Et cetera : NCCC Team Works on Horticultural Tasks at the UW Arboretum

Oak 4 poses in front of one of the burn piles at Faville Prairie.

By Forrest Maher and Jessica Beck

AmeriCorps NCCC team Oak 4 is currently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum in Madison, Wis., helping remove invasive species and doing other horticultural projects. The team arrived on March 11 and will stay until April 26.

Oak 4’s first accomplishment on the property was the removal of invasive trees, like buckthorn and honeysuckle, at Teal Pond. The trees were taking space and nourishment from the area’s native plants. Another task the team completed was clearing and burning brush from Faville Prairie, an outlying property of the arboretum. In order to minimize the scarring of the soil during the burns, Oak 4 consolidated the brush into six large wood piles.

During inclement weather and on Wednesdays, Oak 4 helps clean and propagate seeds in the arboretum’s greenhouse in preparation for spring planting. The team also does other tasks helping with maintenance of the greenhouse.

Oak 4 is currently clearing willow trees at Curtis Prairie, which was the first restored prairie in the United States. Despite being native to Wisconsin, the willow trees were becoming too abundant and blocking the sunlight from the prairie plants. The team is also taking down multiple ash trees, which are being infested by insects that are deadly to the trees. The brush that is cleared then gets chipped and turned into mulch for the arboretum to use throughout the year.

Oak 4 will continue assisting the arboretum and its staff in restoring the land, planting seeds when the weather gets warmer. The team has made significant progress by being ahead of schedule and working hard for the first three weeks of the project.