Children’s Wet Meadow
Jeannine Palms is an active member of the Ann Arbor (MI) Chapter of Wild Ones. Her front yard and utility strip between the sidewalk and the street are planted with a wondrous variety of native plants – from ferns and spring ephemerals to black-eyed Susans and prairie dock. On her back deck one is likely to find yogurt cups serving as seedling starters, tended by the children who come to her house after school. Beyond the gate in her back fence lies Buhr Park, one of the city’s many open areas. With Jeannine’s support and encouragement her after-school charges have made some inspiring contributions to the park.
Abby Huth, age 10, writes this in her first prize-winning photo essay in a contest sponsored by the Michigan Environmental Council, published in the Detroit Free Press:
“The Children’s Wet Meadow is a solution to the environmental problem of stormwater. Before its creation by a group of kids called ‘Super Swampers’ (including me), heavy rains quickly flooded the grass and caused nearby Mallett’s Creek to rise. The water flowing into the creek was dirty, carried garbage, and polluted the Huron River. Our teacher, Jeannine Palms, explained how wet meadows let water soak into the ground slowly. All the plants’ roots, which are very long, hold the water longer and clean it. It was our idea to make a wet meadow in Buhr Park. With the help of neighbors, it has become a model for others, showing what people can do to help clean our water. It’s a beautiful and natural habitat that helps keep the water clean.”
The Ann Arbor Wild Ones Chapter has helped the children by donating seed and burning the meadow when it was three years old. This chapter, chartered in 1996, was the first Michigan chapter of Wild Ones and has fostered nine chartered chapters and three seedling chapters.
Native Plants go to school
Thanks to Eileen Guthrie and the Central Wisconsin Chapter of Wild Ones, the plantings around Hewitt-Texas Elementary School’s pond in Wausau, WI will have maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), beebalm (Monarda fistulosa), and round lobed hepatica (Hepatica rotundifolia). When Eileen found out that the local landfill would be expanded during the next five years, plowing under more than 80 species of upland and wetland native plants, she worked to make these plants available for rescue by anyone willing to replant them on public land. Eileen and members of the Central Wisconsin Chapter dug the plants in the construction area, then, with children from all six elementary grades involved, sloshed about in the school’s wetland, replanting the rescued plants. The principal, teachers, and children responded very positively to this educational experience. Eileen hopes to continue this rewarding relationship with the children in the coming years.