Join us in Restoring Natural Plants in Quiet Waters Park!
The Friends are working with Park Staff, particularly Matt Pruett, the Horticulturist, to support more invasive removal projects and native habitat restoration. The magnitude of the problem and the tenacity of invasives often requires large-scale, machine removal techniques, as well as smaller-scale removal and planting activities. But it can be done and the work is engaging and fun when we all work together.
Targeted invasive removal events happen every month, and we will continue to provide more information about how volunteers can help with this essential work. The benefits of volunteering are enormous – for example, through all-volunteer efforts led by Ranger Liz Schilder over the past 3 years, and in collaboration with “Save our Trees,” a local non-profit, almost all of the English Ivy on trees has been removed! That’s not to say that there is no English Ivy remaining in the Park, there is, but the trees are mostly free of it!
This is a challenge worth taking and we welcome your participation… there is a lot to be gained!!
Meet Matt!
Tending the flora in Quiet Waters Park has been the mission of Matt Pruett, the staff Horticulturist, for the past 5 years. Matt grew up in a Navy family, living in many different places; he was in Northern Virginia when it came time to go to College. He attended the University of Tennessee to study biology and realized that he was meant to work with plants. He’s been in Quiet Waters Park for the past 5 years, developing one project after another that has multiple benefits in terms of renewing the natural ecosystem.
One example is replanting the Flag Circle with native plants to demonstrate how beautiful they can be. “Before it was simply a useless piece of turf grass that needed to be mowed every week and had 2 shrub hedges, installed years ago, that added nothing to the environment,” says Matt. Now he can encourage kids to walk through the area and see the bees on the plants that are too busy collecting pollen to even bother them!
Matt will be the Friends’ guide as we embark upon the “Native Roots Restoration” campaign. He is encouraging us not to “reinvent the wheel” and get in touch with other local organizations with publications and programs we can share with our volunteers. In addition, QWP might consider collecting some of the more costly tools that make invasive removal easier and create a loan program with other organizations throughout the county. Along with actual on-the-ground activities, Matt sees many opportunities within the other county parks, the county and state to spread the word about using native plants in home gardens and other public spaces – such as highway medians! There is a lot of work to be done! The beauty is that this work leaves behind a lasting legacy (although it needs constant monitoring!) and brings people together in an inspiring setting!
Make it a point to introduce yourself to Matt when you catch sight of him in the Park!