September 7, 2025

Mahdi met me this gorgeous morning and helped to clear out some buckthorns. It's awesome having his help as he can share different practices. For example, we are going to test out whether cutting the buckthorns (as opposed to digging them out like we usually do everywhere else at our site) can have the same results. Given the huge abundance of these trees, it's important to consider different approaches to make our work as effective and impactful as possible.  We attempted this around another established oak that we found deep in the ravine (pictured below). 

This makes it easier to track for next year as well. We will also attempt this approach next year with digging vs. clipping the Japanese knotweed. While we always try to follow best practices, given the diverse conditions across Toronto, there may be site-specific approaches that work better. As we are getting to know our site better, we feel more confident with doing patch tests that can give us more information about what works best at Betty Sutherland.

While Mahdi cut the buckthorn, I took the final photopoints of the year and spread a few (native) spotted jewelweed seeds in the Japanese knotweed patch. This plant is a really good native competitor in that area as it has the perfect conditions for the plant (shady wetlands) and it's a plant that spreads very easily via it's really neat mechanism, which is how it gets its other common name: touch-me-nots. This plant is actually in close proximity already, but somehow has not established itself there in the Japanese knotweed patch yet. If you're curious to learn more, check out this link.