean Zimmerman

A bent tree and a black butterfly figured prominently in my hike along the northern section of the Old Croton Aqueduct on a day so early in spring that only a few plants were peeping up green.

Also peeping up reddish-brown with yellow streaks, in the case of skunk cabbage.

One of my favorite plants, the skunk cabbage enjoys an interesting chemistry which allows it to create its own heat, often melting the snow around itself as it first sprouts, and always comes dressed in some of my favorite colors. It could be an official Pantone Color of the Year. (The Pantone Color Institute Program, begun in 1999, previously has included such boring hues as Classic Blue and Tangerine Tango.) Once popularized thus, you could buy a ball gown or paint your walls with it. Actually, the Pantone Color of the Year has already been chosen for 2023, and it is Viva Magenta, which is not that far off.

So then, the Color of the Year for 2024! Skunk Cabbage. It may be poisonous for us, but pollinators find it delicious.

I was fortunate on the OCA trail to have naturalist Diane Alden as my guide. Some years ago, Diane showed me around Wildflower Island at Teatown, a gorgeous place that you can’t visit unless you tour it privately, they are so dedicated to not mashing down the precious horticulture. Here we saw a white wood aster just poking out.

Wild plants are Diane’s passion, and she has devoted herself to rooting out invasives on the OCA trail so that native flora can flourish. I don’t believe I had ever set foot on this northern portion, which soars above the Croton River Gorge.

Since 2014, Diane’s initiative with Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct (she’s a board member) she has had a great deal of success, pulling in tons of volunteers of all ages, especially on I Love My Parks Day every spring.

On our promenade, I saw some familiar things I knew the names of, as well as those I’ve seen a million times but couldn’t name, and those I’d never even noticed. It was that kind of a walk, when all your synapses are wide open and you want to commit every observation to memory.

Diane pointed out Christmas ferns, which it turns out have the remarkable ability to self mulch.

Lift off the new growth to find the old fronds mouldering underneath, ingeniously protecting the roots. Diane pointed out some rushes, and reminded me of the lyric that helps naturalists differentiate grass-like specimens in lieu of an ID book: Sedges have edges, Rushes are round, Grasses have nodes all the way to the ground. We talked about lichen.

This one is crustose, one of three major kinds. There are also the foliose and the fructicose. Lichens are a type of symbiotic organism made up of a plantlike partner and a fungus. Known colloquially as smokey-eye boulder lichen, the one we saw featured an exquisite tapestry of tiny dots if you bothered to take a close up view.

Crustose, Diane said, “can’t peel off.” Guess that’s a handy survival tactic.

Just then a mourning cloak butterfly appeared. “That’s the first I’ve seen this year!” said Diane. I could not capture it with my camera, it swooped and flitted so fast, but I did Google the species later.

Nymphalis antiopa, native to both Eurasia and North America. has a name which came over with Scandinavian or German rather than British settlers. There is a cool historical nugget concerning the species. British lepidopterist L. Hugh Newman ran a butterfly farm in Kent that supplied the creatures for Sir Winston Churchill’s enjoyment and also wrote many popular books in the 1940s and 50s (Butterfly Haunts, Butterfly Farmer, Butterflies of the Fields and Lanes, Hills and Heathlands… and so on). He likened the wing’s pattern to a girl who disliked having to dress in drab mourning clothes and defiantly let a few inches of bright hem show below her black dress. I like just about all defiance, so I love this butterfly.

We walked by the bane of the invasive-eradicator’s existence, multiflora rose bushes, just now beginning to leaf out.

Native to Asia, the multiflora rose first came to the U.S. in the 1860s, when it was employed by a well-meaning but somewhat naïve horticultural industry as an ornamental garden plant. Fast forward to the 1930s, when the USDA Soil Conservation Service thought it would provide a nice natural barrier to roaming farm animals (a “living fence”). Well, the bush skedaddled out of any confines that ever held it back, and has since been classified as a noxious weed in many states. Scores of volunteers have pricked their fingers pulling out the shrub along this trail.

Diane described garlic mustard, which “exudes a fungicide so we are eager to eradicate it to preserve our valuable mushrooms that are so important to the health of the forest.” Also, those “pretty little yellow flowers all along the edges of the trail” are lesser celandine, and they crowd out the much more beautiful wild violet.

