Clark Lake Day Use Area Planter gets New Look

By Susan Trull on Jul 7, 2010

Volunteer creates native plant/pollinator garden in neglected plant at day use area.

When Sylvania Wilderness was dedicated in 1967, a planter was placed at the Clark Lake Day Use Area on the edge of the wilderness. Plantings in the L-shaped garden box had been discontinued and the site become quite weedy. A volunteer with the Friends of Sylvania Wilderness, Waltraud Brinkmann, approached the Ottawa National Forest with a proposal to recreate the planter as a native plant and pollinator garden.

With minimal help from the Forest, Wally removed weeds and debris, prepared the planter, carefully planted various native plants, watered, mulched, and weeded the new garden all summer, and developed labels for the plants. The garden includes common local flowers, graminoids, and ferns, and features look-alikes-two or more species that are similar-with the labels helping the viewer to learn to distinguish the plants. Many flowers bloomed in the garden over the summer, and the late bloomers into the fall provided needed food sources for pollinators.

Thanks to many volunteer hours, the garden is establishing well. It is a lovely enhancement to the day use area.