by Sammy Pickering
Along the channelized yet beautiful Shoal Creek, a tributary of the Oconee River, my parents Stella Guerrero and John Pickering own what we refer to as Shoal Creek Sanctuary. The land is in a conservation easement held by ORLT and managed for biodiversity by family, friends and volunteers alike. Roughly 30 acres of the easement is floodplain where we devote most of our habitat restoration efforts. Otters bob for food on the creek’s bottom here. Beavers leave tracks and spiked-stumps along the bank, signs of their persistent attempt to restore and reengage the floodplain. They also engineer dams built within the unnaturally deep banks of the channelized creek where heavy rains wash out their efforts.
The canopy includes mature tulip polar, water oak, green ash, red maple, boxelder, sweetgum and some black walnut. Until recently, the mid-story was dominated by Chinese privet, an aggressive species from Asia that took over after the farmland here was abandoned about 70 years ago. It created a largely barren and ecologically unproductive mid and understory by shading out and outcompeting the native species that would ordinarily grow in the floodplain.
Cutting the privet stems too close to the ground causes them to sprout extensively from the roots, often many feet from the stump. We have learned that by chain sawing them knee-high, however, they can be effectively killed without chemicals. In fact, nearly all of the larger reproductive privet specimens on the property have been removed this way. With greater sunlight reaching the forest floor and less competition for nutrients, the hope is that native understory species and the insects and wildlife that depend on them will return.
Both native and non-native plant species have taken advantage of the newly available space and light. Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), a native plant species, was once seldom found in the floodplain but now grows in dense swaths. Wingstem is the host plant to the gold moth (Basilodes pepita). With the plants’ proliferation, the gold moth has been seen for the first time on the property in the last seven years and numbers continue to increase. Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum), a non-native invasive annual, has also flourished with the newly available understory light and blankets much of the forest floor. Though new challenges arise in the slow process of restoration, we draw inspiration from the beaver’s persistence. Hope remains that stiltgrass can be managed by hand pulling and weed-whacking before the plant sets seed in late summer. Establishing native plant communities that should be there will recapture the available light and help to outcompete stiltgrass. Last year several river oats specimens were successfully transplanted with a high survival rate in the floodplain with lots of help and enthusiasm from family friend Rae Kretzer. River Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) are a tenacious native grass that provides food and habitat for wildlife.
To aid in the competition against invasive species, we planted the seeds of over a half dozen other native species in the spring. We also fenced several plots on the floodplain from deer, which often browse plants to the point that they cannot produce flowers or seeds. These species have either rarely been seen on the property or not at all. The plots will give native species a chance to reproduce and hopefully spread to other parts of the floodplain. It’s our hope to embark on other aspects of restoration on the property through community support and expertise. Our ultimate goal is to encourage a biodiverse and resilient local ecosystem through practices and ideas that can be shared and applied elsewhere.