Page 12 — Thursday, March 23, 2023 — The Hastings Banner
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Volunteer workday planned for area around Hall Lake
The Michigan Department of Natural
Resources is hosting a Volunteer Stewardship
Workday Sunday March 26, in the Yankee
Springs Recreation Area.
There is a need to remove invasive shrubs
to protect habitat near Hall Lake. Volunteers
are needed to help cut and remove unwanted
shrubs such as autumn olive and non-native
honeysuckle. There are also plans to keep
eyes out for buckthorn.
Volunteers should meet at the winter sports
parking area just east down Gun Lake Road
from the Long Lake Outdoor Center at 10
a.m. No experience is necessary. Volunteers
will be trained to identify unwanted invaders.
Contact Plainwell Service Natural
Resource Steward Emily Leslie for more
information or to pre-register for the event at
[email protected].
Autumn olivet is a deciduous shrub that
can grow up to 20 feet high, with leaves that
are bright green on top and distinctively sil-
ver underneath. Historically planted for wild-
life food and habitat, autumn olive has been
found to be highly aggressive, with seeds
widely dispersed by birds and mammals.
Autumn olive can shade out desirable native
plants and fixes nitrogen in the soil, which
can degrade native plant communities that
thrive on low-nutrient soils. It is difficult to
control, as cut stumps and roots will resprout.
Honeysuckle and buckthorn also havebird-dispersed fruit.
Late March is an ideal time to be on the
lookout for honeysuckle as the exotic inva-
sive Eurasian or bush species are some of the
earliest shrubby bud-breakers each spring.
Honeysuckles are especially successful in
dominating natural areas because of their
ability to leaf out extremely early in the
spring and remain green well into the fall.
This means they have a leg up in these set-
tings, essentially shading and out-competing
native plants. These honeysuckles can even-
tually form dense thickets where little else
can grow, including tree regeneration.
These bushy pests got their foothold in
North America when they were widely soldas an ornamental and advertised as good
sources of wildlife food. The berries tend to
persist into the fall when birds most often
take advantage of them. Unfortunately, some
studies suggest these berries are not as nutri-
tious as native berries for birds. Additionally,
the shrubs appear to offer less protection
from predators during nesting season.
Although they may be easy to spy in the
spring, these exotic honeysuckles are not
easy to get rid of. They are shallow-rooted,
and young growth can easily be pulled in
spring’s damp soil. Any remaining roots in
the ground, however, will re-sprout easily.
The same goes if the stems are clipped–
sprouting is vigorous.Common buckthorn is a deciduous small
tree or shrub that can reach 25 feet tall. The
leaves are dark green, oval and slightly
toothed. They produce small purple to black
fruits that ripen in the fall. Twigs often have a
single, sharp thorn at their tip.
Buckthorn spreads quickly through seeds
distributed by birds and wildlife and crowds out
native shrubs and understory plants. It is a host
for alfalfa mosaic virus and crown fungus, and
may be a possible host for the soybean aphid.
Several state parks in southern Michigan
will host stewardship workdays throughout
the month of March, where volunteers are
needed to help remove invasive plants that
threaten high-quality ecosystems.TK boys serve up win at Powder Puff match
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Junior Dylan Bailey’s enthusiasm was as
integral as his serve as he helped the Thor-
napple Kellogg boys’ volleyball club beat
members of the Thornapple Kellogg High
School girls’ volleyball program in their
Powder Puff volleyball match in Middleville
Tuesday.
Bailey caught an elbow from teammate
Kyle VanHaitsma late in the second set of
the best-of-three contest, which was both a
fundraiser and an introduction for the new
TK boys’ club which will be competing in
the Grand Rapids South Conference in its
inaugural season this spring.
“That was amazing,” Bailey said of the
contest. “Right at the end of the second set I
caught an elbow and I had to go to the train-
er’s room, and we were down match point.
The vice principal comes in, ‘it’s going to a
third set!’ I was so excited. I wanted to keep
playing.”
With a plug in each nostril to stop the
blood, Bailey served up the first three points
of the third set for the TK boys hitting two
aces in the process. While the TK girls start-
ed the opening set on a good run, it was the
boys who opened the third set on a good
run. The boys took a 7-1 lead in the deciding
set and went on to a 15-4 win.
The TK girls took an 8-1 lead in the
opening set, winning the first six points ofthe match, and went on to a 25-13 win in
that set.