Invasive plants have no natural enemies. Even the deer eschew them. Diane pointed out a stalk of the particularly evil wild raspberry, whose sumptuous fruits I have sampled many times but which wreak havoc with birds’ digestive systems, “kind of like junk food.” It’s nearly as bad as porcelain berry, and that’s saying something. I wondered if well-meaning invasive whackers ever yank up anything good by mistake. Diane told me that once a fellow who had not been adequately trained proudly displayed a plant he had ripped out by the roots, believing it to be porcelain berry. Sad ending, it was actually a rare doll’s eyes plant.

We want the birds to eat good foods and prosper! As if on cue, a lovely little nest appeared.

Something that survives when Diane’s volunteers succeed are intricate stone walls dating back to the mid-1800s. These have the most beautifully pink-streaked quartz.

Robert Frost is famous for these lines:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

Recognizing that historic walls are vulnerable, the Friends commandeered stone mason George Cabrera to shore them up. I had to confess to Diane that I love old, tumbling-down structures better than any tidied-up restoration. But the farmers who originally assembled these stones – probably employing the same stonemasons who built the underground Aqueduct itself – would have repaired them so that they would last forever. So it only makes sense to honor their efforts by doing so now.

Speaking of stone, we passed through rock that was split apart by gunpowder at the time the Aqueduct was installed, between 1837 and 1842. Yes, gunpowder.

Diane pointed to chutes cored out from above where the powder would be dropped down and ignited. Boom! Impressive technology predating dynamite’s invention by Alfred Nobel in 1867.

We passed some incredible trees. A broken off trunk with loads of character and a nice hidey hole at its base. Dead trees often go underappreciated for their important role as habitat.

A soaring hemlock. Hello up there!

I remember asking a more seasoned arborist if losing all those lower branches meant the tree was dying. The answer: No, the tree just wants to conserve its energy in order to keep growing. And, as Diane pointed out, to reach for the sunlight. Trees, as usual, are smart.

Some impressive roots here too.

And a sight that struck me as almost too amazing. A branch bent up at a right angle. Was this just an unusual growth habit? Sometimes trees do grow in ways that might be construed as strange – say, conjoined trees, my favorite. This might be different, though.

Could it possibly be what is called a Trail or Marker Tree, or more technically a Culturally Modified Tree? These specimens, which curve and grow sideways at such an impossible angle, often turned sharply up toward the sky, are historical curiosities found all around the country, whether out in the woods or in city parks or front yards.

Experts say that CMT’s once helped the Native Americans who trained their growth find safe paths through rough forests and locate river crossings or natural springs, shelter or encampments Tom Belt of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma explained their purpose: “The bending of trees was essentially part of a great highway system that allowed people from many tribes to interact with each other, and there was an inordinate amount of trade going on.”

I don’t know if the one on the trail today was a Marker Tree, but I want to believe.

We racewalked back, late to meet a friend for lunch. Diane’s house has a rapturous view of the Hudson, dozens of birds attendant at the bird feeder – she tracks their comings and goings daily – and one hundred or so thriving houseplants. She offered to gift me with one. Would I prefer a walking iris or a jade plant? Decisions, decisions. Once, long ago, I kept a jade plant that I sadly, shall we say, undernurtured. I figured I’d make atonement for that fiasco this time around.

The jade plant has taken up residence on my office window sill. If you peer out the window into the distance, the ridge you see is the top of the Palisades. Not a Hudson River view, but close enough on this day of small but impressive sights in early spring.

Warburton Avenue’s southern end is still one of Yonkers’ most charming streets, with old house rooftops low enough to catch long views of the Palisades cliffs. Girl Scouts, Scout Moms, Mason brothers and Friends volunteers tidied up Warburton on a sunny morning in late October, and caught the cliffs’ fiery color.

At the center of the volunteer activity was the historic James H Farrell Lodge (est. 1879), on Warburton near Lamartine Avenue. The lodge is one block from the aqueduct trail. Teamwork made it all come together!

Tom Meier, Department of Public Works Commissioner, came to inspect and commend! We all appreciated his encouragement.

Girl Scout Makaylah Jones works with Masonic brother Harold McKoy. Harold wants every Yonkers teen to know where to find the historic aqueduct trail.

Volunteer Dorothy DeWitz, pictured with The Friends’ President Mavis Cain, rode the train to Warburton – and then walked 5 miles home to Spuyten Duyvil in The Bronx!

Girl Scout Brook worked with her mother Gail. They are both meticulous!

One Thing Leads to Another – how We Tended the Trail in So Many Different Ways on so Many Days

An amazing series of I Love My Park Day events took place in May and June of 2022 on the northern section of the Aqueduct trail, sponsored by Parks & Trails NY and hosted by the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct.

