The Fund for North Bennington has started the newest phase of its forest resilience project. In late September, The Fund removed invasive brush thickets located in fields near The Mile-Around Woods. The work was done by a large piece of equipment known as “The Brontosaurus” (see photo below). Similar work was also performed on land near The Robert Frost Trail.
While use of this equipment is expensive, it can remove proliferating, mature invasives that are impossible to address effectively by hand — and at the same time sharply limit the need for herbicide. Heavy equipment will mulch towering hedges of pernicious buckthorn, multiflora rose, bittersweet and honeysuckle. The “Brontosaurus,” with its mulching head, can level in one afternoon a thousand feet of impassable hedge. Well-established beneficial trees that are not choked with vines have been retained. The resulting mulch will help suppress resurgent growth.
The mechanical removal is the latest phase in The Fund’s ecosystem resilience project. More than 400 native trees and shrubs have been planted near The Mile-Around Woods. The Fund has sponsored an ephemeral flower walk and scheduled a buckthorn control workshop for this autumn. This forest health work is part of The Fund’s new conservation management plans. Click here for more information.
A video of the Brontosaurus in action can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAQ3RizvZAQ
If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at thefund@northbennington.org.