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In River’s North Side Wetland;
250 Redbuds to Illuminate the
Rivergreenway in A Few Years
By JIM BARBIERI
Folks are noticing!
Those many, many orange flags that have popped out alongside the Rivergreenway Trail, between the trail and the river itself -- between Rotary Park and the White Bridge!
Each flag identifies a tree seedling.
As disclosed this spring by Doug Sundling, quarterbacking the program for the city and its river projects, 250 redbud seedlings have been planted in this stretch.
“The seedlings will have to endure the hardships of trying to stake out a home along the river while they grow and provide stabilization of the riverbank,’’ stated Sundling, who has credentials as a naturalist amid years of trail pursuits.
“Hopefully, within a few years, those orange tape flags marking the redbud seedlings will yield to red-violet blossoms,’’ declared Sundling.
“The native redbuds that sprinkle where the roads and paths of Ouabache State Park traverse, and that grace homes like the O’Laverty residence at 1230 River Road, inspired the idea of creating a spring bouquet of red-violet blossoms along the Wabash River,’’ amplified Sundling.
A 1973 high honor graduate of Bluffton High School, who continued his education at Ball State, Sundling has done numerous design projects for the city of Bluffton, and it was he who masterminded the environmental wetland buffer project on the north side of the Wabash in the same Bluffton to Ouabache Park stretch by which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed to reduce a penalty against Bluffton for a permit violation from $127,500 down to $30,000.
Reported this spring in the News-Banner was that the second-year Phase II of that project was to bring plantings of nearly 6,000 trees on 15 more acres of the farmland that the city is reforesting into a wetland to establish a buffer against farm chemicals runoff into the Wabash River.
The 2003 plantings in that flood plain area took place in nearly ideal conditions, related Sundling.
“A crew from J.F. New (Company), based in Walkerton, Indiana, planted about 5,900 trees on 15 acres,’’ he reported.Added by Sundling was:
“As he did last year, Jeremy Weber led a crew that included Scott Fetters and Jen Lemler. Like the year before, we are trying to restore the oak-maple-hickory forest community that once covered this area.
“The seedlings included some of the major trees that dominate the oak-maple-hickory habitat -- oak and hickory species, silver maple and green ash,’’ related Sundling.
“To provide a varied canopy and some berries, we added black cherry and redbud with their colorful spring blossoms, along with the small flowery shrubs of ninebark and spicebush,’’ he explained.
Sundling added that Perry Isch of Isch Seeds provided assistance in determining and securing the appropriate mix of rye grass, native grasses and wildflowers.
“This ground cover has emerged but again ran into a major rain period. Sundling said hopefully the addition of rye grass to this mix will prevent the ‘shock and awe’ of plants that invaded the 30 acres planted last year.’’
He elaborated on last year’s Phase I plantings.
“Upon an initial survey of the seedlings planted last year over 30 acres, many have survived and are striving to establish their place amid the competition of invasive plants and nibbling rabbits and deer.
“I remember reading that many folks labeled Charles Deam’s early efforts to convert his 5-acre corn field at the corner of Wayne and Washington Streets into an arboretum of trees as ‘Charlie’s Jungle’.
“And, some 70 years ago, what is now Ouabache State Park was rolling farmland,’’ noted Sundling.
“The folks at J.F. New expect to see a canopy of small trees begin to emerge over the 30 acres in about five years,’’ he summarized.
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Copyright © 2003 News-Banner Publications, Inc.
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