By Nick Barnes.
While I’ve not been officially on the Board for a few years now, there are a few landscaping projects that I wanted to get moving this year, and unfortunately we still don’t have a Site Development Director, so I’m jumping back in for a while.
One project I’m hoping we can start is a new segment of tallgrass prairie on the site – likely the last. It would extend from the butterfly garden east to the existing stretch of prairie along the east fence line, and surround the pathway and trio of interpretive signs that includes one describing tallgrass prairie. I’m also hoping we can install some native flowering plants in the trailhead at the south east end of the site amongst the prairie grasses, as well as install 10-15 more native saplings along the north fence line.
I know there’re some folks out there that think the tall grass prairie looks a little scruffy, but hopefully most of those using the trail can appreciate how important it is to our natural history. When we started to landscape the site in 2002 I really wanted to find ways to soften the long, linear, boxy look of our site and hide the fencing and adjacent buildings. One way was to create the mound in the centre of the site to break up the site a little, and the other was to use native plants as a screen around the perimeter.
Speaking of the butterfly garden, this may also get a little attention this year. You may recall that Kelley Liebzeit helped to get the butterfly garden established this about five years ago. While she moved to Lac du Bonnet about two years ago she still tries to find time to look after the garden, and is planning on coming out on May 5 to do some cleanup work. We may be looking at adding more plants this year.
Please contact the board if you’re interested in helping Kelly, or in helping me with some of the Site Development/landscaping activities. You can find more information on landscaping at the following link:
