Charlottesville’s Northeast Park is a small greenspace with a big problem: lots of invasive vines. Mature trees are so entangled with English ivy, honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet that in many cases their ability to photosynthesize has been compromised. On January 18, as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, an intrepid CATS crew put a dint in this problem by clipping vines at the base of trees to free up their canopies. In time, the vines draping the trees will decay and fall away, but they will also grow back. CATS volunteers plan to return to the site, where there is much more work to do. The team included Kathy Nepote, Kay Flanagan, Holly Camp, JoAnn Dalley, Allen Ingling, Camille Wilson and Toine Wyckoff.
Liberating Trees at Northeast Park
