Please note: The workday date has been changed to TUESDAY

It's just anazing how much Iris pseudacorus there is in the marsh. The Aramark crew, abetted by several volunteers, put in a full day's work a week ago last Thursday, and we now have maybe 40% of it cut. It's pretty slow going, like trying to mow a lawn with fingernail scissors. There's just so much of it, and it's interspersed with Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus), which we absolutely do not want to cut. Cathey has discovered a lot of young Acorus plants, and also a lot of small iris shoots. On first glance it's not easy to tell them apart. Aaron from Aramark clued us into the "scent" test. If you crush the leaves of the 2 species you'll discover that the iris has basically no scent, and that the Sweet Flag smells, you guessed it, "sweet".

One good thing is that we do have a decent amount of Sweet Flag, and also Sium suave, aka Water Parsnip, which we hope will seed some of the area we're removing the iris from.

So if anyone is available anytime on this Thursday, come join us and help rid the Sanctuary of this invasive iris, so the marsh can have room to grow other species.