Thursday, October 5, 2017

Tennessee Valley Wild Ones

This Monday, October 9, the Tennessee Valley Wild Ones will kick-off Weed Wrangle-Chattanooga 2018 (March 3) with a talk by Eli Dickerson on removing invasive plants at Fernbank in Atlanta.  The meeting will be at 6 pm at green|spaces, 63 E. Main St.  Please come by.

If you wish to talk with Eli informally, we will be meeting for an early dinner at 4:45 pm at Conga Restaurant, 26 E. Main St.  See you Monday!

Bill Moll
TVWO Program Co-Chair
423-702-5779

In fall 2014, Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta embarked on an ambitious task of restoring a 65 acre old-growth forest. The forest had become host to 50 different non-native, invasive plant species that were choking out native plants and decreasing forest biodiversity. Since that time over 30 acres have been at least partially restored. This presentation will cover means, methods, successes and challenges of this restoration project and include advice on how you can tackle these ever-present invasives in your local forest or home landscape. Target species include English ivy, Chinese wisteria, thorny olive, leatherleaf mahonia, and various species of monkey grass.
Eli Dickerson is the Ecologist and chief "tree hugger" at Fernbank Museum of Natural History where he manages the 65 acre, old-growth Fernbank Forest.  Eli is an avid distance runner and enjoys exploring the trails of Georgia and North Carolina. In his spare time he also serves on American Forests National Cadre of Big Tree Measurers and manages Atlanta's Champion Tree Program.  Eli has B.S. in Biology from Winthrop University and an MBA in nonprofit management from Georgia State University.