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The trail at Shank Painter Pond Wildlife Sanctuary received a fresh green border of native plants on Friday, Arbor Day, with the help of a crew of Americorps volunteers.
Led by Conservation Commission co-chair Dennis Minsky and plant expert Irene Seipt, the crew toiled all morning and into the late afternoon, heaving shovelfuls of compost-enriched soil into wheelbarrows, trekking up and down the hillside to spread the dirt around and finally digging in to their pots of bearberry, bayberry, hairgrass, little bluestem grass and Pennsylvania sedge. About $5,000 worth of native shrubs and grasses were planted altogether, Minsky said.
The landscaping should help make the angular trail appear more undulating and natural, Minsky said. ConCom members had been concerned about the aesthetics of the walkway, which follows the general path that a bulldozer cleared in the hillside before the seven-and-a-half-acre parcel was rescued by the town with Land Bank funds back in 1999.
Minsky said he plans to do a complete inventory of the plants that are in the Shank Painter Pond sanctuary, as well as other conservation areas in town, Garden Landscaping so that the ConCom can keep track of both the native and exotic elements in its jurisdiction.
Tags: acre parcel, americorps volunteers, arbor day, bulldozer, co chair, compost, conservation areas, Garden Landscaping, grass, grasses, Landscaping, late afternoon, little bluestem grass, minsky, native plants, native shrubs, painter pond, pennsylvania sedge, plants, shrub, shrubs, soil, walkway, wildlife sanctuary0