On April 15 the crew leaders and the OCA Park Crew came together to walk the trail to assess and plan the work ahead. Our group included Steve Oakes, Historic Site Park Manager in the green hat, David Bonacci in the green shirt on the left and Robert Lee in the front, to select those areas on the trail where we determined we could make the most impact and to decide who was going to work where. Linda Rohleder in the blue shirt chose the secret grotto, Mike Young in the green shirt on the right chose to work with the Barberry bushes in an area where he had worked before. Alice next to me on the left planned to work with the families with children to remove Garlic Mustard and Bob to the right of me, the pied piper of vine cutting, identified tree strangling vines to manage. Leigh Draper from Teatown (between Linda and Mike) planned to stay by the entrance and work with the volunteers to weed the wildflower patch previously planted. The Parks crew decided to work on painting the fence that they had helped construct and planned to collect and dispose of the invasive plants removed.

Although we scheduled I Love My Park Day on May 7th it rained on that day, so we postponed most of the ILMPD activities to other days. However, the SavATree crew was determined to make a difference on the trail, and since they could not come on the May 14th rain date, Stacey Parthemore, her sister-in-law, and two SavATree crew members came and worked on the trail with me in the rain and accomplished an enormous amount.

With a hedge trimmer, chain saws, and a chipper, and determination, they removed multiflora rose bushes in a swampy area and also a large invasive tree. The crew very carefully worked around the native spice bushes in the area and without so much competition, they will now be able to flourish.

Here is a video of Stacy with her hedge trimmer looking very graceful as she attacked a multiflora rose bush. https://youtube.com/shorts/RTbqsVbOBH8?

Thumbs up for a job well done, and determination despite the rain.

In order to minimize the re-sprouting of the mufti-flora rose bushes that were cut down, Ryan from the Invasive Strike Force came on another day and did some very delicate herbicide treatment by “painting” the cut stems. Teamwork! Here he is:

Subsequent walks on the trail have revealed some specular native plants emerging where SavATree removed so many invasive species. I found an unusual plant called Common rush or Juncus effusus, but it was being taken over by Japanese stilt grass and multi-flora rose. I convinced fellow trail walker Paula, to remove some of the stilt grass to help the rush thrive. So, one day she showed up with hat and gloves and a weeding tool and went to work.

On the rain date of May 14th, 59 volunteers came to work at the Quaker Bridge Road location.

They were welcomed by James Creighton, the Deputy Town Supervisor of Cortlandt and by Brian Pugh, Mayor of Croton on Hudson. Here is James Creighton speaking to the volunteers.

We are very grateful to those who sent us photos as well as the photographers we recruited to help document our work and our successes. Here is Mayor Brian talking with photographer Chris Mahoney.

This photo was taken by the other photographer we had recruited, Rick Sammon. Here is Rick being photographed by his wife Susan:

This year we were able to recruit some of our long-time I Love My Park Day crew leaders. Here I am with Bob DelTorto, long time mentor and President of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation Conservancy who organizes vine cutting events along the Bronx River Parkway www.vinecutter.com.

And Guy Pardee of Suburban Native on the right, another expert and dedicated remover of tree strangling vines. When I asked him for a description of what his company does, he said, “Native landscapes and wildlife habitat restorations for humans and other animals.” Guy and Bob were too focused on educating their volunteers and cutting the vines to take photos of their work on the trail, but walking on the trail I see evidence of the vines they cut and the trees they have saved.

We were gratified to have so many volunteers show up from the local neighborhood and environs, including families who came with their children to tend the trail.

We divided into groups. Alice Lee and her husband Jonathan led the Garlic mustard crew of children and their families; they worked along the hillside of the trail and removed 525 pounds of that destructive plant! Alice took this photo.

Chris Mahoney took this photo of the work being done on the hillside.

Here is our youngest, enthusiastically bagging the Garlic mustard.

The fence painting group was joined by Mayor Brian Pugh, pictured here with some of the volunteers, including crew leader, handyman and master painter, Pablo Mora.

Continuing our tradition of restoring stone walls, our volunteer stone mason, George Cabrera, returned for yet another year with his assistant Carlos to work on restoring the low stone wall close to the entrance to the trail on Quaker Bridge Road, with the help of volunteers.

George has been volunteering for ILMPD on the first Saturday in May since 2016 and worked under contract with the Friends of the OCA to do a major stone wall restoration during the last 10 days of March. Here is a link with the saga of the stone walls showing what has been accomplished over the years. https://aqueduct.org/wall-preservation

And here is a link to George’s website: https://www.jandcgeneralcontractor.net/

We also worked to rescue some of the native plants growing on top of the stone wall. We removed them in the morning and in the afternoon, four people replanted the native plants which included Early saxifrage, White wood aster, Plantain-leaved pussytoes, and Solomon seal.

