Private Public Partnership
- lyleestill9
- Mar 2
- 1 min read
There appears to be a successful private/public partnership emerging. It's using volunteer energy to eradicate Chinese Privet and Elaeagnus from the new Town park.
Giant piles of biomass are emerging as viewsheds are being cleared.
People from the Town of Pittsboro, Rewild Within, Grand Trees of Chatham, and the Tree Museum have been showing up on weekends, grabbing weed wrenches, shovels and pick axes to clear the site of invasive plants. Removing the understory shrubs will allow the black cherry, holly, dogwoods and other natives to gain ground.
Our next session will be this Saturday at 10:00 at the southern end of the Plant. Join us. No experience necessary. We provide the equipment, the training, and the weeds.
We are well on our way to releasing a giant black walnut tree, that has all but disappeared in an impenetrable woodland that was clear cut twenty years ago.
I like that the goal isn’t just “remove invasives” but actually getting natives like black cherry and dogwood enough light to compete again. Do you all ever bring in any planting, or is the plan to let the seed bank do the work once the privet is gone? Weird comparison, but the idea of helping what already fits thrive made me think of StyleLookLab — less forcing a makeover, more making space for what suits the place.
No-experience-needed volunteer days are honestly the best gateway into land stewardship — people show up for “one morning,” then suddenly they’re noticing privet everywhere. If you all document before/after shots, it’d be cool to see the understory recovery over the seasons, not just the cleared piles. This post also made me think of imgg in a funny way — both are basically about revealing an image that was there all along, once you remove the clutter.
Private/public partnerships like this feel like the only realistic way to get sustained invasive removal done without burning out a tiny staff. I’m curious whether the town has a plan for follow-up maintenance in year 2–3, since the first big cut is the “fun” part and the mop-up is where projects stall. Side note: the cross-group coordination you mentioned made me think of hrefgo — lots of different things in one place, but it only works if it stays organized.
Releasing that black walnut sounds like the kind of long-game win that makes all the wrenching worth it. Do you all map/flag keepers like walnut and dogwood before workdays, or is it mostly “clear around anything obviously native”? Random aside: the “shift the balance back to natives” idea always makes me think of simple shift cipher tool — small moves, big change in what you can read.
Those biomass piles are always such a weirdly satisfying sign of progress, even if your back hates you the next day. I’m especially glad you called out “viewsheds” — opening up sight lines in a park can make it feel safer and more inviting, not just prettier. This whole weekend-volunteer rhythm reminds me of how small, repeatable “sessions” keep people coming back, the way BlockBlast hooks you with one more round, then you realize you’ve put in real time.