Announcing the CBS INVASIVE Alliance / Yamadori Study Group

 Integrating Native Vegetation And Stopping Invasive VExations

aka the Columbus Bonsai Society INVASIVE Alliance. The next evolution of our CBS Yamadori (Wild bonsai) Study Group. 

Read on for the origins and goals of this idea.

In Vivo / Central Ohio Bonsai Announcements:

1. CBS Japanese Brush Painting/Scroll-Making Workshop on 3/17! Sign up here. You do not need to be a member to sign up.
2. CBS Club Dig Days for 2024 are out! - See the list and RSVP here to be sent the addresses of the events. Options include 4/6, 4/13, and 4/14/2024. All are welcome. Contact me with any questions.
3. I now sell pots! I received a special shipment to sell on behalf of Blue Nose Trading. See the pieces of her work I have available here or schedule an appointment to visit my nursery in Columbus, OH via the contact form here. These are mainly for local pickup/delivery only.
4. I now sell pure pumice and pumice-pine bark pre-mixed bonsai soil in central Ohio. Check out here for more information and prices. This is the mix I make and use for myself to good results with my trees!

My educational display from the CBS 2023 Annual show featuring invasive Tree of Heaven and Spotted Lanternfly. I will do a more detailed write up on these one day for the blog...

            Recently I have been thinking about how to make the CBS Invasive digs we have done in the last 2 years into a more widely appealing event with greater returns for our members who participate. Removing invasive honeysuckle and privet for bonsai use is great for beginners since they are hard to kill, make quality trees eventually, and partly because that was the only way I could convince public landowners to let us do club digs was to remove trees they did not want in the local parks. However, I also wondered whether because of how common these trees are (having invaded many urban, suburban, and rural areas throughout Ohio), many people may not be motivated to come to those events to try using them for bonsai.

 

            Also, this year I met up with some local private landowners who are willing to offer CBS more free reign with regards to what we dig. Therefore we will now combine our past experience doing events focused on invasive removal but transition to collaborating with these private landowners in what I am calling the I.N.V.A.S.I.V.E. Alliance (thanks ChatGPT for help with that acronym). The objective is to work with landowners that will allow us to remove invasive plants that crowd out native plant regeneration, use some invasives for bonsai and especially for teaching new people the art, meanwhile restore native forest health, and ultimately/along the way we can have the option to dig native yamadori from those forests especially with the hope that we will see less invasives in these properties with semi-annual monitoring/volunteering. My ultimate hope for this program is that the mutually beneficial relationship with the landowners can be maintained and continued with the club even if I move elsewhere in the next few years IF I ever graduate!

Our goals for the CBS INVASIVE Alliance are as follows:

1. Teach identification of the most common invasive ohio trees/shrubs.
2. Teach about the impact of different invasives and how to effectively remove or limit them from our woods.
3. Provide an opportunity for invasive plant salvage as a free resiliant yamadori/wild bonsai source for beginners.
4. Through invasive plant removal, improve the rate of native forest regeneration at the sites. Locally colelcted seeds can also be collected to scatter at the sites. Some of these trees will get to full size and positively impact the local ecosystem and others may become future yamadori.
5. In areas where natural forests are regenerating (having a diversity of species and sizes), we can ultimately collect native yamadori.

            On paper this sounds like a lot of work and a long timescale to see the native yamadori ROI but if we are to continue doing the invasive dig event each year as we have done at the parks, I would rather do it year over year at the same place and work towards having a club managed area for members to sustainably harvest native yamadori nearby. Also I very much like the idea that we can use bonsai to instruct and give back to the environment at the same time. What are your thoughts?

One of my Privet wild-bonsai / yardadori. I collected it 2 summers ago and did first styling last fall. It will go into its first pot this spring... or perhaps on a rock?

What will CBS Club Digs via the INVASIVE Alliance / Yamadori Study Group entail?

            Those who attend can expect some brief instruction on how to identify invasive shrubs in Ohio, how to identify good candidate wild bonsai to dig, how to dig wild bonsai safely, aftercare for any dug plants, and tips for long-term transformation of wild specimens into bonsai trees. Education will occur some on-site and some through online articles, videos, and group discussions through present and past CBS and In Vivo Bonsai resources.

Club 2024 INVASIVE Alliance / Yamadori Study Group Itinerary - 3 Club Digs!

1. Saturday April 6, 2024. Newark, OH 9am-1pm. Native dig on a wooded farm property.
2. Saturday April 13, 2024. Powell, OH 12pm-3pm. Native restoration, Invasive removal. This will be a long-term project in a suburban woods. We will cut back and/or dig invasives here to allow our native plants better chance to flourish. Some natives can also be dug this year from perscribed areas of the property. In the long term, we hope that our volunteering here will improve the native ratio and that the club may reap benefits in future years of digging!
3. Sunday, April 14, 2024. Blacklick, OH 12-4pm. Abundant natives to dig and some areas also have invasives we can assist in pruning back as a token of appreciation to the landowner and to improve native regeneration.

Got Wood?

            Landowners near Columbus, OH with significantly wooded properties who are interested in offering your land to CBS members for short-term or long-term access to dig small trees (invasive and native) in exchange to help clearing some invasive plants can contact me with any questions. We are open to other possibilities to rotate through for future years of digging.

I'm excited to get digging this spring and give back to nature all at once! What's not to love? Remember to RSVP here to be sent the addresses of the events.