This past weekend, just north of the historic 24th street bridge, a generous group of volunteers from Page helped clear out five patches of invasive Johnson grass, cleared out the thick undergrowth of intrusive Bermuda grass, planted an assortment of 80 native plants in their place, and restored a rich, organic layer of topsoil mixed with native grass seeds in the area.

This amazing effort is a continuation from last year, where the same area was covered entirely in a dense ragweed forest and is a step towards the ecological restoration of this area of the park, known as the Wooten Woods.

Ecological healing is a lengthy process that can take years and requires many volunteer-hours of hard work to do correctly. Even with its ups and downs, this little patch of the Wooten Woods is doing so much better than it was a year ago, and hopefully it will be even healthier by next year.

With the help of our volunteers, this area of the park has the potential to provide numerous ecological services, including habitat creation, erosion control, pollution reduction, wildlife food production, and even a little carbon sequestration.