Volunteers add pollinator garden at Oak Hill Park

Volunteers add pollinator garden at Oak Hill Park
Ken Shafer

On May 28 at Wooster’s Oak Hill Park, volunteers from Wooster High School, along with members of the Friends of Oak Hill Park and the City of Wooster Parks Department, began a new phase of development of the pollinator garden area, with the installation of several hundred Ohio native plants.

                        

Oak Hill Park was dedicated and opened to the public on Oct. 15, 2011. It was intended not just to preserve open green space in Wooster’s rapidly growing north end, but also to provide a naturalized environment for park users. With several miles of paved and grassy paths, wildflower plantings, native reforestation, rain gardens, and retention ponds, the park provides numerous habitats to observe and support wildlife.

The vision for the park included the establishment of an education center for displays, demonstrations of sustainable landscaping and horticulture, pollinator and rain gardens, and other environmentally friendly projects that could be scaled to residential and other settings.

The pollinator garden near the pavilion was established at the time of the park’s opening, and several plantings have been added over the years. The original plan was to have this garden occupy the entire area within the boundaries of a one-eighth mile ADA-compliant walking loop and to include a variety of species of plants in several types of environment, from relatively dry areas to very wet water retention areas.

Plans are now being made to complete this area, and during a work day on May 28, volunteers from Wooster High School, along with members of the Friends of Oak Hill Park and the City of Wooster Parks Department, began a new phase of development of the pollinator garden area with the installation of several hundred Ohio native plants.

The plants were grown from locally sourced seeds obtained and germinated by Wooster High School science teacher Troy Worth, who teaches the applied botany program and coordinates its annual plant sale. The students were led and organized by Griffin Owen and Audrey Miller, both seniors in the International Baccalaureate program, in partial fulfillment of the service requirements of that program. It is their hope, as well as the hope of Worth, that the Oak Hill Park pollinator garden will become an ongoing project.

Oak Hill Park has benefited from a series of volunteer projects over the past 11 years including major tree and perennial plantings done by students from The College of Wooster, members of the Church of the Nazarene and the Rotary Club of Wooster; donation of funds by Rotary to build a covered pavilion equipped with solar panels; and numerous other gifts that have enabled the construction of wildflower areas and walking paths.

Representing the Friends of Oak Hill Park on May 28 were Ken Shafer and Roger Downer. Volunteers are welcome to join the Friends group, which has been involved in other plantings and in the ongoing removal of invasive species such as Callery pear and multi-flora rose.

For more information about the group or to volunteer, email Ken Shafer at woosternativehabitat@gmail.com or Curt Denning at the Wooster Parks Department at cdenning@woosteroh.com.


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