June 7, 2012 News
Trinity Eco Prayer Park
Trinity Eco Prayer Park Update
June 7, 2012
GARDEN CLUB PICKS TRINITY ECO PRAYER PARK
Rapid City Garden Club selected Trinity Eco Prayer Park as one of its 2012 projects. The club voted to award the park a $1,000 grant to be used for purchasing plant materials.
Beth Burkhart, botanist at Wind Cave National Park, and Tate Lantz, rangeland management specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Rapid City, each offered a list of native plant species to be planted in the park.
Their two lists were blended into a total of 105 species that will be placed in the park according to the biome that they naturally occur in. The park will be divided in to four zones: shortgrass prairie, midgrass prairie, Black Hills, and wetlands.
The goal is to include as many of the species as possible. But plantings will be determined by what is commercially available and what can be collected from the plants’ natural habitats. The NRCS regional plant materials center in Bismarck, N.D. has offered to provide 19 species for demonstration/education purposes.
If you would like to receive the species list, reply to this email and request a copy.
GARDENERS VOLUNTEER TO MULTIPLY SEEDS
Local gardeners offered to take seeds from eight species on the park plant list that have been gathered for use in the park. Since we won’t be planting them in the park this summer, we decided to apply a biblical principle and multiply what we already have. The gardeners will raise the wildflowers this summer and collect the seeds this fall or next spring. Some seeds are still available. Reply to this email if you would like to help increase our seed stock for the park.
CREW STARTS THE 2012 ECO-FRIENDLY WAR ON WEEDS
Since 2009 we have not used herbicides to control the unwanted plant growth (weeds) on the vacant lot at 4th and St. Joseph streets that will become Trinity Eco Prayer Park. The management program has been to apply selective weeding, which identifies undesirable species and removes them by pulling or digging on the half-acre lot. This approach has allowed some grasses to grow that normally would be killed by blanket application of herbicides.
In past years only two volunteers have handled the weeding, but as the soil recovers from the previous sterilization spraying more plants have begun to grow. This year eight volunteers have met on two separate occasions to remove unwanted species. We also use mowing to keep the weeds down when the ground gets too hard to pull weeds. But our primary goal is to pull up the roots to prevent the weeds from returning. Reply to this email if you would like to be a member of the war on weeds crew.
PARK DESIGN NEARS COMPLETION
The team at FourFront Design is working toward completing the park construction plans this month. Once drawings are complete we will be looking for contractors to do excavation and grading, concrete work, electrical, irrigation, landscaping and construction of a shelter. We also need dump trucks to haul dirt, rock, and compost. We are hoping to find companies and individuals who are willing to donate a portion or all of their services to begin building the park.
DESIGNER PLANS TO CREATE SOIL ONSITE
In keeping with sustainable landscaping guidelines, the designer plans to limit the amount of topsoil that will be imported to the park site. The amount of topsoil hauled in will be reduced by 60 percent. Contractors will amend the existing low-quality fill by blending it to create a planting medium made of two parts existing fill, two parts topsoil, and one part compost.
CONSTRUCTION COSTS UPDATED
As the design work nears completion a more accurate estimate of the cost of the project emerges. The new projected cost to build the park is just under $342,000, an increase of about $34,000 over the preliminary cost estimate.
An itemized cost estimate is available by requesting one from this email address. The estimate is helpful to see what specific items or services could be donated.
MORE INFO?
Thanks for your interest. Contact Ken Steinken with any questions or ideas you have about Trinity Eco Prayer Park or if you know a group that would like to hear a presentation about the park. You can also contact us by sending an email to trinityeco...@gmail.com or calling 605-342-9302.
HELP SPREAD THE NEWS
Please pass this update along to others who might be interested in Trinity Eco Prayer Park and encourage them to send an email to the address above to request they directly receive the updates.
READ BACK ISSUES
You can go to http://groups.google.com/group/trinityecoprayerpark-update if you want to read past updates that you may have missed before joining the group.