We're Working to Be Good Stewards of Nature

Welcome to this blog space, where we'll talk about local ecological stewardship activities in Rochester and Rochester Hills. We'll start by talking about one new stewardship project in particular:  Samuel Howlett Park.

Earlier this year, the City Beautiful Commission of the City of Rochester hosted a web survey to better understand how citizens use the park and what improvements should be made.  The survey had a great response, with 50 percent or more of those surveyed wanting to see:

• Paths & gardens (85%)
• Quiet, shaded areas (81%)
• Picnic tables (59%)
• Green open space (86%)

Many commenters urged the city to keep the park relatively undeveloped, provide adequate access to the Howlett Pond, plant native wildflowers, encourage a healthy ecosystem in Howlett Pond, and install paths, picnic tables, benches, additional trash bins and interpretive signage.

Resulting from this effort, several residents banded together to form a Friends of Howlett Park group to coordinate volunteer clean-ups, invasive species removal work days, and to communicate with the CBC on park issues.  The group participated in Mayor Cuthbertson's annual park clean-up on Saturday, May 30th, and hosted a BioBlitz event on May 21st in partnership with Six Rivers Regional Land Conservancy (SRRLC), where local botany experts conducted a botanical survey of the park. More on that in the next post.

An invasive species removal work day, also co-sponsored by SRRLC, is planned for Saturday, October 29th, 2011.

To get connected and volunteer with Friends of Samuel Howlett Park, join us on Facebook or email me at ninaignaczak@gmail.com.