Stewardship

The Mercy campus is right on the trail in Dobbs Ferry, but on a Saturday in November a group of students went further afield to parts of the Aqueduct where they don’t usually walk.

They assembled at a neglected section of the Aqueduct in Yonkers at Summit Street. It is a section that caught the attention of Mercy Professor, Mary Allison Murphy who teaches Exercise Science. The students got plenty of exercise picking up trash in an area that for some reason is abused by those who live in the area. One piece of trash encourages trash and it piles up.

Our group of dedicated member gardeners (Linda, LIndsey, Barbe and Lesley) made good progress cleaning up the grounds and the new Pollinator Garden near the Keeper's House in preparation for next spring.  A sunny day and good weather made it all more enjoyable. Who says that gardening isn't good exercise?

Now that gardening and individual volunteer work is permitted, five of us decided to continue the work we have done in past years in May for I Love My Park Day to control Garlic mustard on the northern section of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. We had to forgo I Love My Park Day but we did not want to give up on our beloved trail.

We donned our masks, spread apart on the trail and proceeded to collect 10 large bags of invasive Garlic mustard for disposal. It had rained, so it was easy to pull.

This winter and spring the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct decided to move forward with vine removal by engaging a professional arborist since we determined that we could not rely on volunteers alone to make enough of a difference up and down the trail.  Successful fundraising efforts have fully supported this first initiative!  We obtained permission from the State Parks for Guy Pardee from Suburban Native, LLC to begin removing vines along the trail.  This is a report of what we hope will be the first of many contracts with Guy.