By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
BRADNER—Native plants are vital to ecosystems. Bees, birds, butterflies and insects rely on native plants for shelter and food.
The Wood County Park District takes an active role in making sure native plants are in abundance at its 20 parks spread across the county to provide an ideal habitat for pollinators and other wildlife.
“The Native Plant Project is a land management practice for the parks,” Zeb Albert, stewardship coordinator for the park district, reported at the recent park board meeting held at Bradner Preserve. The project involves the promotion of native plants—those plants that are from the area before human involvement— and restoring them to the natural ecosystem.
The process of collecting, cleaning and planting the seeds from the existing native plants is very labor intensive because all of the work is done by hand, Albert said. They don’t use implements to harvest the seeds because it would require too many different species-specific implements for the many variations in seed size and shape.
Each year the staff and volunteers harvest and clean more than a hundred varieties of native plant species from the parks. During the meeting, board members and staff cleaned the seeds of gray-headed coneflowers using fine-mesh screens, while Albert explained the project.
“We have a huge volunteer force, to help with all the work,” he said. The district hosts Nature Nursery Nights for volunteers to work on whatever the season requires. The seed cleaning is a fall and winter project. Weeding, planting and harvesting opportunities are available at other times of the year.
The volunteers enjoy the Nature Nursery Nights. “They are popular programs; they have the vibe of a book club,” he said. “For years, those are almost always at full attendance every time,” he said.
Based on seed prices of between $3 and $200 per ounce, depending on the plant, Albert said the seed collection and cleaning process provides an average of about $10,000 worth of seed each year.
After the seeds are cleaned, most of them are mixed and spread in restoration areas at the various parks to restore prairie acreage in the parks. Germination varies by seed, he said, but once established in about three to five years, native plants require little to no maintenance because they have adapted to local soils and conditions.
The seeds that are not planted in the parks are taken to the greenhouse to be grown for planting or sold in the native plant sale.
The next Native Plant Sale is from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Cedar Creeks Preserve, 4575 Walbridge Road, Northwood. Prices are $5 for 4 ½-inch pots, and native shrubs are $10.
Andrew Kalmar, assistant director of the park district, shared the design of the new wayfinding posts planned for the parks. The wayfinding will include directional arrows and QR codes for park maps and the district website. The graphics, which will be embedded in a durable plastic near the top of the post, will be weather-resistant, Kalmar said. The new wayfinding will be installed first at W.W. Knight Nature Preserve and then systematically added to other parks.
Chris Smalley, director of the park district, thanked the stewardship department for hosting Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel and staff at the J.C. Reuthinger Memorial Preserve in Perrysburg. They shared about the Native Plant Project, toured the facilities and showed the wetlands area. “What a great opportunity to show what we do,” Smalley said.
According to Candace Weis, president of the Friends of the Wood County Parks, the group will host its annual Bird Seed and Mum Sale with the help of Mid-Wood Inc. Weis said information will be available on the Friends website.
She also announced the Friends Fall Membership meeting will be at 1 p.m. Oct. 15 at Otsego Park. Deb Nofzinger, program supervisor of Sandusky County Parks, will be the guest speaker. Register by Oct. 12 at Friends@wcparks.org or by calling the district office at 419-353-1897.
In other business, the board:
- Agreed to dispose of surplus items identified during the recent cleaning of satellite locations. Among the items are some old communication radios that will be given to the Fostoria Fire Department for their use. The radios are old but still serviceable.
- Heard an update on the tar and chip project at Bradner Preserve Timmons Road entrance. The project was to be completed soon by the Wood County Highway Department, improving the road surface for visitors to the park.
- Learned the annual scarecrow contest will be at the Carter Historical Farm from 4:30 to 7:30 on Oct. 5. Completed scarecrows will be judged at the Heritage Farm Festival at Carter Farm on Oct. 7. The Friends will provide prizes for the winning scarecrows.
