In June, we will officially welcome the start of summer. It's the time of year when the sky becomes more hazy and vegetation can really grows. Hopefully, you've checked your section to see if it needs weedeating. I know some of you have already started on the whacking.
Are those vines in the trees friend or foe?
By: Ruth Stornetta
It’s getting to be vine season where your trails are starting to look like the jungle! Some of those vines could kill the trees they grow up and you should do your best to eliminate them. Other vines are beneficial for the forest, and you should let them be- can you tell them apart?
Invasive vines that are not native to our forest biome include English Ivy, Asian bittersweet, Japanese Honeysuckle and Wintercreep(er). Most people can identify English Ivy. You could probably also identify Japanese honeysuckle. Remember those sweet-smelling honeysuckle blossoms you used to drink the sap from as a kid? Yes, that’s the same evil Japanese Honeysuckle that can girdle a tree and choke off its nutrient supply. Ivy usually grows on larger trees where the honeysuckle climbs up smaller trees (spicebush and dogwood are favorite targets). Bittersweet has those lovely yellow-orange-red berries that are great for Autumn decoration and birds love them (although they don’t provide much nutritional value- like bird candy bars). However, don’t be fooled, the mass of vines can bring down even a large tree in winter under the additional weight of snow and ice. Wintercreeper is a relatively new invasive so be on the lookout- it has distinctive emerald-colored leaves, much like periwinkle (vinca), but will climb trees and smother them.
We also have native vines that have evolved together with the trees over millennia and are an important part of the area’s ecology. Unlike the invasive vines, our native vines will not kill trees and they provide food and shelter for many native animals. These vines include Virginia Creeper, Greenbrier, Grape and Poison Ivy. Virginia creeper’s small spring flowers attract pollinators and in Autumn, its dark blue berries provide food for over 30 species of migrating birds. Greenbrier (aka Dammit Vine due to its sharp prickers) provides crucial winter browse for deer, berries for many bird species and dense thickets to shelter small wildlife. Native grape canopies provide excellent nesting habitats and protective cover for songbirds and small mammals. Grape roots can act as erosion control on steep banks. Even Poison Ivy has many ecological benefits- over 60 species of birds rely on the high fat from the waxy berries during wintertime.
So, what to do about those nasty invasive vines? If they are relatively small you can pull them out by the roots. Be careful to pack the disturbed soil back in, as disturbed soil is an open invitation to more invasives. If they are too big to hand pull, you can cut them off with loppers where they emerge from the ground. Then make another cut at waist or shoulder height and remove the cut out. Be careful when removing ivy or wintercreeper as they often cling to the bark with holdfasts that need to be cut so you don’t pull the bark off the tree which can damage the tree as much as the vine. NOTE- don’t pull the vines down out of trees- this can damage tree limbs not to mention bring things down on your head! I hope you’re inspired to go save some of the trees on your trail from invasive vines but leave our natives to do their job.
More info at Blue Ridge PRISM (blueridgeprism.org)
By: Ruth Stornetta
It’s getting to be vine season where your trails are starting to look like the jungle! Some of those vines could kill the trees they grow up and you should do your best to eliminate them. Other vines are beneficial for the forest, and you should let them be- can you tell them apart?
Invasive vines that are not native to our forest biome include English Ivy, Asian bittersweet, Japanese Honeysuckle and Wintercreep(er). Most people can identify English Ivy. You could probably also identify Japanese honeysuckle. Remember those sweet-smelling honeysuckle blossoms you used to drink the sap from as a kid? Yes, that’s the same evil Japanese Honeysuckle that can girdle a tree and choke off its nutrient supply. Ivy usually grows on larger trees where the honeysuckle climbs up smaller trees (spicebush and dogwood are favorite targets). Bittersweet has those lovely yellow-orange-red berries that are great for Autumn decoration and birds love them (although they don’t provide much nutritional value- like bird candy bars). However, don’t be fooled, the mass of vines can bring down even a large tree in winter under the additional weight of snow and ice. Wintercreeper is a relatively new invasive so be on the lookout- it has distinctive emerald-colored leaves, much like periwinkle (vinca), but will climb trees and smother them.
We also have native vines that have evolved together with the trees over millennia and are an important part of the area’s ecology. Unlike the invasive vines, our native vines will not kill trees and they provide food and shelter for many native animals. These vines include Virginia Creeper, Greenbrier, Grape and Poison Ivy. Virginia creeper’s small spring flowers attract pollinators and in Autumn, its dark blue berries provide food for over 30 species of migrating birds. Greenbrier (aka Dammit Vine due to its sharp prickers) provides crucial winter browse for deer, berries for many bird species and dense thickets to shelter small wildlife. Native grape canopies provide excellent nesting habitats and protective cover for songbirds and small mammals. Grape roots can act as erosion control on steep banks. Even Poison Ivy has many ecological benefits- over 60 species of birds rely on the high fat from the waxy berries during wintertime.
