This Saturday, October 11th 2025, Great Neck’s ALYUS branch joined other volunteers at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum for a Stewardship Saturday event. From 9:30 AM to 12:00 involved a small group of dedicated ALYUS members working with park staff and volunteers to help clean the Friendship Garden at the park.
Working to remove invasive species that had taken over the garden ever since it was first created in the 1970s, ALYUS members weeded, dug, transported, and planted a wide variety of plants. Volunteers cleared shrubs of honeysuckle, jewelweed, mugwort, and a variety of vines to help the native Azalea plants that the friendship garden is known for. Careful not to hurt other native shrubs and plants, volunteers also spent time cleaning up the gardens for park visitors, replanting native ferns, and even helped weed a bed of native blueberry bushes!
While the garden remains filled with invasive species due to rising water table levels, ALYUS members have played their small part in combatting this, all the while learning about the local ecosystem and flora. Without the dedicated park volunteers here today, invasive plants would’ve been left room to grow and outcompete the native species on Long Island – demonstrating ALYUS commitment to improving and educating volunteers and the local community through action.
Reported by : Kyle Zheng
Members here today: Yingxiang Liu – 2.5 Hours, Yuya Liu – 2.5 Hours, Felicia Liu – 2.5 Hours, Kyle Zheng – 2.5 Hours, Lukang He – 2.5 Hours