The classroom session during the 4th week included lectures on soil, flora of the Ozarks, and fungi. It was the most sedentary class of the whole series, but the lectures were so good that no one complained!

The field trip was to a place than I had not been before – land/home of a fellow master naturalist. The drive in was a clue to the special place that it is.

The topic of the field trip was to learn about invasives. We started with short hike first – noticing the natives…remembering the invasives that we would come back to remove. I took pictures of things we’d leave and the creek that was dry because our area has had so little rain this summer.

The focus was on bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and wintercreeper. I was keen to see how well the Extractigater tree puller tool worked on bush honeysuckle. It works very well although I think the classic model will work for my needs and not be as heavy. The one in the picture is the Big Daddy version with a BigFoot Accessory. We had a big pile of bush honey suckle with roots very quickly using both tools. The Classic works for stems up to 2” diameter….and I order one for me the day after the field trip!

We discussed what we had learned at the end and learned the process used to establish a Conservation Easement on the property…what it meant for the land long term.

A learning experience re invasives and land conservation.