Occasionally, Natural Resource Management controls grapevines that pose a threat to some of the park’s more mature and valuable wildlife trees (like oaks). Normally, we do not control these grapevines because they are valuable in their own ways; they provide nesting material for many songbirds, and of course food and habitat for wildlife. Once in a while, though, there are situations when they begin to damage our highly important mature trees. After discussion with me, the land stewards decided to remove some of them in this case . The vines are first cut, then carefully treated by our licensed pesticide applicators (land stewards) with an approved herbicide. The blue you see is simply a dye that helps them keep track of which vines have been treated.
Thank you for your interest in our parks.
-Park Biologist Paul Pira