Volunteering to Learn

Volunteers weeding Native bed
(photo by Lori Anteau)

Young Preying Mantis
(photo by Lori Anteau)

The other night I had an opportunity to help out with the Native Plant beds at Wood County Parks Reuthinger Preserve.  Yes, it was just weeding.  The volunteers working that night were a good group.  And Lori always makes the work enjoyable.  I don't have the stats yet, but I know that over 13,000 native plants were grown from seed last year at Reuthinger.  Some were sold at the spring Native Plant sale, some put into several dozen beds at the preserve, and most planted into appropriate areas at various Wood County Parks.  I don't remember which plant bed we were working in when someone discovered several young preying mantis.  Lori got this this closeup shot and was gracious enough to contribute it to this blog.  Thanks Lori.  This is another great example of how Native plants help to increase the biodiversity our planet thrives on. 

I take every opportunity I get to help with the park system's effort to restore native plants to our local area.  It's a terrific way to learn about native plants and help the cause at the same time.  Tonight I'm off to help remove invasive plants from one of the parks in the southerly area of our county.  I haven't talked much yet about the necessity to remove invasive plants from our environment.  It's a hugely important issue to deal with and rest assured we're going to talk a lot about it.  I'm thinking about making Invasive Plants a separate page within this blog.  If you want to jump ahead and start exploring this topic, check out this highly informative 13 minute video
Garlic Mustard Identification and Control from Barbara Lucas on Vimeo.   I call Garlic Mustard the Asian Carp of our woodlands.  Also a good start is to check out this brochure from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  

Next time  - "What a Day"