IT'S NOT CANCUN OR FLORIDA FOR THESE SPRING BREAKERS

Trinidad, CA- One group of students is taking a different kind of spring break. It’s not Cancun or Florida for these spring breakers, instead they’re spending their break helping out Humboldt County parks. The program is called “Alternative Spring Breakaway.” Michelle Forys is an environmental scientist for California State Parks and said, "college students instead of doing a traditional spring break they actually go and volunteer usually in a different state."Instead of basking in the sun these twenty-six students from Utah and Washington will spend the day at Patrick’s Point Park in Trinidad. Forys added, "What they are concentrating on today is the removal of English Ivy. And here at Patrick’s Point State Park that is our number one non-native invasive plant… if it gets up into that tree and has full sun exposure that is when it will flower and fruit. And that's when birds carry away and start a whole new population somewhere else."What English Ivy will do is cover the ground and crowd out the native ground cover, and then grow up the trees. Forys added, "For the trees it will smother out the leaves and it won't be able to photosynthesize and it adds weight to the tree. So it can get blown down more easily in our storms."As for the students it has been a productive day. Piles of pulled English Ivy now line the trials.