The Camper

Gary and I worked today. Rather than go to the Southern Forest as I had planned, we stayed close to the Jobox, primarily tackling Herb Robert and morning glory. I did walk to the poor young cedar that was uprooted by the "camper."

The cedar was planted by the trail and awhile ago when it was leaning, we had staked it. In the following months, I thought it was doing well. After Jim found the tent in early June, one Sunday, when he and the guys went to look at it, they found the cedar being used to camouflage the path to the tent. Then we noticed the stake was no longer staking anything.

I must say when Jim told me about the "camper," I found myself feeling guilty because when I got the news, I was about to go out to dinner with friends. There I was about to have a very nice meal and some poor soul had no roof over his/her head so pitched a tent in the park. However, at the discovery of the uprooted cedar, most of my sympathies for this individual evaporated. Jim noted the camouflage also used the lower branches of a conifer near the tent. That tree will live, even though it was assaulted. I do think each of us has some responsibility to society to somehow ease homelessness. But I have low tolerance for tree damage in the park. This individual had also cut the cable securing our wheelbarrows and "borrowed" one to transport his belongings. I could overlook that but not the killing of the cedar. It takes time for trees to grow and not all of them survive the elements once planted.

The poor tree we tried to save. 

We took the uprooted cedar and replanted it near where it had come, but further off the trail. It's been over a month and it is dead. Jim said last week it didn't have much of a root when it was replanted. So, basically uprooting it yanked it off of its root system, killing it.


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Gary and I were merrily pulling out Herb Robert by hand when Gary decided to tackle an area that was thickly blanketed by Herb Robert with no native plants intermingled. He thought raking would make the task easier so he used a mattock as a rake. I joined him, using an actual rake. We were getting quite large piles of Herb Robert when Gary suddenly noticed wasps. Needless to say, we abandoned that operation. This is in an area just east of the Jobox. We were raking below the red cedar. Gary thought the bees had a nest on the other side of the trail, beneath a hazel.

We then worked in the area north of the trail. I took a peek where a side trail goes to the Trail of Cedars. I remember working there with John years ago--in the late 90s or early 2000s. I remember the area as completely bare after blackberries were removed. It now has a healthy grove of salmon berry and beneath, wild strawberries. Gary and I ate a few. Not particularly flavorful but they make wonderful ground cover.

On the upper left you can just make out the plank that's used as the bridge from Trail of Cedars. The photo would be more colorful had I taken it before Gary and I picked ripe berries to eat.