This series is dedicated to educating our geofriends about some of the interesting trees and vines that can be seen along this newest section of the Spring Creek Greenway (SCG) trail. When complete, the Spring Creek Greenway will encompass 12,000 acres and almost 40 linear miles, from Highway 59 at the San Jacinto River to Spring Creek Park west of Tomball. While Phase III of the trail is not officially open yet, the construction is complete, and it’s time to get these posted! This section of trail begins at Pundt Park and extends over 2.5 miles to Dennis Johnston Park on Riley Fuzzel Road; and this now brings the completed SCG trail length to almost 12 miles, from Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center in Humble all the way to Dennis Johnston Park! Please note that SCG trail hours are dawn to dusk, and replace all containers as you found them.
Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense) is THE most invasive plant along the Spring Creek Greenway trail. It closely resembles the native Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria), but this nasty invader has no animals that feed on it or its fruit. This means that virtually every single fruit they produce can become yet another tree! I have seen cases where a large mature tree has been cut down and the stump treated with herbicide, only to have literally hundreds of seedlings come up the very next year! We at the Harris County Precinct 4 Parks Department hope to develop a core of volunteers who can assist us with eradication of this and several other highly invasive plants, as well as other volunteer opportunities along the trail...stop by the Big Stone Lodge and ask for HoustonHerp (Mike) if you're interested!