Mike Young, long time ILMPD crew leader and mentor, was joined by William Kellner, an enthusiastic returning volunteer, in tackling the invasive and prickly Barberry bushes, which are known to alter the Ph of the soil and to harbor ticks. Between the two of them they dug up 200 plants in a section of the trail bordering Quaker Bridge Road East, including 110 Barberry bushes; Oriental bittersweet, Siebold’s viburnum and Wineberry accounted for the other 90 plants removed.

Walking on the trail as I do almost daily, I was amazed at the difference – no Barberry bushes in the section on which they worked. But then I became distraught at seeing the garlic mustard thriving in that spot. I kept my antennae out for possible volunteers to remove them and found them when another group working at the Croton Dam on May 29 limited to adults requested an opportunity to involve their children on the trail. How could I refuse them? On June 5 we had a Pop-Up Garlic mustard pull.

The youngest child was 2 and the oldest, 14, with a total of 13 volunteers completely clearing the area of Garlic mustard. We weighed the bags filled with Garlic mustard: 140 pounds! This was a joyful and delightful event.

Friends Luna and Wren worked together to pull Garlic mustard and the children and their families worked enthusiastically to remove and bag and were pleased with their accomplishments.

Here is Asher pulling the cart loaded with garlic mustard bags to my car for disposal.

Back to ILMPD, I enticed another group to take a long walk on the trail to work with Linda Rohleder, our long-time mentor and crew leader, to work in an area we called the secret grotto. Here is a video of the grotto I took one day in April. https://youtu.be/Qu-Pni7fdCA

Here is Linda before starting out, helping to orient us in the beginning of the day.

Here is Linda’s report: “In the morning we had 9 people removing invasive plants around a nice little grotto along the trail. The area was about 30×20 feet. Invasive species we dealt with included privet, oriental bittersweet, burning bush, bush honeysuckle, and garlic mustard. We uncovered and protected native bloodroot, trout lily, avens, wild geranium, Virginia creeper, Christmas fern and jewelweed.” Here is the “After” photo taken by Linda:

But the story does not end there; Linda is starting a new not-for-profit organization called Wild Woods Restoration Project to organize volunteers to grow native plants from local ecotype seeds. As a result of working on the trail that day, populations of wild geranium were spotted blooming where Stacy and SavATree had worked the week before, and Linda requested that I collect the seeds when they became mature, which I did. Those seeds will be used next year to grow plants, some of which will be designated for the trail. And three ILMPD volunteers, one of whom met Linda for the first time working at the grotto, are now growing seedlings of other native plants from the Wild Woods Restoration Project, destined for planting this fall.

May 29 was the rain date for NY NJ Trail Conference’s Invasive Strike Force’s section of I Love My Park Day. 14 volunteers joined 6 Invasive Strike Force crew members with the goal of managing Siebold viburnum trees above the Aqueduct Trail near the Croton Dam. The goal for this group was to remove large flowering and fruiting trees to prevent spread onto the OCA.

The Invasive Strike Force of the NY-NJ Trail Conference, led by Ryan Goolic McClean returned on June 11th to continue its work with the help of 5 volunteers and 10 Invasive Strike Force crew members including their colleagues from the Aquatic Strike Force. They reported that they were successful at cutting down and treating all of the fruiting trees on the hill that they could find. This was major accomplishment.

Here are some of the crew members, with their tools and equipment laid out for the day’s work.

We found a blue bell patch which was flagged when it was found blooming last year earlier in the season (see blog from 2021) and some of the volunteers were eager to remove all of the non-native plants invading the patch.

Bill Kellner, who worked so effectively on May 14 removing Barberry bushes came to this event and continued his campaign to pull these bushes up by the roots. Then he worked on the target species of the Invasive Strike Force: Siebold’s viburnum.

The Ossining section of ILMPD led by Daria Gregg took place on May 14 and included 13 volunteers. They reported removing 267 pounds of Garlic mustard and even tackled the difficult to remove Lesser celandine, digging up 403 pounds from one section.

Then, inspired by the work of the volunteers and by the involvement of some of the Aqueduct neighbors, we held a celebratory guided walk on the Trail on July 30.

Daria was able to show off all she has accomplished over the years on the section of the trail in Ossining she has adopted.

Congratulations and gratitude are due the 158 volunteers who dedicated time, enthusiasm and energy to tend our beloved trail during this extended I Love My Park Day.

