AmeriCorps help with Native Plant restoration on Grand Island NRA

By Deb Le Blanc on Sep 9, 2010

AmeriCorps workers participated in restoration planting on Grand Island NRA where they assisted with planting more than 9,000 native plants in two days.

Over the summer, AmeriCorps workers helped with the Hiawatha National Forest's native plant program at Grand Island National Recreation Area (NRA) and the Forest Greenhouse in Marquette, Michigan. For many in this diverse group of young people, it was their first time working with native plants in a forested environment. Being able to travel to the island and make a positive impact by restoring sites with native plants was a rewarding experience for them.

On Grand Island NRA, the crew helped with the Williams Landing restoration project. The task was to make the shoreline of the site look like the native beach plant community which surrounds it. The palate was bare. The site had been impacted by all the construction done over the past year. Top soil had been placed on both sides of the main portal at Williams Landing and there was no vegetation. The crew completed most of the restoration in one day. First they moved buckets of sand to help cover the topsoil. Then they moved nearly 1,500 rescued beach grass transplants from the island's shoreline along with piles of dredged sand at Williams Landing. Most of the beach grasses came from the storm edge line along the beaches at Williams Landing and Trout Bay. Beach pea plants that were impacted by high winds were rescued from Mather Beach along with wormwood, fireweed, and false heather plants. The 12 person AmeriCorps crew was able to restore vegetation and sand rather quickly at Williams Landing. Once they finished the transplanting of live plants, they hauled additional buckets of beach sand to cover the topsoil. After planting, driftwood and large rocks were added to the scenery. The attached photos show how the site transformed into a native beach community in one day.

On the second day at Grand Island, the crews helped with an old farm field restoration with the Superior Watershed Partnership ARRA native plant crew. In a one day, 7,200 native wildflower plugs were planted. It was the largest single-day plant transplant since the project began in 2008. All the native plugs used at the site were grown at the Forest Greenhouse. The crew planted black-eyed Susan, bee balm, milkweed, and some coreopsis. All of which are key pollinator plants as work to restore the degraded fallow farm field continues so that site pollinators and other wildlife can benefit from it. The Monarch butterfly population increased this summer; at one point over 500 larvae were counted. Numerous deer, bears, and small birds were also seen foraging through plants that were being reintroduced to the site. For some of the Americorps crew, it was the first time they had seen wildlife.

At the forest Greenhouse, the crew removed the sod cap and rescued all the native plants from the area where the new 16' x 24' solex greenhouse will go. They saved hundreds of plants that were transplanted to the Sandtown restoration site later. They helped organize the garage for the expanding seed storage area, moved office dividers, and helped move an office to the garage area. They are truly a wonderful group of young people to work with and helped in so many ways. It was nice to hear that their experiences with the native plant projects were some of their favorites since joining the Americorps.