By Mary Lacy
Northside News
In autumn 2023, large piles of brush appeared along some of the trails and near the edge of the Big Woods in Warner Park. That effort by volunteers to remove invasive buckthorn became a spark for a larger restoration effort in Warner Park.
Warner Park was established in the 1950s with the purchase of several farms and Castle Marsh. Over the years, improvements have been primarily focused on sports or building facilities. Field areas were seeded with turf grass, baseball began to be played in the 1980s, the Rainbow Shelter was built in 1994, and the Warner Park Community Recreation Center was dedicated in 1999.
All these things are assets to the Northside, but the natural areas of the park have been long neglected. In the past, the focus of the Parks Department was mowing and facility maintenance. While there have been conservation parks in Madison as part of the whole system, an Ecology Team has been added to work on the natural areas of all city parks.
A group of Wild Warner volunteers worked with Parks Department employees to do a “Buckthorn Blitz” by removing areas of invasive buckthorn in Warner Park. Wild Warner, an advocacy group supporting the natural areas of Warner Park, has been active since 2011. Buckthorn is a non-native invasive species that can out-compete native plants with its long growing season and the production of chemical compounds that inhibit the growth of other vegetation. If the plant is merely cut, it will resprout, so chemical treatment is required. The volunteers supplied the muscle, and Parks employees supplied the herbicide.
Megan McCrumb, Ecology Lead with the Parks Department, was working with Wild Warner in this effort. Megan was excited about the quality of the trees in the woods; there are many large red and white oak trees, along with black cherry and basswood. She applied for and received a grant to hire contractors to help with the restoration of the woods.
The contractors will perform a prescribed burn to help rejuvenate the area, removing years of accumulated leaf litter and small brush, so a diverse native woodland seed mix can be sown. During this past winter, Megan and her team were able to do more buckthorn and downed-wood removal. Some brush was burned on site, but larger logs have been placed in piles.
While this does not look “natural,” it was done to help with invasive removal (to avoid tripping hazards) and to make future burns safer. People doing controlled burns can create fire breaks around the piles. Large logs left in place could potentially burn for weeks. Fungi and weather will eventually break down the log piles. A burn was not done this spring, but there is potential for a burn this autumn.
After the burn is completed, a woodland savanna mix of seeds can be spread to generate a more native understory. It will take a long time for the restoration work in the woods to be sustainable, but great results have already been seen. This spring there were great colonies of trout lilies, along with bloodroot, mayapple, toothwort, jack-in-the-pulpit and yellow violets.
There is also restoration work being done in the prairie areas of the park. Selective application of herbicide will eliminate bad invasive perennial plants such as reed canary grass, crown vetch and Canada thistle (which is from Europe). This application is targeted to specific plants and is not broadcast over the entire prairie area. Biological controls are also being introduced, specifically the leafy spurge beetle. Mowing will continue to control wild parsnip and other invasives.
Madison is fortunate to have a large number of parks, open areas and green space. There are over 280 parks with a combined area of almost 6,000 acres, and those numbers increase as the city grows. The stewardship of these areas rests not just with the employees of the Parks Department, but with citizens and visitors as well.
Support the work of the Parks Department. Get excited about the future of healthy woodlands and prairies that help sequester carbon, provide quality pollinator habitat and offer respite in a busy world.
Volunteer to help Warner Park in particular (check the Wild Warner Facebook page for volunteer opportunities) or city parks in general (call 608-261-9179). Read about the city’s land management plans at cityofmadison.com/parks/about/landmanagement.cfm.
