On 8/9/2025, Aylus volunteers went to the Valley Garden in Bethage State Park to help volunteer coordinators to remove weeds from 9:00am to 11:00am.
After gathering, the volunteers got tools like gloves and sickles to help cut down plants that include mugworts and vine plants. In the meantime, volunteers avoided cutting down the plants that were wanted like sunflowers. After all of this, the plants were transported into a small truck, and the volunteer coordinators drove them away to be disposed of.
The invasive plants were necessary to remove since they competed with the native plants, who maintain the local ecosystem by providing food and shelter to local insects and animals. The invasive plants also compete within the same niche as native species and crowd the native species out, so it’s necessary to make more space for the native plants to grow back.
We’ve been focusing on this garden as it is on the Black Course, which will be hosting the Ryder Cup next month. The activity was to make sure that the Mugwort doesn’t grow and to make the garden look its best for the big event!
Members who participated include: Yingxiang Liu (2h), Felicia Liu (2h), Yuya Liu (2h), Katherine Zeng (2h), Sumeng Liu (2h), Nathan Li (2h), Meixin Ding (2h), Sophia Yu (2h), Steven Yu (2h), Jingyi Hu (2h), Junhao Hu (2h), Catherine Tao (2h) , Jonathan Fan (Dix Hills) (2h)
Reporter: Felicia Liu
