Rewilding Wintergarden

The wet prairie on the Green trail, connecting the Nature Center and the old St. John’s Woods was the core of the idea of the Wintergarden Nature Preserve. Originally conceived in the early 1990s as the “Native Meadow Project,”  it is a fascinating story about the restoration of native ecosystems. The establishment of a native plant prairie first required the removal of the cottonwood trees, which are native to the region, but not to this particular place. It also involved the elimination of invasive species, such as garlic mustard. Cottonwood trees have an adventitious root system, which means that their roots grow from different parts of the tree. This means that they be bulldozed and then hauled away or completely burned. Tough love!

After the removal of the trees, the entire soil was tilled to a moderate depth of 4-6 inches. The Environmental Studies Department at Bowling Green State University developed an environmental impact assessment to create a more detailed plan for establishment and maintenance of the Native Meadow. The department also compiled appendices of existing plants and recommended native species, along with a soil analysis, hydrology report, and an animal ecology report.

Community members and volunteers continue to help plant native species and remove invasive ones to this day. Restoration and other practices such as rewilding are practices of ecological management that require tough decisions such as the removal of the cottonwood grove. From that loss, however, Wintergarden/St John’s Nature Preserve emerged as a cross-road of diverse ecosystems — wet and dry meadows, oak savanna, and mixed forest. Biodiversity attracts more birds, butterflies and genetic diversity, contributing to a healthier environment for wild and domesticated life.

The restoration of natural habitats are very important to the preservation of native plants and animals. Cinda Stutzman is a Natural Resource Specialist for the city of Bowling Green and has played a large role in the restoration of Wintergarden’s natural habitat. The work she has done has taken many years and a lot of hard work but she and her coworkers have been able to successfully reintroduce many of the plants that were once native to Wintergarden!

But there was a lot of learning curves where we would try something on a specific species, as far as trying to kill it and it would backfire, it wouldn’t die. Just like, well that was a waste of time and energy. But then there were other times where you would throw a bunch of seeds out and you wouldn’t see anything for a while but then a couple years later, a plant would just go “poof! Here I am!” And we would go “oh, my gosh it worked.” And then I would figure out, that plant’s happy place is kind of this soil and this amount of water and this amount of sunlight, so that I could focus my energies taking seeds and transplants there. So sometimes it was just a lot of trial and error, throwing seeds around seeing what grew where or why. 

A transcript of an interview with Cinda Stutzman can be found here: Cinda Stutzman Transcription. 

Learning More

Issues of restoration engage ethical, historical and scientific thinking. Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac is a classic that has inspired generations of naturalists and park managers. The land ethic is an acknowledgement that we are part of a biotic community, with rights and responsibilities that transcend the divide between human and non-human forms of life. Building on Leopold’s insights, but concerned about certain versions of environmentalism that seek to remove human intervention from nature, famed author Michael Pollan proposed the “gardener’s ethic” in his book Second Nature (chapter 10). Much like tending a garden at home, Pollan proposed that we cannot remove humans from the picture. That all our decisions, whether that is to pave a meadow, restore it to wetland, or let nature “follow its course” have unexpected results and may not contribute to bring in more biodiversity. Another exploration of the ethical implications of our ecological actions is Kathleen Dean Moore’s The Pine Island Paradox, who proposes that caring for a place is akin to caring for other fellow humans. She argued,

If we value caring relations, then it makes sense that we commit ourselves to act in ways that strengthen and reweave and sustain the webs of relationships that we value. [It tells us that we ought to preserve our web of relationship] not from a sense of abstract duty, loyalty to a set of principles that force us, against our inclinations, to care . Not from a calculation that caring will increase happiness in the long run. But because we naturally care.… [Then] to know what is right in any given situation requires a deep understanding of what makes mutually sustaining connections flourish in particular settings. Right acting requires an understanding of the ecology — one might say — of caring (pp. 61-62).

Sources

Photo Credits

  • Photo A from Cobb, Thomas B. “Environmental Impact Assessment for Meadow Project at Wintergarden Park.” Spring 1994.
  • Photo B from “High school planters.” The Sentinel Tribune. June 29, 2004.
  • Blog Featured Image from Wu, Enoch. “Stewards of nature.” The Sentinel Tribune. April 19, 2012.

Text, research and content created by Addison Kennedy, M.A. Student in American Culture Studies. Edited by Dr. Amílcar Challú, Associate Professor of History, Bowling Green State University, and Carolyn Dailey, history senior.