Watch for the next installment of our saga – more documentation of the celebratory walk, which includes interesting stories of additional contributions by neighbors living along the trail.

Diane Alden

On a drizzly Spring morning in Yonkers, a hardy bunch of Wicker Street volunteers finished work by 12:30. These people got right down to picking up garbage and pulling invasives. Maybe they knew that weeds are easy to pull after it rains? The state parks’ crew joined us and pitched in, which is always inspiring for residents to see!

Our Morsemere Place crew slashed ivy and took out a huge multiflora rose “garden”, while the Philipse Place crew found garbage from Glenwood down to LaMartine Avenues. The third group hand-pulled cow parsley/wild Chervil (looks like Queen Anne’s Lace). Dobbs Ferry/Hastings people held down base camp. We did a lot!

For the first time we tried out a mechanical machine called a Puller Bear – and it worked like magic on multiflora rose! Puller Bears do not, sadly, work on bamboo but this gadget pulls out small trees with no fuss.

A Puller Bear In Action, Cesar from Groundwork Hudson Valley Green Team

Thank you all who signed up, regardless if you came out this time, because your heart’s in the right place! Keep the topic of trail upkeep in mind! Your support for Yonkers and the aqueduct trail is priceless.

THEN A WEEK LATER, more Yonkers volunteers appeared on the raindate! The Hudson River Community Association of Northwest Yonkers, plus Lucy Casanova-Moreno’s group, and Groundwork Hudson Valley Green Team picked up garbage and got to know their neighbors. What a wonderful reprise. Go Yonkers!

by Jasena Sareil on behalf of the GPTF

Over 30 volunteers (ranging from 3 year-olds to seniors) gathered to remove invasive plants and to create a pollinator garden along the wall of the Irvington Estates on the Aqueduct.

We worked from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Peter Strom provided an excellent educational experience by helping the volunteers identify non-native invasive species in the designated area. Participants learned the plants’ names and why they need to be removed. Later, Pete spoke about each native plant that found a new home in the garden and explained how it will positively contribute to the local ecosystem. Leola Specht, Haven Colgate & Jasena Sareil provided additional guidance and answered questions. Leola Specht, Haven Colgate & Jasena Sareil provided additional guidance and answered questions.

Volunteers worked hard, patiently removed invasives, prepared soil for planting, added plants, placed mulch, and watered the garden. We filled 15 brown bags of organic waste and also collected trash, which was dropped off at the MSS. It was a wonderful community event. Here are some photos

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Work accomplished 3.18.22

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The long awaited stone wall restoration has begun on the Ossining section of the OCA! 

The problem: Stilt grass is ubiquitous on the Aqueduct trail and in mid-September is currently flowering and will shortly start to set the seeds which will widely disperse onto the trail.

Looks nice and green, but it is extremely detrimental to the ecology. It alters the natural soil chemistry and, as it increases, it crowds out native plants and severely reduces plant diversity. Hand pulling has been found to be the most effective for relatively small populations. It should not be pulled before July, but should be pulled before the seeds set in early fall. I organized an emergency pop-up removal of stilt grass in a section of the Aqueduct Trail we have been tending since 2012. Two enthusiastic previous I Love My Park Day participants responded to the emergency call; they worked with me for an entire productive morning on September 12, 2021 and were very satisfied with the results. Here is Leigh surveying a section on which she had just started to work trailside:

Here is Alice, pleased with the results of her work. She advised that it would be important to clear the top of the hillside so that the grass would not spread down the hill, and then followed her own advice.

Alice worked both trailside and above the trail where she found this unusual caterpillar. It was rolled up in a leaf of Hog-peanut (see below for a photograph). Hog-peanut, (Amphicarpaea bracteate) is a native plant that has started to flourish on the trail now that we have been removing invasive species. After photographing this caterpillar, she put it back where she found it. This is an example of the benefits of removing invasive species. We hope this caterpillar survives to emerge as a beautiful Silver spotted skipper butterfly, Epargyreus clarus.

American Hog-peanut, Amphicarpaea bracteate. This plant is a member of the legume family; members of this family add nitrogen to the soil, thus improving it and helping to nourish other plants. The day Leigh, Alice, and yours-truly worked together, we weighed the bags and ascertained that we had removed 29.4 lbs. We put the bags in the wheelbarrow and along came a local trail walker and offered to take on the job of transporting the bags for disposal. I call that trail magic!

I wanted to keep going with this project and Lily offered to return and I recruited Mary, who walks many miles every day on the trail with her dog. She is camera-shy so I cannot show you a photo of her. She, with her dog tethered to her belt, Lily and I worked together for several hours on September 13. Here is Lily weighing the bags we filled with a total of 54.2 pounds.

