English Ivy Removal at UVA
Are there trees under those mounds of English Ivy on the UVA campus across from the Rec Center on Massie Road? There are – and we worked hard on April 13 to uncover them!! UVA students from the Madison House Student Volunteer Center on their “Big Event” workday joined tree stewards to save trees covered in non-native invasive vines. We freed over 100 trees. In the upcoming months, the vines that had climbed to the tops of these trees and threatened to topple them will dry out and eventually drop off. As they drop, they will no longer be likely to cause the trees to blow down. But already the trees are more healthy since they no longer have to compete with the vines for water and nutrients. As the ivy leaves that have covered the tree leaves fall off, the trees will have the sunlight they need to produce food and stay healthy for years to come. Thank you Madison House and UVA!