A “Barbet’s Duet” site on the Hannacroix Creek and Hudson River bordering Ravena and New Baltimore. It’s a place where CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen, and her motivated team of volunteers work tirelessly to return a once-polluted eye soar to its natural habitat. The benefits of their remediation provide cleaner air, cleaner water, and cleaner soil for, not just flora and fauna but the local environment too. Barbara hopes that, someday, acts of beautification, like hers, will be rewarded and incentivized by the State of New York.
In February, a beaver lodge was abandoned but, by April, a new dam of mud and small twigs was assembled. Barbara even witnessed a small beaver grazing on the berm before crossing into the flooded pond. By October, more mud and larger sticks had formed and by December a tall ash tree was felled for further “beaver house” appeal.
In the Spring, Barbara saw snapping turtles mating in the shallow creeks where trout lilly and bloodroot blossom. The common turtle, Chelydra serpentina, can live up to 100 years weighing in at over 22 pounds.
In July, a big thunderstorm with high winds uprooted trees and damaged roofs. Roads were blocked, and power was lost. The sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery permeated the air. Footpaths were cleared with help from Eric Remillard, Earl Thomasson & Barbara.
July was exceptionally wet and the fungi loved it but the weather was abnormally dry between August and November. Barbara was relieved that she was able to capture photos of these spores and ‘shrooms, some edible, most poisonous, when she did.
From April through August, after two or three years of low numbers, there was a resurgence of bugs and butterflies back to the site.
Wild plants of late summer included cardinal flowers, sneezeweed, broadleaf cattail, aster, goldenrod, duck potato, and American burnweed.
In May, Jason Redfield cleared a large area of multiflora rose & dug holes for 25 swamp roses, Rosa palustris, most of which survived summer.
In Aug, Earl Thomasson helped to weed the berm and reduce invasive oriental bittersweet & mugwort elsewhere. From August through Sept, Barbara spent several weeks pulling up Japanese stilt grass before it seeded on the berm. With luck, goldenrod, asters & snake root will self-seed as replacements in 2025.
In Nov, Pam Skripal & a colleague collected native plant seeds for propagation for the Home Earth Alliance.