Lily is an Ameri-corps New York New Jersey Trail Steward who works with other stewards along the OCA and the DEC Unique Area, providing education and information to the visitors on weekends and holidays. I recruited Lily and then she inspired her fellow stewards to continue the stilt grass removal effort.

The four Stewards worked from 9 am to 3pm on September 17 and removed 247.07 pounds. They volunteered to remove stilt grass on the OCA instead of doing trail maintenance in another park. A huge thank you to Lani, Rosa and Jen, pictured here in a photo taken by the leader of this group, Lily!

They had fun making a time lapse video to demonstrate their work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J191KpLuIdop_ScJlJbTLQZeY9UIP1Oi/view

Here is a photo of one section of the hillside, free of stilt grass, with native plants that now have the room to thrive.

Lily also made a video on the last day of this endeavor to show the results of their work. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iv7mX5e0tZW-5rG_AMiPiZKi-P3go6DU/view

I may recruit others to work on the trail edges and hillside in the coming days of the section in Cortlandt that I have adopted, since the grasses have not yet set their seeds. I would encourage other ambitious trail lovers, if they have the time and energy, to select a small section of the trail right now and remove the stilt grass and then watch next year to see what native plants may emerge.

Stilt grass removal is an especially enjoyable activity for children!

Local property owners may want to do some stilt grass removal on their own properties. See here for more information about stilt grass: https://www.lhprism.org/species/microstegium-vimineum

In the meantime, the Parks crew members are in the process of mowing the trail edges, perfect timing, since doing so now will set the plants back considerably and help keep them in check.

–Diane Alden

Excerpt from The Rivertowns Enterprise. Readers can access the full story starting on page 5 of the Rivertowns Enterprise e-digital version from their August 13th edition.  They can open a free e-edition account to view the article at Rivertowns Enterprise e-edtion.

By Kris DiLorenzo

Parks & Trails New York has awarded a $24,875 grant to the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct (FOCA) to expand its community outreach to underserved and diverse communities. “The focus of the outreach will be Yonkers, the most populous and diverse community through which the Aqueduct passes,” FOCA president Mavis Cain told the Enterprise on Aug. 1.

FOCA is one of seven mid-Hudson organizations to receive an award from the Park & Trail Partnership Grants program, which distributed $900,000 among 30 organizations throughout the state. FOCA must raise an additional 10 percent ($2,487.50) above the grant amount.

The Friends will use the grant to hire a part-time coordinator for one year to conduct outreach to schools, Girl and Boy Scouts, residents, and officials to increase awareness and learn the history of the Old Croton Aqueduct, 9 miles of which traverse Yonkers. The coordinator will plan and supervise events that tell the Aqueduct’s history and will encourage local support and participation in the care of the OCA Trail.

To fill the post, FOCA hopes to attract someone having community organizing experience with groups and children in Yonkers, with knowledge of education and history. Contact the Friends at aqueduct.org/contact.

This is to express admiration for and thank you to the volunteers for their contributions to the success of the ninth annual I Love My Park Day on the Old Croton Aqueduct. Every year, there is some special magic that happens on I Love My Park Day. This year the magic was that our many separate but related projects were all done by very local community members, many of whom volunteered after having seen flyers and lawn signs on the trail. New friendships were made by neighbors who met each other for the first time removing invasive plants, the Aqueduct Trail was much improved, and many volunteers reported that, upon returning home, they have made a renewed commitment to remove invasive plants from their properties and then to plant native species to replace them. Here are some of the members of the Quaker Bridge Road sites in Croton on Hudson posing for the traditional group picture.

Since we were spread out with deference to social distancing, here is a comprehensive report about everything that was accomplished on May 1st by the volunteers.

The Croton Dam crew of 6 volunteers and led by Linda Rohleder, PhD, Ryan Goolic, and Kassidy Robinson of the NY NJ Trail Conference’s Invasives Strike Force did an amazing amount of work. They searched 15,681 square feet in the woods above the Aqueduct Trail near the Croton Dam and found 10,408 of them infested with Black jetbead shrubs, managed 126 of them by cutting them down and treating the stumps with a targeted herbicide. 14,810 square feet were infested with Siebold’s viburnum; 136 of which received the cut stump treatment. Quite a feat for a group of nine! Energetic enthusiasm best describes their work as can be seen on the smiling face of volunteer Jaime.

Finding large swarths of native Virginia bluebells nestled in the woods demonstrated to the volunteers the value of doing this work, preserving this wonderful native species endemic to this area.

