PORT ANGELES — About 14 volunteers removed about 20 percent of invasive English ivy in the outdoor art gallery known as Webster’s Woods at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center this week.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, and we haven’t had the personnel to do it,” said Jake Seniuk, the arts center’s director.
Gordon Clark of Clark Horticultural Services of Port Angeles organized Tuesday’s work, Seniuk said, and contributed time and crew members.
Volunteers from the Port Angeles and Port Townsend areas also pulled English ivy from the grounds at the center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., during a period of about five hours.
Clark had dubbed the effort a “Hedera Helixtravaganza.”
English ivy, which has the Latin name of Hedera helix, is a non-native, invasive plant that’s plentiful in Webster’s Woods, the 5-acre art park surrounding the center.
English ivy was growing in Webster’s Woods since before it began to host the Art Outdoors exhibit 10 years ago, Seniuk said.
“It has spread a lot since then,” he said.
“It’s pretty . . . but it chokes off everything else.”
More ivy-pulling sessions will be scheduled, Seniuk said, and bare spots will be replanted with native species.
Olympic National Park will donate some plants, he said, and the center hopes to receive donations from other contributors. “We’re putting out a call for donations of indigenous plants,” Seniuk said.
Donations can be made by phoning the arts center at 360-457-3532.