Students Set To Remove Invasive Species At Edgar Evins

High school students from across the Upper Cumberland will be busy at Edgar Evins State Park this weekend, removing exotic invasive species and reclaim the old homestead site.

Tennessee State Parks will host work events to help Tennessee Promise Scholars fulfill their community service hours. Park Ranger Justin Vaughn said the event will consist of removing foreign invasive species from a homestead that has been within the park since the 1920’s.

“We want to make sure that we keep our state park as natural as we can,” Vaughn said. “If we don’t come in and take out these invasive species they can rapidly grow, and outperform our native species and we lose those habitats to them.”

Some invasive species include privet and Japanese stilt grass. Vaughn said they will mainly target privet and remove it by spraying a special herbicide that kills the plant.

“Cutting it does not kill it,” Vaughn said. “You either have to take it out or use a herbicide to kill the actual plant itself, but we are hoping to cut and spray just a little bit in some areas and then pull by the root the other ones.”

Vaughn said the work event is a yearly thing but this year is the first time they are removing invasive species.

“Usually like when we do this event we do some kind of service project,” Vaughn said. “This year we are doing an invasive species removal from a homestead that is located in the park.”

The Tennessee Promise is a scholarship program for recent high school graduates. The scholarship allows students to attend community or technical college free of tuition and mandatory fees.