The Ossining group, led by Friend’s member Daria Gregg, who has adopted a section of the trail in Ossining above Gerlach Park, included eight volunteers. They continued Daria’s work of removing invasive plants and restoring with native species. They focused on bushes including privet, multiflora rose, bush honeysuckle, and burning bush, diligently digging up 64 of those invasive bushes. In addition, they filled 20 large garbage bags with garlic mustard, preventing them from taking over the woods and damaging the ecosystem by exuding chemicals that suppress the growth of native fungi, grasses, and herbaceous plants. The culmination of the day: they planted and fenced 10 winged sumac shrubs and 10 grey dogwoods. Dana Levenberg came to encourage the Ossining group.

The Quaker Bridge Road East crew, led by Michael Young, a long time ILMPD leader and professional arborist, included 9 volunteers. They targeted vines, bushes, and herbaceous plants, removing a total of 1,022 invasive species. Amazing. Over half of the plants removed were burning bush, including large bushes destined to produce giant seed banks, as well as many small seedlings which had sprouted from the seeds from the large bushes we had removed in previous years. Alice enjoyed posing triumphantly with the truck-load of invasive plants removed, destined not to regrow.

The Quaker Bridge Road group, led by our long time ILMPD crew leader Mary Florin McBride, seen in the photo below, Leigh Draper of Teatown Lake Reservation and Jeniffer Mora, along with Carl Grimm, Board member of the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, included 22 volunteers, mostly families with children who eagerly pulled garlic mustard.

The bags were weighed: a total of 274.5 pounds! An additional 6.5 bags were discovered that were not weighed. Children had fun pulling the easy-to-remove garlic mustard and enjoyed finding native plants growing along the trail including our very special Jack-in-the-pulpit. And then taking a most well-deserved celebratory rest.

We had our usual lunchtime prize drawing, sponsored by our longtime supporter, Feed the Birds, and our youngest volunteer, Keshar, did the honors as her older brother Yadnesh had done in previous years. The prizes were generous and appreciated by the winners.

A hard-working planting crew, led by Mathew McDowell, our expert horticulturist, created a small garden right by the parking area, installing 96 native plants in an area where we had removed invasive plants in previous years.

One thing leads to another. Weeding and watering are needed to maintain this special installation; I have been recruiting trail walkers to help.

A stalwart group, including our own Guy Pardee, of Suburban Native LLC and other professional arborists, trekked down to the riverside under the leadership of George Profous, the DEC Forester responsible for the Croton Gorge Unique Area. They showed up with garbage bags prepared to remove trash; I traded them for weed wrenches and challenged them to bring back even one bottlecap from the pristine riverside. They removed many prickly, dangerous invasive barberry bushes threatening to take over the Area and potentially providing a safe harbor for ticks. And were then rewarded by a presentation by Croton on Hudson’s Historian, Marc Cheshire, who described the deep and rich history of what once took place at the riverside at the Unique Area; it was the second time that Marc has participated in ILMPD, helping us learn about our fascinating surroundings. When they returned from the riverside, I was presented with one pull tab substituting for the bottle cap I had requested.

We were very pleased to welcome back our long-time photographer, Tom Tarnowsky, who stationed himself at Quaker Bridge Road and took pictures of families with their children and the prize drawing. John and Lynn Salmon, our other expert I Love My Park Day photographers, took our group photo and then traveled to the river to photograph the work being done there. They also photographed the planting crew and many of the other activities on the Quaker Bridge Road site.

This year, the State Parks Crew, led by Steven Oakes, the Historic Site Manager, eagerly integrated with the volunteers and worked on garlic mustard removal with the families and also participated at the riverside. And then diligently scooped up all of the garlic mustard bags for disposal. Steve worked at both of the Quaker Bridge sites, walking from one end to the other.

We were honored by the presence of Dana Levenberg, Town Supervisor of Ossining, who came to cheer us on, and James Creighton, Councilman, Town of Cortlandt, both of whom have volunteered at I Love My Park Day in previous years.

We are very grateful to our sponsors including Avalon, Brenda Timm, Realtor, Croton Energy Group, and Hudson View Auto; they helped pay for the supplies and equipment, Baked by Susan provided the delicious breakfast treats, and Green’s Natural Market, provided healthy fruit and snacks to keep us going during the day. Robbins Pharmacy provided professional and extensive first aid kits for each one of our sites, thus guaranteeing the safety of our volunteers. The UPS Store in Croton printed the flyers, gratis, that we posted on the trail and around town and then posted one in its store.

