Tools of the Trade

WHAT TO BRING: A hat is a must, small hand held clippers, screw driver for carefully pulling vines away from the bark, large loppers, gloves & bug repellant.

Map, Pass and Trash

WHAT TO BRING: Don't forget your Field Guide map for navigating to your plot. If you plan to park in the right of way, remember to post your parking pass on your dash. And, a trash bag will be handy for picking up litter or bagging Mile A Minute vine.

Woods Warriors! Dressed for Success!

WHAT TO WEAR: This is high fashion, people! You'll wear your finest bug spray, ball cap, long sleeve shirt, work gloves–if you are handling Mile A Minute vine, long pants, boots (preferably rubber - so ticks can't cling) OR if you really go for the high fashion woods work look–just tuck your pants into your tube socks and you are good to go!

The Four Culprits

WHAT TO CUT: Our target vines are English Ivy, Bittersweet, Honeysuckle and Mile A Minute. Not every plot with see every species. In the coming photos and our current materials, we help you identify each vine so our canopy is able to grow tall and strong!!

Distinguishing ivy

Before we move on...

HOW TO CUT: Please spend a few seconds with Jonathan McKnight, Associate Director of DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Program.

1. English Ivy

In this photo you'll notice the similarities in the "hairy" vine of the English Ivy and the "hairier" Poison Ivy vine. Always look up and down the vine to find the English Ivy leaves before cutting. Don't mess with the wrong ivy!

2. Oriental Bittersweet

This creepy vine is easily identified by it's unmistakable curly vines that wrap around tree trunks and branches. It's vine is light in color and bears bright orange berries in the winter. Cut a large portion of the vine out and carefully unwrap it from the tree. If pulling it away, damages the bark of the tree, leave it be and only remove a one foot section of the vine. In time, the upper portion will die off and can be removed the following year.

3. Honeysuckle

It may be sweet, but it over takes our trees! Carefully pull these vines from the tree and clip the main vines around the tree.

4. Mile A Minute

You will need gloves to deal with this sticky spiky vine! It boasts a triangular leaf with thorns under and on each leaf and stem. Mile A Minute vine needs to be clipped near the ground, bundled and removed from the forest in plastic bags. Each stem has thousands of seed pods that will quickly regenerate if not physically removed from the woods.

Leaf it Alone!

There are a few things in our woods that may need to be reported on, but do not need our help. If you see any large trash, let us know, and we can decide if it needs to be removed by a team of volunteers. If you see any damage to the deer enclosures, please let us know! Any large artifacts that you find, please leave it be and let us know so we can properly investigate! It's our story to tell, lets keep it alive for the whole neighborhood!

Now...Go Spot your plot!

Plots are color coded as shown in the Field Guide maps. The edges of each plot are marked, appox every 25 feet, with bi-colored ribbons or tree marks."Bi-color" meaning the color assigned to your plot, plus the adjacent plot. The four color painted stakes indicate plot corners.