The restored foliage in Kennedy Woods

First in Earth Day series

You can help with Forest Park project

Would you like to help recreate a native prairie/savanna that looks like this area did before the settlers came? Local kids and families can volunteer to help during this year's Earth Day Weekend in April.

The annual Earth Day event will be held in Forest Park on Saturday and Sunday, April 24-25. It's a celebration of efforts to protect and improve our environment.

The prairie/savanna restoration is in the Deer Lake area. That's an 18-acre area near the Muny Opera outdoor theater.

The ground to be planted at Deer Lake

Gary Schimmelpfenig is an expert in restoration of lands to native conditions. He is helping to reintroduction of native plants and flowers to the Deer Lake area.

When French pioneers first came to what is now Missouri, the area was covered by thick forests, prairies, marshlands and savannas. Savannas are transitional areas which are part-forest and part-prairie.

Schimmelpfenig said a Missouri savanna includes prairie grasses and flowers along with clumps of tall forest-type trees.

The Deer Lake restoration is just one part of the multi-million dollar renovation of all of Forest Park, one of the largest urban parks in the nation.

The bare ground in a savanna area

Organizers include special Forest Park projects in each Earth Day. These allow local volunteers to actually take part in restoration improvements. This year, volunteers will plant prairie grasses and flowers to complete the Deer Lake renovation.

A 3-hour "ecological restoration" planting project at Deer Lake will be Sunday, April 25. Volunteers will work from 9 a.m. to noon. Each volunteer will be served a lunch and get a Earth Day T-shirt for their efforts.

You and your family can sign up to volunteer by going to www.stlouisearthday.org. Or you can call the St. Louis parks department at (314) 289-5323.

Anabeth Weil is the Forest Park executive for the St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry. Her department and the Forest Park Forever organization are overseeing the extensive restoration of Forest Park.

Plantings at Pagoda Circle

The Deer Lake restoration is in its final stages of redevelopment.

One big part of the restoration was connecting Deer Lake and other lakes in Forest Park. That allows for continuous water movement through the park. The movement will aerate the water better and allow it to support more types of wildlife and plants.

Ms. Weil said, "The hydrology of Deer Lake has been completed." What's needed now is to reintroduce ground cover along the banks and in the surrounding area.

That's where the Earth Day volunteers come in.

But, Schimmelpfenig promised, "It won't be a case of us telling the volunteers, 'Here's your tools, let's plant.'" He said volunteers will get a full-blown "ecological experience" that "sensitizes them to native ecosystems."

The Deer Lake restoration will include all the different types of native habitat. There are forests, prairies, marshlands and savannas, which are "buffers between forests and prairies."

In reshaping Deer Lake, construction crews took off most grass and plant cover.

Forest Park's Jewel Box

Now it's time to replant with grasses, flowers and other native plants.

When the ground cover has been restored, the area will be open only for foot traffic. Then, park visitors will be able to get a sense of what Missouri was like before settlers came.

Schimmelpfenig already has helped with other prairie/savanna restoration in Forest Park. Reintroduction of native plants at Kennedy Woods was an earlier Earth Day project.

If you like your volunteer experience on this Earth Day, Ms. Weil has a way for you and your family to become permanently involved in Forest Park restoration.

She and Andrea Schnapp have formed the Flora Conservancy of Forest Park.

That group includes about 130 master gardeners and volunteers. They work three days a week at Forest Park. Recently, the gardeners have begun working year-around. They work outside during the warmer months and indoors in the winter.

Among their projects have been plantings in Kennedy Woods, inside and outside the Jewel Box and the Pagoda Circle.

If you and your family would like to continue to volunteer at Forest Park, you can call Ms. Weil at (314) 289-5323. Also, you can get more information about the Flora Conservancy by going to: http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/
floraconservancy.html