After a busy spring and summer focusing on the woods, the Blackstone Parks Conservancy is pivoting back to the Boulevard in anticipation of the snow and ice that bedevil the center path much loved by runners and walkers. In August and September especially, the gardens needed tending; the South garden required removing weeds and bedraggled plants and installing new ones, a project made possible by a $1,500 grant from RI Senator Donna Nesselbush.
Fortunately for both parks, several volunteers, some new, stepped forward just when they were most needed. A call for help for the crabgrass-beset Trolley Shelter garden drew three experienced gardeners: Pam Lietar, Cynthia Bertozzi, and Peg McGowan.
Seasoned volunteers who have served the parks for many years, Don Cordner and Margaret Brookner, came to the rescue both in the Blackstone Park Conservation District and on the Boulevard at a time when several other volunteers of long standing were sidelined by illness. Don and Margaret were crucial to the successful completion of the spring section of the Trails Project sponsored by Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management and Coastal Resources Management Council. They are also overseeing the fall planting begun in September.
Nancy Nowak, Anna Browder, and Mary Dennis, continued to look after the Forest Health Works Project on Angell Street. In this small planting, as in the larger conservation district, the emphasis is on native plants, which, in contrast to invasive species, are an asset to the environment.
Invasive plant species continue to be a major target of Conservancy activities, and for this we also depend on volunteers. Carrie Drake and Elena Riverstone collaborated in organizing and leading volunteers from the following groups this summer: EastSide Marketplace; Moses Brown high school students; and UNIFI – a natural foods….;
Immanuel United Church of Christ; Johnson & Wales Residence Advisors. A recent individual volunteer, Sam Bell, has begun helping out as well.
If your name belongs on this list and has been overlooked, please let us know. Also, if you have a little time to help in the planning and management side of running the Conservancy, please get in touch with us at the website above. There is always room on the Boulevard, Park, and Education committees. One or two new board members willing to attend eleven brief monthly meetings would also be welcome.
Jane Peterson