The TK boys altered their strategy in the
middle of that first set choosing not to try
and block the girls’ attacks. The teams
played on a net at the boys’ height of 8 feet
rather than the girls’ 7-foot-4 height. That
made it a bit tougher for the girls’ to put the
ball down, and they boys found they were
better off just trying to dig the girls’ attacks
and be ready for tipped balls.
The girls had the TK boys on the brink of
ending the contest after two sets. The girls
led the second set 24-19. That prompted the
TK girls dressed in red, white and blue in
the student section to break out the “I
believe that we will win chant.”
The boys and girls kept to their own
groups in the student section. “We can’t hear
you,” responded the boys decked out in
camouflage – appropriately answered with
shouts of “we can’t see you” from the girls.
Their beliefs were misguided though. A
girls’ serve flew long to keep the TK boys
alive, junior setter Trent VanHaitsma
knocked over a second ball for a kill and
then served up two assists for kills by
junior teammate Hayden Chatman in the
middle that tied the set at 24-24. Christian
Councilor served up an ace for set point for
the boys.
Councilor proved vital for the TK boys in
the back row, digging up a couple of the TK
girls’ best attacks.
“I liked watching Dylan, because he likes
the game so much. Seeing him succeed is
fun to watch,” Chatman said.
Like nearly all of their teammates, they’re
new to the game. Chatman decided he’d join
the program back in December. Boys’ head
coach Carla VanHaitsma said she had one
guy show up Tuesday hoping to be a part of
the club.
For the past few months the team has
been practicing on Sundays, when gym time
is available. The team had one of its few
weekday practices so far on Monday eve-
ning.
“Sophomore year, I heard they were
thinking about making [a boys’ team] and I
was like, ‘oh I want to join that so much.,’”
Bailey said. “It never ended up happening. I
heard it was going this year, and Mrs. Van-
Haitsma was making it happen, I was really
pumped. I’ve had it in my mind for a while.”
Prior to this, Bailey said his volleyball
experience has pretty much just been “mess-
ing around with family.”
“This is my first year doing anything seri-
ously. I would like to do club volleyball nextyear,” Bailey said.
There were raffles for car washes Rain-
Makers Car Wash, T-shirts from Design
Wear and gift cards from J&H Family
Stores, and Faro’s pizza helped with a
serve for pizza contest during the event.
Funds raised will go to help pay for offi-
cials, uniforms, tournament entry fees and
maybe some new nets at some point. Coach
VanHaitsma was very appreciative of spon-
sors and volunteers, as well as her boys’
opponents.
“I want to thank the girls’ varsity team for
helping us at our Sunday practices,” coach
VanHaitsma said. “We learned a lot from
them. Without them, we wouldn’t even
know how to put up the net.”
The outcome wasn’t what she was expect-
ing.
“No way,” coach VanHaitsma said. “Not
at all. I did not expect it to go three and I did
not expect us to win. Our team, they were
hot once they got things figured out. They
got the momentum and they wanted to win.
They worked hard.”
The work will continue heading into the
team’s April 11 season opener.Valley Club has big group headed to MYWAY Finals
The Maple Valley Youth Wrestling Club has a number of members who have qualified for spots in the MYWAY State Finals which will be held this weekend, March
24-26, at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo. The group includes (front from left) Paisley Wenger, Hunter Dunlap, Kameron Clemets, Annabell Racine, Hunter
Leslie, (back) Corbin Mason, Timothy Hyatt, Keegyn Paul, Robert Schliz, Hunter Leffel, Roman Schliz and Dakota Richmond. Missing from the photo are Jackson
Burpee and Dakota Osenbaugh.Thornapple Kellogg junior Dylan Bailey slides down to pass a ball for the new TK
boys' club volleyball team during its Powder Puff match against members of the TKHS
varsity girls' volleyball team Tuesday in Middleville. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Captains Peyton Pratt (left) and Hayden Chatman are at the net for the coin flip to
decide which team will serve first in the third and deciding set between the girls and
the boys at the TK Powder Puff Volleyball match Tuesday in Middleville. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg boys' club volley-
ball coach Carla VanHaitsma instructs
her guys on some of the finer points of
passing during their Powder Puff game
against girls from the TK varsity volleyball
team Tuesday in Middleville. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg's Grayson Stahle
goes up to knock and attack over Alana
Compton during the Powder Puff
Volleyball game at TKHS Tuesday night.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)