Habitat Restoration Day at the Watershed Nature Center
Bringing back native plants to the Watershed
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| Welcome |
It wasn't the prettiest day, but cloudy skies didn't stop the volunteers at the Watershed Nature Center from getting ready for spring. In celebration of Habitat Restoration Day, volunteers do what they can to remove as many invasive plants as possible and replace them with native plants. It's a backbreaking task, but the Watershed helpers take their work very seriously. Students from Southern Illinois University/Edwardsville, as well as local volunteers, come out and dedicate their time to restoring this wetland so that people in the area can come and enjoy the beauty of nature and to preserve native plants, birds and reptiles.
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| Covering Invasives to make room for natives. |
To eradicate invasive plants along the path to the facility, volunteers were laying down newspaper and then covering it with mulch. This deprives the plants from much needed nutrients that they get from the sun and eventually suffocates them. Then once the invasive plants are dead, they'll till the soil and plant native grass. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, in spite of the weather, as they were chatting and working, enjoying the fresh air after a long, cold winter. Another group in the area were cutting back Japanese Honeysuckle, and other invasive vines, in hopes that if they continue to cut them back, they'll eventually die or allow other plants to thrive. Larry Brown, a Hamel native, has been a volunteer since 2002. Brown admits, "I love doing this kind of stuff". Brown recalls that he's always been a nature enthusiast, since childhood.
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| Volunteer Larry Brown displays a poster of Illinois' Invasive Plants |
Chairo Shaffer, Program Manager at the Watershed, is enthusiastic about how people are becoming more aware of how much damage invasive plants can cause. "Nurseries are becoming more aware and some have stopped selling these plants", Shaffer said. A lot of people think that ornamental invasive plants are the way to go to reduce the amount of work in their gardens and landscaping. Shaffer added, "If you want landscaping plants that are low maintenance, plant natives!"
The Watershed has another Habitat Restoration Day coming up April 12th. Go to their website to find out about all of their upcoming educational programs and events: