Tom Ebersold at work Saturday.
Eleven West Rock Ridge Park Association volunteers spent three hours removing invasive plants from the South Overlook of West Rock Ridge State Park on Saturday.
Volunteer trail manager Tom Ebersold offers residents the opportunity to volunteer once a month in the ongoing park trail work. Ebersold has been carrying out trail maintenance in West Rock Ridge Park since 2007. His work started with marking trails and led to a larger project, the removal of invasive plant species.
“I started because I got tired of getting lost here because no one was taking care of the trails,” said Ebersold, who also serves as president of New Haven Hiking Club and through the state is an official volunteer of the Adopt a Park.
The volunteers on Saturday, a mix of members from the West River Watershed Coalition (WRWC) and New Haven Hiking Club, used hedge shears and knives to cut down mostly privet, but also other invasive species such as asiatic bittersweet, autumn olive, and Japanese wineberry.
“What we’ll be doing is stacking the privet, so that people don’t wander off the trail,” Ebersold informed the group. “The goal is to cut it as low as you can. Because wherever you cut it, is where it’s going to resprout from.”
Courtney Luciana photo
Privet (pictured) is a common hedge in people’s gardens. In the early 20th century, there were privet hedges everywhere around people’s properties. Birds can eat the berries that grow on privets
As invasive species fled to the wild areas of the park, the thorny vines there are now taking over and killing native plants, growing faster and blocking trails. Volunteers must be careful not to cut native plants such as grape vines, birch trees, and black raspberries.
The West Rock Ridge Park Association assembled in the 1970s to make the formerly city-owned park switch to state ownership. North of the park is Lake Wintergreen, which was water company property. When the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed in 1974, the reservoir ceased to be used and the land was sold to the state. New Haven gave this part to the state but kept the West Rock Nature Center.
Stephanie FitzGerald joined the West Rock Ridge Park Association for the event Saturday. She has been protecting parks throughout the city for ten years, including long-term collaborations with Friends of Edgewood Park and WRWC.
“A lot of times, invasives are plants that people had in their backyards, and they escaped,” FitzGerald said. “This work helps the native plants to survive and do well.”
Frank DeLeo, a member of WRWC, said that everyone needs to pitch in and help to take care of the environment before it’s too late.
“Look what’s happening with climate change,” DeLeo said. “Especially with these invasives now. They’re taking over and destroying all of our natural resources that we do have.”
Joel Schall often visits West Rock Ridge Park with his two young boys, Caleb and Samuel, 13 and 11 years old. Caleb recently crafted a proposal for additional trail development and cleanup on the north end of the West Rock Ridge Park, near where the Schalls live on Paradise Avenue. Caleb sent the proposal to the park supervisor of Sleeping Giant Park Association, Jill Scheibenpflug, who forwarded the project idea to Hamden Mayor Curt Balzano Leng.
“There’s a trail there that’s not all that well maintained. We’ve been walking our dog up there, and Caleb just noticed that there’s litter everywhere,” Joel said. “It’s very early stages. but Caleb wants to do some litter removal and possibly add some new trail that’s got some mountain bike features.”
Caleb and Samuel (pictured) continuously Saturday cut the privet, which was too big to be uprooted.
Samuel said that he enjoyed being a part of making a difference throughout all different trails.
“I’m excited to be a part of building the trails,” Samuel said. “If you just put some effort in, you can really clear a lot of space.”
The West Rock Ridge Park Association volunteers ended the workday by disposing of the invasive plants onto the sides of the South Overlook, particularly where illegal manmade or natural trails have appeared, to block off people from exploring those pathways.
Thank you to all the volunteers removing invasive species plants and clearing trails and removing trash. The work you do benefits everyone who wants to use our parks. It would be great if other community and youth groups joined in this exercise and schools could have their ecology and biology lessons outdoors with this activity as part of it. So many young people in the city rarely get to enjoy the outdoors and nature, and this would be a way to learn while making their part of the city user friendly.