{"id":178,"date":"2017-03-13T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/?p=178"},"modified":"2017-08-01T14:40:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T19:40:39","slug":"walton-oaks-park-restoration-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/2017\/03\/13\/walton-oaks-park-restoration-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Walton Oaks Park Restoration Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I mention the name “Walton Oaks Park” around Whitewater, I rarely get any nods of recognition.\u00a0 When I explain it is a park managed by the City of Whitewater and even describe its location, I get even more confused or bewildered looks.\u00a0 This park is literally on the edge of the map and is buried in a new subdivision that is still far from its full scope of completion.\u00a0 As it stands, it is on a short, dead-end road with only one immediate next door neighbor, although the park runs along the back edge of several private landowners, including the donor of the land herself.\u00a0 In fact, it’s not even listed on the City’s Parks and Recreation page!<\/p>\n

On the map below, you can find the typical residential lot with the large sentinel burr oak tree dominating the view, but the path leads back to a memorial bench for the Walton Family<\/a> and a single path encircles the bulk of the park, which is populated with a\u00a0 wonderful variety of mostly burr oaks, from saplings to several\u00a0individuals estimated to be over 200 years old.<\/p>\n

\"waltonoaks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sustainability Office was approached to assist with the restoration effort by the Urban Forestry Committee<\/a>\u00a0(UFC), an advisory committee that reports to the City of Whitewater Parks and Recreation Board.\u00a0 The UFC\u00a0has been focused on identifying unique trees around Whitewater by accepting nominations for Notable Trees<\/span><\/u><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0The existence of pre-settlement trees in the city limits <\/a>are becoming more and more rare, so this park is special because it has a high concentration of these individuals.<\/p>\n

However, the real importance of this park is in its potential classification as an oak woodland <\/a>or oak opening\/savanna<\/a>, the\u00a0two dominant ecosystems prior to European settlement.\u00a0 These ecosystems are extraordinarily rare, primarily due to agricultural and residential development,\u00a0 so the importance of this park is highlighted as a beneficial ecosystem for local birds and other wildlife.\u00a0 The opportunity to restore this increasingly rare ecosystem was too good to pass up, but the work is labor-intensive and the UFC needed help.\u00a0 Our office works to connect students to this project through internships and community service hours.\u00a0 Our first intern on this project, Elizabeth, is an Environmental Science<\/a> major interested in ecological restoration and our first volunteer event occurred March 5, 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth working hard to clear brush!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These trees are primarily under threat from some very common and notorious invasive species.\u00a0 Common or European Buckthorn <\/a>is well-known in prairie, savanna, and woodland restoration efforts.\u00a0 Combined with its less common but equally problematic cousin Glossy Buckthorn,\u00a0a variety of Honeysuckle, <\/a>and White Mulberry<\/a>, these small trees can overrun native species and degrade ecosystems very quickly.\u00a0 As recently as 10 years ago, the Walton Family mowed beneath these trees to maintain more of a savanna <\/a>landscape, but\u00a0our ecosystems and native plants are adapted to fire to survive and thrive.\u00a0 Fire also eliminates many invaders we now see as commonplace in disturbed ecosystems.\u00a0 Once the active management ceased, buckthorn thrived.<\/p>\n

Buckthorn causes problems in a few significant ways<\/a>.\u00a0 First, they tend to densely populate areas and reproduce very easily by seed, which are inadvertently dispersed by birds.\u00a0 The seeds are eaten, but contain a chemical diuretic that causes the birds to pass the seeds quickly and relatively unscathed to new areas.\u00a0 Additionally, when buckthorn is cut it does not die, but often will aggressively re-sprout, which requires a strong herbicide to control and completely kill.\u00a0 The dense buckthorn stands tend to leaf out before most native plants in spring, which eventually crowd out native forbs and shrubs.\u00a0 Additionally, scientists suspect that the leaves contain a chemical that disrupts the germination of native plant seeds, including the burr oak.\u00a0 The oaks will generally compete against buckthorn because they grow to be larger, but the dense stands prevent sapling oaks to reproduce and establish, eventually changing the entire ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A thick stand of small buckthorn trees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our first battle in this war against these invaders was on March 5, 2017.\u00a0 With a relatively small group of hard-working volunteers from the Urban Forestry Committee and SAGE, we were able to make some significant headway against the target species, as the picture below indicates.\u00a0 However, there is much more work to do in this area.\u00a0 Much of the buckthorn is small and can be handled quickly with a small chainsaw or hand-cut with loppers, but each individual stump must be treated to prevent re-sprout.\u00a0 This is labor-intensive work and we need your help!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The results of a hard afternoon’s work!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Until next time, please enjoy a few images of our first foray into this restoration project.\u00a0 We hope to conduct similar work in our very own UW-Whitewater Nature Preserve, where the very same species threaten our own Friar’s Woods in a significant area near Perkins Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The crew hard at work!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"John<\/a>
John and AP from SAGE were rockstars!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I was still enjoying myself hauling many loads of buckthorn brush!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nick<\/a>
Nick prepares his weapon for battle as Sherry and Elizabeth engage in some hand-to-branch combat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I mention the name “Walton Oaks Park” around Whitewater, I rarely get any nods of recognition.\u00a0 When I explain it is a park managed by the City of Whitewater and even describe its location, I get even more confused or bewildered looks.\u00a0 This park is literally on the edge of the map and is … Continue reading Walton Oaks Park Restoration Begins<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}