Greenbelt Guild Rescues the Trails & Historic Pecans

July 28, 2025 Amy Martin

By Amy Martin

It was a hot and sweaty Sunday morning filled with hard outdoor work. Volunteering with six of the best people you could ever hope for, the Greenbelt Guild reclaimed a half-mile of trails with a rented brush mower, laid waste to an entry meadow seriously overgrown with Johnsongrass and giant ragweed, rescued two 100+ year old pecans being taken over by brush encroachment, and mowed more ragweed clogging a busy corner spot.

One heckuva workout good for the bod, while leaving a legacy that others will enjoy. It just does not get better. Photos by Amy Martin unless noted.

*Part of the team: Amy M, Daniel K (a Wild DFW photographer and friend in for a visit), Cade L, Hala H, Keith M, and Matt C, all fresh and non-sweaty before starting.*

*More team: Katherine T, Daniel K, Francis S (our guru), Cade L, Hala H, and Matt C, with the mighty brush mower that Matt fetched with his pickup and Francis’s trailer.*

THE MAIN MEADOW TRAIL

Cade was first up on the brush mower. I accompanied it for much of the way, pointing out plants that shouldn’t be mowed and ones that definitely had to be removed. In some areas, we mowed extra wide to dispatch noxious plants. Photo: Daniel Koglin.

Ta da! The Main Meadow Trail liberated. *Photo: Daniel Koglin.*

Mark Y (part of the team but not present on this day) has a sturdy powered lawnmower that we can use to maintain the grassy trail sections, but we’ll have to cut while the grass regrowth is under 8 inches. We really need the gift of a used riding mower or donations to buy one.

THE HIDDEN MEADOW

Hidden Meadow is a small grassy area on the west end of the Main Meadow, screened from the street by a line of trees. We’d seeded it with inland sea oats and Maximilian sunflowers years before. It had grown wildly tall.

*Katherine and Hala, into the wild. Photo: Daniel Koglin.*

Keith operated the brush mower next. “Really, that’s a trail?” Yep, at the beginning of the Hidden Meadow Trail, there’s a short spur that connects to the Woods Trail. It got mowed. Photo: Daniel Koglin.

THE OLD PECAN ON CREEKMERE

There are two majestic pecans on Creekmere and the east and west ends of the Main Meadow. The eastern one had become overgrown with brush, mainly an invasive shrub called Amur honeysuckle, which can choke the life out of a 100-year-old tree.

Daniel tackled this task, cutting and stacking the brush. We’ll return and plant it with beautyberry and coralberry native shrubs that can co-exist nicely with trees, and seed with shade-loving grasses and wildflowers. In a couple of years, it’ll be a real showplace and terrific habitat for bunnies, armadillos. and lizards.

*Daniel and a cleared part under the pecan. We later tackled a second old pecan behind him.*

*One of several anoles Daniel saw expressing displeasure at our work. Patience, fella, soon the area will have more insects and invertebrates for you to chow on*. *Photo: Daniel Koglin.*

*Territory reasserted. The anoles feasted on all the insects stirred by the mower. Photo: Daniel Koglin.*

THE LOST CONNECTION

We’d written about the lost connection before. After the Hidden Meadow are two wooded sections, separated by a mini-meadow at Creekmere and Vinemont that had become utterly infested with giant ragweed, swallowing up all the good plants. We’d tried to reclaim the trail connection with a weedeater, which was grievous work.

So it had to be brush-mowed as well. But first a trail through the mini meadow had to be cleared to reach it. Amid all the overgrowth were a plethora of bushy pecan saplings and some patches of tall, beautiful rosinweed with striking spires of yellow flowers, but hard to see through the ragweed.

We’ll return to the mini-meadow in the fall, select the pecans we want to save, and shape them into trees (they’d been mowed several times). We’ll toss lots of seeds of rosinweed, frostweed, and other tall wildflowers. Someday, it will be a gorgeous pecan savannah sustaining nut-loving blue jays and other wildlife.

*Matt tackled the task of mowing down the extensive ragweed.*

Look at what was revealed! Past the ragweed was a beautiful area beneath large trees. *Imagine a picnic table here.* The cool shade and abundant Virginia wildrye make it a perfect summer habitat for bunnies, armadillos, and birds.

Even more exciting is that no one planted that Virginia wildrye. It’s original to the land. Our work is simply liberating what was there before. If we can afford to buy more Virginia wildrye seed, we can extend this habitat.

WANDERING THE WOODS TO PEAVY

*Keith, who is an excellent member of the entry garden team, worked with Cade to open up the Woods Trail to Peavy.*

*Looking at the Woods Trail from the Peavy end.*

MAKING THE ENTRY MEADOW LOOK GOOD AGAIN

Years ago, volunteers planted native grasses and wildflowers in the Entry Meadow at Peavy and Creekmere, partly to help block floodwaters from Dixon Branch. Notably, big bluestem and Indian grass, which grow densely to over five feet high and have roots that extend over 10 feet deep, were key to this effort. There’s even a sign noting it as a wildflower area.

But the Entry Meadow in front of the sign became overgrown. This spring, Francis and I installed a series of stakes to mark the area to be preserved. We realized it was more than the usual park mowers could handle, and the department would probably not mow it until they tractor-mowed all the meadows as part of their winter maintenance cut.

The entry garden team was verklempt. The garden was finally looking so good. The overgrown area detracted from our hard work. Plus, it was seeding the garden with unwanted weeds. God bless Cade, Keith, and Matt — mowing the Entry Meadow was extremely tough work.

THE END OF AN AMAZING DAY

The corner of Creekmere and Sylvania also got infested with giant ragweed. Made it hard to see around that very busy corner. Plus all the pollen! We’ll return in the fall and cover this area with frostweed seed. Its blooms will sustain many migrating monarchs in the fall.