2022 Wildlife Habitat Plantings at Kirk Lane

Oct 17, 2022 by Stephanie

After being postponed by the rain and wind brought by Hurricane Ian, on Saturday Friends of Glen Providence Park held our 10th annual plantings for National Public Lands Day. Twenty-six adults and teens volunteered for a combined 94 hours digging, planting, mulching, installing deer fencing, and watering, all to improve wildlife habitat in Glen Providence!

This was Phase Four of our Kirk Lane project, which we started on National Public Lands Days in 2015, 2016 and 2019. We expanded on previous plantings with an additional 17 native trees and shrubs, and 13 native woodland plants – the complete list is below. The plants benefit wildlife by providing seeds, nuts, fruits, and nectar for mammals, birds, butterflies, and other pollinators, all while helping to slow down and absorb surface storm water runoff.

In addition, many of the plants provide food for humans – adding to the food forest we have started by the Kirk Lane entrance in previous years.

Thank you to the 26 volunteers who worked diligently all morning (and some into the afternoon!), and all who made this project possible:

Delaware County Parks & Recreation provided the funding for the plants and delivered a new bench and the mulch. Delaware County Conservation District delivered their Conservation Planting Trailer full of all of the tools we could need! Garden Influence and Redbud Native Plant Nursery provided invaluable expertise, Taylor Memorial Arboretum donated additional woodland plants, and Friends of Glen Providence Park donors funded the deer fencing and posts, snacks, two special trees, and other supplies for this project.

Additional groups of volunteers from Penncrest High School and Springton Lake Middle School provided invaluable manpower, and neighbors of the park allowed us to run a hose from their house to water the plantings. Cafe Isla donated coffee to fuel our volunteers, and Pinocchio’s Restaurant donated pizza for lunch. We are grateful to all of these people for making the plantings possible!

Here’s our native plant list from October 15, 2022.

And check out our photos (and video!) below:

Trees:

Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana – 2
American Plum, Prunus americana – 1
Apple Serviceberry, Amelanchier x grandiflora – 1
Pecan, Carya illinoinensis – 1
Shagbark Hickory, Carya ovata – 1
White Fringetree, Chionanthus virginicus – 1
Red Mulberry, Morus rubra – 1
American Hazelnut, Corylus americana – 1
Black Cherry, Prunus serotina – 2
Sweetbay Magnolia, Magnolia virginiana – 1

Shrubs:

Beach Plum, Prunus maritima – 1
Black Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa – 1
Highbush Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum – 3

Woodland Plants:

Blue star, Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ – 2
Meadow anemone, Anemone canadensis – 1
Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis – 1
Meadow zizia, Zizia aptera – 1
Virginia Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum – 1
‘Purple Knockout’ lyre-leaf sage, Salvia lyrata – 1
‘Salsa’ Sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale – 1
Autumn goldenrod ‘Golden Fleece’, Solidago sphacelata – 1
Zigzag goldenrod, Solidago flexicaulis – 1
Garden phlox ‘Jeana’, Phlox paniculata – 1
Beebalm, Monarda didyma – 1
Green and gold, Chrysogonum virginianum – 1