So, what to do about those nasty invasive vines? If they are relatively small you can pull them out by the roots. Be careful to pack the disturbed soil back in, as disturbed soil is an open invitation to more invasives. If they are too big to hand pull, you can cut them off with loppers where they emerge from the ground. Then make another cut at waist or shoulder height and remove the cut out. Be careful when removing ivy or wintercreeper as they often cling to the bark with holdfasts that need to be cut so you don’t pull the bark off the tree which can damage the tree as much as the vine. NOTE- don’t pull the vines down out of trees- this can damage tree limbs not to mention bring things down on your head! I hope you’re inspired to go save some of the trees on your trail from invasive vines but leave our natives to do their job.
More info at Blue Ridge PRISM (blueridgeprism.org)
This Month’s Featured Trail Maintainers:
Ruth Stornetta and Roger Friend
By: Roger Smith
This month’s Featured Maintainer article is a two-for-one: a chance to learn a little about fellow trail maintainers Ruth Stornetta and Roger Friend.
Ruth and Roger are long-time PATC members but relatively recent trail maintainers. They starting maintaining trails because of their passion to “take care of nature as much as they can and to give back.” Today they maintain the section of the Appalachian Trail from Ivy Creek Overlook to Ivy Creek Maintenance Hut Trail as well as a bit of Blue Blaze on the Big Run Loop where it connects between the AT and Rocky Top Trail.
The White Blaze trail they maintain is a breathtaking 2.1 mile hike which starts out uphill, passes an overlook, then descends though a beautiful laurel grove and crosses Ivy Creek before climbing again. While their Blue Blaze trail is much shorter, it’s heavily traveled as it connects not just to Big Run Loop, but to other popular hiking destinations including Austin Mountain, Furnace Mountain and Lewis Peak.
In addition to trail maintenance, they are members and part of the executive steering committee for the newly re-formed Flying McLeods.
Ruth and Roger have been a couple for more than 45 years and just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary at the end of May. They share many of the same interests beyond hiking and a great love of nature. These include kayaking and bicycling. In fact, it was cycling not hiking that first brought them together.
Roger came to Charlottesville in 1978 when he entered college at UVA. Ruth had been an undergraduate from 1972 to 1975 and would go on to get her PhD in neuroscience. Roger was an avid cyclist and raced bicycles often and had many wins and podium finishes in the Masters division. Ruth was also an avid cyclist who enjoyed racing, though maybe not as much as Roger. She did coach the UVA cycling team and was conference director for ACC Collegiate Cycling for 12 years. It was while cycling at UVA that they first met.
Roger would eventually own and manage a bicycle shop in Charlottesville, while Ruth would become a research professor at the university.
Hiking was something that they did as a break from cycling.
Ruth became interested in hiking and the trails through Roger. Roger inherited his interest from his parents, who loved the trails and often hiked with the family in Roger’s childhood. Roger’s father was in the military and his mother was from Germany, so he moved around a bit growing up. Not long after settling in Virginia though, while just in High School, Roger began his on and off-again relationship with PATC-“mostly for the great maps”.
While managing the bike shop kept him very busy, Roger often thought about becoming a trail maintainer when he retired. That chance came in 2020 when he sold the bike shop and was finally able to officially pick up trail maintainer duties.
Ruth retired from UVA in 2021 and became a Virginia Master Naturalist with a keen interest in botany and especially in invasives. In fact, she has a column about invasives in the newsletter. Trail maintenance is one of the things that Ruth does as service for the Master Naturalists.
Ruth and Roger have plenty more stories to tell like adventures backpacking in the Sierra and kayaking the Rogue River in Oregon, but we’ll save those for when you run into them out on the Trail.
Ruth Stornetta and Roger Friend
By: Roger Smith
This month’s Featured Maintainer article is a two-for-one: a chance to learn a little about fellow trail maintainers Ruth Stornetta and Roger Friend.
Ruth and Roger are long-time PATC members but relatively recent trail maintainers. They starting maintaining trails because of their passion to “take care of nature as much as they can and to give back.” Today they maintain the section of the Appalachian Trail from Ivy Creek Overlook to Ivy Creek Maintenance Hut Trail as well as a bit of Blue Blaze on the Big Run Loop where it connects between the AT and Rocky Top Trail.
The White Blaze trail they maintain is a breathtaking 2.1 mile hike which starts out uphill, passes an overlook, then descends though a beautiful laurel grove and crosses Ivy Creek before climbing again. While their Blue Blaze trail is much shorter, it’s heavily traveled as it connects not just to Big Run Loop, but to other popular hiking destinations including Austin Mountain, Furnace Mountain and Lewis Peak.
In addition to trail maintenance, they are members and part of the executive steering committee for the newly re-formed Flying McLeods.
Ruth and Roger have been a couple for more than 45 years and just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary at the end of May. They share many of the same interests beyond hiking and a great love of nature. These include kayaking and bicycling. In fact, it was cycling not hiking that first brought them together.
