Dianne Williams - President

 

Improvements Continue

October 3rd, 2005

The Russian Olive bushes have been removed, opening up the expanses of lovely rural greenery for our enjoyment. Grass seed and fertilizer have been spread across the entire front campus. With a little rain and luck, the new lawn will be sprouting in no time.

 

Invasion of the Russian Olive Bush

During the past 200 days, the main focus of our campus construction effort is the beautiful new building.  A separate battle has been going on to reclaim 4 acres of beautiful lawn which has been taken over by Russian Olive bush.

 

Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L) bush is a very invasive species and has literally invaded our campus.  Russian-olive is a small, usually thorny shrub or small tree that can grow to 30 feet in height. Its stems, buds, and leaves have a dense covering of silvery to rusty scales.. 

 

Work is underway to remove the trees, then move and spread extra fill material from the construction site to the cleared areas. Drainage ditches have also been cleared of crowded thickets impeding water flow. The areas affected are both sides of the entrance driveway, as well as the south side of the campus adjacent to the river. All newly graded areas will be seeded and fertilized this fall to start the transition back to a wide, rolling lawn appearance.

 

For several years and generally not known to most QVCC staff and faculty, a service road existed at the bottom of the hill on the south side of campus. It lead to a gravel pit and loam storage area years go; but, had largely become inaccessible due to the Russian Olive invasion. Our plan is to extend the lawn uninterrupted all the way to the tree line, and access the ongoing loam supply via an alternate route. The road will not longer exist.

 

QVCC’s landscape maintenance expert, Brad Gerrish, is the project manager for this effort and deserves the thanks of the entire QVCC family for an outstanding success. It will require 2-3 years to bring the lawn back to full beauty. But, the effect will be a vastly improved campus appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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