Perfect weather and the chance to meet new friends while saving trees from invasive vines -- our Mt. Vernon Trail event was a success! We started from the beautiful Mt. Vernon Latter-day Saint chapel which overlooks the Mt. Vernon Trail and the Potomac. A short walk and we were being trained by Judd Isbell on removing vines. Special thanks to Kellee Koenig for organizing this event and to Bishop Steve Richardson for allowing us to meet at the Mt. Vernon chapel parking lot, He also helped us safely cross the George Washington Parkway (orange cones and safety vest made our crossing more visible to motorists).
There’s a serious problem along the trail of invasive vines covering mature trees — often eventually smothering them to death. We learned how to cut a “window” in the vines to stop them without harming the tree by trying to pull down the vines.
Judd leads the Friends of Mt. Vernon Trail and they have similar events weekly on different sections of this 17 mile trail so particularly if you live nearby, consider helping at other events.