Roger came to Charlottesville in 1978 when he entered college at UVA. Ruth had been an undergraduate from 1972 to 1975 and would go on to get her PhD in neuroscience. Roger was an avid cyclist and raced bicycles often and had many wins and podium finishes in the Masters division. Ruth was also an avid cyclist who enjoyed racing, though maybe not as much as Roger. She did coach the UVA cycling team and was conference director for ACC Collegiate Cycling for 12 years. It was while cycling at UVA that they first met.
Roger would eventually own and manage a bicycle shop in Charlottesville, while Ruth would become a research professor at the university.
Hiking was something that they did as a break from cycling.
Ruth became interested in hiking and the trails through Roger. Roger inherited his interest from his parents, who loved the trails and often hiked with the family in Roger’s childhood. Roger’s father was in the military and his mother was from Germany, so he moved around a bit growing up. Not long after settling in Virginia though, while just in High School, Roger began his on and off-again relationship with PATC-“mostly for the great maps”.
While managing the bike shop kept him very busy, Roger often thought about becoming a trail maintainer when he retired. That chance came in 2020 when he sold the bike shop and was finally able to officially pick up trail maintainer duties.
Ruth retired from UVA in 2021 and became a Virginia Master Naturalist with a keen interest in botany and especially in invasives. In fact, she has a column about invasives in the newsletter. Trail maintenance is one of the things that Ruth does as service for the Master Naturalists.
Ruth and Roger have plenty more stories to tell like adventures backpacking in the Sierra and kayaking the Rogue River in Oregon, but we’ll save those for when you run into them out on the Trail.
Featured Hike: Wildcat Trail to Blackrock Gap
Pam Heinrich is leading a series of hikes this year to help others hike the AT in the South District. On May 9, the group hiked from Wildcat Trail to Blackrock Gap. They also enjoyed lunch at Loft Mountain Wayside. Hikers that joined in on the fun were: Roger Smith, Solomon Lam and Michael Seth. This was Solomon's first hike with us and he returned the following week to be part of the Loft Mountain Mowers on the AT section from Ivy Creek Hut to Frazier Discovery Trail.
The next hike is planned for June 14 from Loft Amphitheater to Blackrock Gap. Come join us.
Pam Heinrich is leading a series of hikes this year to help others hike the AT in the South District. On May 9, the group hiked from Wildcat Trail to Blackrock Gap. They also enjoyed lunch at Loft Mountain Wayside. Hikers that joined in on the fun were: Roger Smith, Solomon Lam and Michael Seth. This was Solomon's first hike with us and he returned the following week to be part of the Loft Mountain Mowers on the AT section from Ivy Creek Hut to Frazier Discovery Trail.
The next hike is planned for June 14 from Loft Amphitheater to Blackrock Gap. Come join us.
Have you seen Shirley?
In my opinion, there are some cool trees along the trail that everyone should go to visits. Shirley is one of those trees. Located north of the intersection with the Riprap Trail, Shirley got her name from maintainers, Myra Robertson and Bob Costanzo. After many times of listening to her moans and watching her crack get larger, they knew "surely", she was going to fall. In May 2024, Shirley finally fell, but she did not block the trail. She has made herself into an arch, which Myra and Bob measured to ensure that hikers could easily pass under. If you hike through this section, look for Shirley and stop by. She is located one mile North of the Riprap parking lot or only 0.1 mile south of where the AT crosses the Skyline Drive. If you see her she loves taking selfies with hikers! We should all hope for a cool resting spot like Shirley's.
In my opinion, there are some cool trees along the trail that everyone should go to visits. Shirley is one of those trees. Located north of the intersection with the Riprap Trail, Shirley got her name from maintainers, Myra Robertson and Bob Costanzo. After many times of listening to her moans and watching her crack get larger, they knew "surely", she was going to fall. In May 2024, Shirley finally fell, but she did not block the trail. She has made herself into an arch, which Myra and Bob measured to ensure that hikers could easily pass under. If you hike through this section, look for Shirley and stop by. She is located one mile North of the Riprap parking lot or only 0.1 mile south of where the AT crosses the Skyline Drive. If you see her she loves taking selfies with hikers! We should all hope for a cool resting spot like Shirley's.
Hiker Fest 2026--Waynesboro
Saturday, June 6, 2026: 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Join us for Hiker Fest, the ultimate celebration of outdoor adventure in the heart of Waynesboro.
Get ready for a day of live music, free yoga sessions, henna designs, local food, trail talks, DIY tie dye, tarot reading, outdoor vendors, and more! Join in to come together to celebrate nature, music, and the joy of exploration. Admission is Free!!
There will be a PATC table hosted by John Kolp and Chuck Troutman. We could use some help at the table. Please contact Chuck to help out: [email protected]
Saturday, June 6, 2026: 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Join us for Hiker Fest, the ultimate celebration of outdoor adventure in the heart of Waynesboro.
Get ready for a day of live music, free yoga sessions, henna designs, local food, trail talks, DIY tie dye, tarot reading, outdoor vendors, and more! Join in to come together to celebrate nature, music, and the joy of exploration. Admission is Free!!
There will be a PATC table hosted by John Kolp and Chuck Troutman. We could use some help at the table. Please contact Chuck to help out: [email protected]
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