Fixin' Leeks at Onion Creek

Earlier this year, Mary and I had the chance to work at Onion Creek and help remove an invasive species.

The Onion Creek property is managed by the Wildlands Conservation Division of Austin Water Utilities of the City of Austin. The conservation management program that WCD administers is known as the Water Quality Protection Lands (WQPL). These lands were purchased with funds from a 1998 bond election for the purpose of water quality protection for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. You can read more about the WQPL here. The Onion Creek property is one of these and consists of 2500 acres located along Onion Creek in central Hays County.

Our project leader, Tom Watson, had previously flagged the location of many leeks, mainly along the creek. Tom’s experience includes being an Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Montana, and a Lecturer at UT-Austin. He's also been the President of our Chapter and is currently our Chapter's State Representative. He is also an invaluable friend and a great resource for me. I frequently ask for his help in plant identification and he's always very glad to help.

He noticed the leeks while working on the property and conducted a survey to locate them for future removal. The leeks are invasive, having been introduced to the United States from Britain although they are originally Eurasian. Tom thinks the ones we removed were basically escapees from cultivated gardens. They're wild in the same sense that feral hogs are.

The species, Allium Ampeloprasum, is a member of the onion genus. They reproduce rapidly in the wild. This spring, before the native grasses grew too tall, was a good time to take them out.

Our crew, consisting of fellow Master Naturalists, walked along Onion Creek, found the flags, and dug up the plants. The soil along the creek was nice, probably due to many floods and deposits over the years. It was deep and easy to dig in. The leeks were also fairly shallow, typically less than a foot down, and easy to remove. There were often multiple plants at a single site.

Here's a photo Mary digging up a clump.

 There were actually five plants in the clump.

We gathered quite a few. They are edible and Mary reports they are quite good.

This was a great way to spend 3.5 hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The creek was running as you can see in the first photo because of all the spring rains we had.