With Jean Ponzi
Invasive Bush Honeysuckle Whoop-De-Doo Sweeps, Hackathon and a Variety Show!
MARCH is the month to get out and take out swathes of Bush Honeysuckle, the invasive plant WE introduced that is taking over Missouri.
What opportunities!
Before ticks & chiggers wake up too,
VOLUNTEER
For a honeysuckle WHACK
Near you!
Removal events all over St. Louis are taking place in the second annual Honeysuckle Sweep for Healthy Habitat – March 4 through 19. Sign up and show up to cut and drag this woody plant out of infested parks and natural areas. Adults and youth can volunteer; kids under 16 are welcome with an adult. Enviro-organizations provide leadership, tools and safety instructions.
Find details, including sign-up links, for all Honeysuckle Sweep events at BiodiverseCitySTL.org.
Once you learn to remove Bush Honeysuckle on a Sweep date, you can tackle it around your home, your neighborhood, your school or business or place of worship. Look around: the first plant to green up is only one species. It shades out and crowds out all the beneficial native plants. Bush Honeysuckle is everywhere.
VISIT parks and nature centers on these fine spring days to see what lands should look like when invasive plants are removed. You can see into the woods! You can view the horizon – when the impenetrable thickets are gone.
This spring, you can see examples of Native Plant Restoration in many area parks. Find their locations at BiodiverseCitySTL.org. You’ll also find Native Plant events, dates to learn about biodiverse landscaping, and dates and locations to buy native plants just in time for Spring Planting.
Check out these Eco-Landscaping options – you’ll grow wildly fond of Natives! Birds, bugs, pollinators and other cool critters will too.
Want to get crazy? Join the HONEYSUCKLE HACKATHON, Monday through Friday, March 6-10. This weeklong volunteer push aims to FREE Kirkwood Park from Invasive Bush Honeysuckle, targeting removal of ALL the honeysuckle from the northern side of Kirkwood Park, along Adams Avenue and Sugar Creek. Many hands are needed! Tools, support and snacks will be provided. Visit BiodiverseCitySTL.org for sign-up details. Your person-power WILL make a difference!
Let’s laugh about ecological problems! A hearty Ho-Ho will clear the pipes and give you just the boost you need to carry on. Earthworms Think About Tables presents the Invasive Species Follies at The Stage at KDHX – Sunday, March 26 – FREE! Choose the 1 p.m. Family Matinee or the 7 pm Adult Show. Both will entertain, inform and motivate you to live Greener, in love with Nature.
This live, original variety show lampoons three noteworthy invaders: Bush Honeysuckle, Mosquitoes and US! What? People are part of the problem? We’re also at the heart of solutions!
The Invasive Species Follies features music by Gloria Attoun, Michael Bauermeister and the Augusta Bottoms Consort; the Honeysuckle Cabaret; Ruby’s Honeysuckle Table Fable; Jean Ponzi’s Mosquito Swat Squad; Dale Dufer transforming invasive bushes into cool artisan tables; Sarah the Honeysuckle Stripper – and much more! Find details and the FREE registration link at BiodiverseCitySTL.org.
Whack it! Whoop it up! Volunteer! MARCH!
Jean Ponzi hosts Earthworms
enviro-conversations – and produces
extravaganzas – at Community Media
KDHX. Earthworms.kdhx.org.