We acknowledge the support we received this year from both Parks & Trails NY which sponsors I Love My Park Day throughout the state and Riverkeeper Sweep which made our numerous sites official Riverkeeper Sweep sites, thus helping with registration and recruitment of volunteers.

We are pleased to announce that for the first time the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct also hosted two I Love My Park Day events in Yonkers, one led by Norma Guzman in collaboration with Westchester Parks Foundation in the section of the OCA which runs through Tibbett’s Brook Park.

And one on the OCA near the intersection with Wicker Street hosted by the Friends of the OCA board member Lesley Walter. You can see her in the photo below in her pink jacket. Read her creative blog about the event here.

This event was marked by creativity and enthusiasm, with long time Friends’ members Shaun Gorman and Ilona Fabian leading the trash removal contingent, documenting 48 bags of trash removed at 3 pickup points along the trail along with many items too large to be bagged. Wild chervil was a target for removal in this section of the trail: 90 pounds were removed along with 30 pounds of garlic mustard and another 30 pounds of mixed invasive species.

We also facilitated a pop up I Love My Park Day in Dobbs Ferry hosted by the Rotaract Club of Mercy College.

Yes, we are expanding! In the meantime, keep your eyes out for the native plants thriving along the sections of the trail we have been tending and put May 7, 2022 in your calendars for the tenth annual I Love My Park Day. You might even consider adopting a small section of the trail in 2021 and creating your own pop-up events.

Diane Alden

It was a fashion-forward I Love My Parks Day in North Yonkers. Thirty “models” recently converged on a scenic runway, the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, for the annual spring show of voguish volunteers, assisted by a hardworking Yonkers crew from the Dept of Public Works.

While “modelling” their best Covid tees and work sweats in a versatile Spring collection, some volunteers handily eradicated nonnative plants and trash. Uprooting over 150 pounds of wild chervil and garlic mustard was easy in new 2021 Special Edition gear!

Other “models” ranged over a half-mile stretch on photo shoots, filling 48 huge garbage bags. Trash was picked up at 3 points while organic material was given over to Yonkers Organic Yard, or safely laid to rest out of the way along the trail.

Members of the public were highly gratified to catch the May 1 I Love My Parks Day fashion fest. In fact at least 3 passersby became part of the show. Many models expressed their hopes to be included next year! Meanwhile, kudos to all the natty volunteers and stylish neighbors along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in Yonkers.

A group of wonderful students from Mercy College  created their own pop-up I Love My Parks Day on May 1st to clean up the trail between Cedar Street in Dobbs Ferry and the Mercy Campus.

Way to go guys and thank you!

… . Smack in the midst of 200,00 people, on Yonker’s hidden gem!

In late March, arborist Guy Pardee of Suburban Native LLC took up combat along a section of North Yonkers Aqueduct Trail. Guy chops vines for a living – freeing trees, rock walls and scenic views in the process. That’s when he discovered the wildlife. Besides an owl pellet filled with mouse bones, and an osprey, he found a gulch filled with feral cats and large deer families living in backyards.

Which is good news for the rest of us…. Maybe we can’t identify invasive oriental bittersweet, but animals are entertaining.

But even an arborist can’t always win. From Untermeyer Park to Wicker Street, thickets of rose thorns draw blood instantly, even in late winter, and glass bottles underfoot acted like banana peels.

Nonetheless, thanks to Guy, river views are set to improve on that section of Aqueduct Trail. The key is where to slice the vine. One cut should be 5 feet off the ground, and again at the base. That critical air space prevents new vines from reaching the tree again.

Really, who knows the scope of exotic plant life on the Aqueduct Trail? Or the extent of the wild life in New York’s 4th largest city? Discover more on your own, and let us know what else you spot!

PS: This enormous bittersweet vine came from the trail north of Yonkers. Guy believes it’s a record for girth, at 10 inches diameter.

Speaking of Yonkers.. On Saturday, May 1 the Friends of The Old Croton Aqueduct will supervise cutting, pruning, lopping and cleaning up near Wicker Street on the trail. It’s the annual I Love My Parks Day! We have tools if you have the time…. The Friends will be there from 10am-2pm. Register at: https://ptny.wufoo.com/forms/m17hbqzu0jtunij/ ,choose the Old Croton Aqueduct Historic State Park – at Wicker Street and come meet your neighbors!

FOCA and Hastings VineSquad teamed up on Saturday March 20th to tackle vines and invasives on the OCA just south of Pinecrest Drive.

A beautiful spring day brought out more than a dozen seasoned loppers. Many passersby gave thanks for helping save the trees.