Launch day for Friends of Plummer’s Hollow

It’s always been a difficult question for us: How best to protect Plummer’s Hollow from plant thieves and ATV riders and the various drug dealers and miscreants who sometimes hang out along the township road below the railroad tracks, while at the same time being welcoming to the general public? Some years back, we had several jack-in-the-pulpit plants disappear the day after my mother led a wildflower walk up the hollow. That made us a bit more reluctant to advertise what’s up here, and for years we hesitated to even lead hikes up the road. But we kept the road open as a public walking trail, because it seems wrong to keep this much land closed to walkers when it’s less than half a mile from town—especially when there are so few other places to walk close by.

So now we’re trying something new: a Friends of Plummer’s Hollow group. If people we know and trust are in the hollow more often, that seems like the best kind of protection we could ask for. And Plummer’s Hollow has a new caretaker, Eric Oliver, a professional conservationist with expertise in native forest restoration, to help guide us with this new venture (which was my brother Mark’s idea). We’re looking for local nature-lovers who are able to visit often and, if they’re able-bodied enough, help out on occasion with conservation projects such as native tree plantings, invasive species suppression efforts, controlled burns, and that kind of thing. Other group events might be purely for fun: a sledding party in January, firefly walks in June, etc. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas and energy people bring. We’ve set up a private group on Facebook, and are hoping to build momentum there for an organizational meeting later on this spring. For those not on social media, I’m firing this blog back up, because WordPress does a pretty good job with free email subscriptions these days.