On 11/15/2025, Aylus volunteers went to the Green Acre in Bethage State Park to help coordinate with volunteer coordinators to transplant native plants from 9:00am to 11:00am (2 hours). First, the volunteers walked through the gate to the Nature Discovery Garden and from there, cart over to the Green Acre. That’s where the volunteers worked today. What’s mainly done today was transplanting native plants. Tools involved included gloves and shovels. Holes were dug in the land, and then the seedlings that originally stayed in black plastic containers were carefully placed inside. Finally, the soil need to be regulated and compressed a little to increase the chance of survival of the seedlings from the harsh wind of the nature. Then you might have this question: why do we plant them now and not in spring? Well, these plants that we planted have genes resistant to the cold compared to many other plants and can often withstand winter. What the volunteers did today, also known as winter sowing, allows plants that require a cold period to stratify naturally before they germinate in spring. This gives them more advantages to compete with the invasives that might reappear in spring for limited resources and nutrients. In addition, it shortens the time of adopting to the environment because they’ve already been there (in the soil and most importantly, outside) for a whole season. Helping natives to grow better and to fight invasives is vital for the local ecosystem. Animals that mainly include bird and insect species feed and nest on local and native plants. A change in the plant distribution and species can not only harm local animal populations, but can also lead to extinction of the species of both animals and plants since the ecosystem has a whole set of food web and food chains. This is also why our job matters: to help the local environment and native species when we’re doing some exercises, learning more about nature, and gaining more experiences with nature.
Members who participated include: Yingxiang Liu (2h), Yuya Liu (2h), Annabella Kang (2h), Lucas Kang (2h), Eric Hu (2h), Sumeng Liu (2h) Reporter: Yingxiang Liu
