Day 58 - Knocked Down But Not Out
Within a few days, the land browned up. Aesthetically, not so pleasing to an everyday person. But, it was beautiful in our eyes. If we were lucky, this killing off of RCG would hopefully allow dormant native seed banks trapped underneath the RCG canopy finally have access to the sun and water it needs to start their life cycle. We knew that this first treatment was just that, the first treatment. We knew there would be many more steps in the process. What these steps could be and when these steps took place depended on how well this treatment went.
Once we were able to access the land again, we went investigating to see how our first punch to RCG landed. We saw an initial layer of RCG had turned brown.This was good, but what we saw on top of the ground wasn't nearly as important as what we couldn't see underneath it. We were hoping some of the grass-specific herbicide seeped down into the roots and did more lasting damage to the overall root system. We knew that even if it did, RCG was very, very aggressive and it was certain to return. And it did. Rather quickly. However, it wasn’t alone.
We saw new plants sprout up where we hadn't seen them before. Most of these were varieties of sedges and swamp milkweed. These special plant surprises were scattered throughout the land, but were especially apparent where the tractor made tracks. This was very exciting news because it confirmed our restoration partner’s suspicions. There were dormant native seed banks under the dominant RCG. We just needed to disturb the RCG to see what was in that bank. The herbicide application and the tractor tracks moving through the squishy earth did the disturbing and allowed those hidden native plants to finally come to life.
In the first round of this fight, RCG had taken a hit, but it was far from knocked out. We saw newly sprouted RCG throughout the property. This was inevitable. Paying close attention to how fast it came back and to the extent of its reach was vital to making informed decisions as to what was the next step.
