Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park: Let's Lay another Lick on Ligustrums

This It's My Park Day, let's give a hand to native wildlife in Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park by continuing our assault on the nonnative and highly invasive Ligustrum lucidum, also known as glossy privet. Recent rains have made it possible for us to make pretty good progress in a one-acre patch of woods between the two sets of softball fields. We’ll meet at the big blue picnic shelter on that side of the park road.

We will be uprooting thousands of knee- to waist-high glossy privets (Ligustrum lucidum), scores of chinaberries (Melia azederach), and a few Nandina (Nandina domestica). If your heart is really into girdling mature privets, we’ll have a few of those to work on, too. Here's your checklist for being prepared:

1. As soon as you sign up for this event, watch Girdling Invasive Trees with Cliff Tyllick. It's less than 10 minutes long. Watch it again a day or two beforehand.
2. Wear clothes that will protect you from getting scratched. We won’t necessarily be in dense brush, but we will be back in the woods and there’s are occasional greenbriers (Smilax species).
   
3. Wear sturdy, protective shoes! No Crocs! No flipflops!
4. Bring your own water bottle! (A full one!)
5. Finally, think about masking up! I caught Covid in September, and as mild as my case was, I still had coughing fits that had me wondering whether I would survive the next minute. You don’t want to join that club. What you choose to do is up to you, but I wish I had masked up at least once more than I had—and that whoever passed this along to me had masked up while they were infective. The more careful we are, the more great projects we can hold.

We'll provide these:

• Work gloves
• Tools
• A super cool It's My Park Day: Fall 2022 T-shirt, designed by actual local artists!

Be early! If you want to help get things started, meet me at 8:40. I would like to start out to the work site right at 9 a.m.