Controlled Burn In Iowa City Park Helps Replenish Wooded Area
By Nadia Crow, Reporter
Nancy Reincke, of Iowa City, carries a bunch of Garlic Mustard weed through Hickory Hills Park, in Iowa City. Reincke, along with Friends of Hickory Hill, are making an effort to eradicate the weed from the park to preserve the wildflower habitat. (AP Photo/Iowa City Press Citizen, Matthew Holst)
By
Eric Stidman
Story Created:
Oct 29, 2011 at 4:14 PM CST
Story Updated:
Oct 30, 2011 at 11:59 AM CST
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Helping Mother Nature take back a woodland area means lighting parts of it on fire. That's what about a dozen people did Saturday at Hickory Hills Park in Iowa City. Two invading plant species: honeysuckle and garlic mustard are killing the native plants in the forest. Saturday, professionals and volunteers worked to burn a concentrated portion of those plants for the success of others.
As people and their pets take a stroll through Hickory Hills Park Saturday morning, most don't notice two invading plant species: honeysuckle and garlic mustard.
"It stays green very late in the season so it soaks up a lot of sunlight and shades out the forest floor,” said Christopher Voci with Friends of Hickory Hills.
Covering the forest floor kills the native species. Limp tree branches and other signs of death littered throughout the park. For years, volunteers and those with have been digging up the plants.
"We've interfered with Mother Nature and her ability to take care of herself so we have to do the things that she hasn't been able to do,” said Voci.
Now, they'll take a more aggressive approach. That's where reservation ecologist Liz Maas, her team, and other volunteers, come in with fire.
"It needs heat, it needs fuel, it needs oxygen,” said reservation ecologist Liz Maas.
All were present Saturday morning for the first controlled woodland burn here to get rid of the overbearing plants.
"Native Americans used fire quite often. Right after a fire in a prairie or woodland setting the plants actually respond by growing,” said Maas.
And it’s the growth of native plants volunteers hope will happen to keep the beauty of the park around for centuries to come.
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