Fighting back against invasives

COURTESY PHOTOLast weekend the Peterborough Conservation Commission's (somewhat) annual Martin Luther King workgang on town conservation land cleared trees and invasive shrubs encroaching on the field along Burke Road. The goal is to bring the field back to where it can be mowed, said Conservation Commission chair Francie Von Mertens. With the decline in pollinators increasingly in the news, meadow has become important habitat to maintain. Several years without mowing gave invasive autumn olive and glossy buckthorn just the chance they needed to begin their takeover of one section of field. Pictured in front of the burn pile, from the left: Hayden Anderson, Anna Von Mertens, Francie Von Mertens, Meade Cadot, Rhys Anderson, Swift Corwin, Debbie Hirbour, Carl Mabbs-Zeno, Scot Hirbour, Chris Anderson. COURTESY PHOTO