On January 28th, members of the AYLUS Oakland Gardens Branch went to mulch young trees. We were invited by the New York Park Natural Area Restoration Team, as in November we had helped plant much of the young trees. We had to help mulch the trees, as there were thousands of them and needed mulch to survive the winter.
We made a “donut” shape with the mulch. The park team members advised us not to make a “volcano” shape, as the mulch would be too close to the trunk. Since the mulch held in moisture, the trunks would start molding and rotting, with the mulch touching the tree. This could eventually kill the tree. The donut shape was a 12 inch circle 6 inches from the tree, and 3 inches tall. Since it was thick, the 3 inches would be able to kill / prevent from growing most of the invasive weed species that crowded most of the trees. The mulch held in heat as well, so the tree would not freeze.
While we were working, the park team discovered trees with things like poison ivy on the bark. They snipped off the most dangerous parts of the ivy so curious kids wouldn’t touch it and get rashes. To be extra careful they also stood nearby to make sure that kids wouldn’t touch it by mistake.
We discovered some fungi in the wild, also known as “tree ear”. Many members mentioned that they had eaten it before, but had never seen it in the wild. We also learned from the park team members that every part of the pine tree was edible. Some of our members tried to taste the firs on the tree, and claimed that it tasted like mayonnaise. We saw a female earwig, some mealworms, earthworms, a green stink bug, millipedes, and pill bugs. Some of our members also tried the sumac tree berries, but spat it out as it was hard and dried out.
While we were mulching some kids discovered an unusual plant. They called some park members to help us identify the plant. Due to its tiny size and shape, even the park members couldn’t identify the type of plant it was. The park members even used a high-tech app to help identify the plant. We discovered the plant was so mysterious that even with technology we couldn’t find out what type of plant it was. We decided to mulch it just in case it was a tiny little tree struggling to grow.
After mulching members felt pleased and accomplished and remembering we had also helped plant some of the many tree saplings. We like to thank all the members of the New York Natural Area Restoration Program for all of their help.
Our Volunteers:
Stephanie ShiRan You: 3 hours
Hong Hao (Alfred) Liu: 3 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 3 hours
Ethan Lin: 3 hours
Vicki Lin: 3 hours
Ioknor Lin: 3 hours
Ioklee Lin: 3 hours
Iokseng Lin: 3 hours
Ryan Wu: 3 hours
Hannah Zheng: 3 hours
PaiPai (Nick) Xu: 3 hours
Aidan Zheng: 3 hours
Aiden Lin: 3 hours
Brandon Lin: 3 hours
Huizhen Piao: 3 hours
William Liang: 3 hours
Thomas Liang: 3 hours
Hayden Ma: 3 hours
Blake Han: 3 hours
Tianxiang (Daniel) Ding: 3 hours
Austin Yuel: 3 hours
Evaline Yuel: 3 hours
Albert Tang: 3 hours
Jiayuan (Mike) He: 3 hours
Report by: Sophia ShiHan You and Stephanie ShiRan You
Reviewed by Jia Qi Liu (Angela)
