Written by Foster Mellott, Wild Stew Field Crew Member.
Last week, our crew of four hiked to Fossil Springs for the lovely swimming — and while there, we also removed some invasive Himalayan Blackberries. We hiked in from the Flume Trailhead and made it to camp by Wednesday evening. With the help of Eve from Friends of the Verde River, we flagged out the priority areas of Blackberries and we were treating them by Thursday morning.
In total we cleared 0.11 acres of Blackberry, cutting and applying herbicide to 17,282 stems in total. We spent three days working in the highest upstream patch of Blackberry (site 1) removing 0.08 acres and dabbing 9,993 stems with herbicide. We then spent three days working near the main public camping area (site 2) removing 0.03 acres and dabbing 7,289 stems with herbicide. Site 2 was more technical due to working around native Box Elders and removing downed trees to access the Blackberry.
While on hitch we also made a couple of new friends. We found a Rattlesnake at site two and a Frog around our lunch spot! We tried to recruit them to our team but the Rattlesnake wasn’t happy about us being there and Frog was trying to find his true love. We wish them both luck! Everyone’s favorite part of the project was swimming during lunch and after work. The weather was absolutely perfect for cooling off in the water and taking a little break from the heat and hard work. It was also Grace’s last hitch with us. We all wish her the best of luck with her next steps!
