By Rick Travis, 2018
Hurray!!! Blackland Prairie Texas Master Naturalist Chapter and the Frisco Parks and Recreation Department have reached an agreement that allows our chapter members to provide VH eligible restoration and maintenance efforts within the natural areas located in various Frisco parks, such as Frisco Commons, Cottonwood Creek, Northwest Community parks, and the Stewart Creek Wetlands Preserve.
The Stewart Creek Wetlands Preserve
Both weekend and weekday work sessions in the Frisco park natural areas will begin mid-March and can be found on the BPTMN calendar. Initial work will focus on the prairie restoration site at Frisco Commons Park. Periodic emails communicating updates to the schedules and other details will also be sent to members that live in the Frisco area, and/or are interested in earning VH hours working in these areas. If you wish to be added to the Frisco VH Opportunities email distribution list, please drop me an email at Travisfam2@yahoo.com.
Northwest Community Park and Nature Area
Here are examples of the kinds of work we’ll be doing in these Frisco parks natural areas:
- Assist with removal and management of unwanted and invasive tree species encroaching into prairie and meadow sites. We’ll remove smaller trees and gather into brush piles for city removal, and the Parks folks will bring the chainsaws and work on the larger trees.
- Remove and manage invasive herbaceous species, such as Bastard Cabbage, Nodding Thistle, etc.
- In the summer and fall, we’ll harvest native plant seeds at some of the larger areas, for re-distribution into other natural areas within Frisco.
- Members will also conduct trash/litter cleanup, as needed.
The Parks and Recreation Department will add signing at Frisco Commons stating the work being done is a “Joint project between Blackland Prairie Chapter / Texas Master Naturalists and the City of Frisco, Texas.”
In addition, Frisco will periodically conduct prescribed burns within these prairie restoration sites.
February 2020 Prescribed burn at “Freedom Meadow” in the Warren Sports Complex, Frisco
I anticipate our opportunities within Frisco will continue to expand in the coming years, as the city has hundreds of acres of undeveloped park land and are making plans to add a Nature Learning Center at one of the natural areas. There’s lots to be excited about!
Note: BPTMN members will need to complete the City Volunteer Waiver before beginning any maintenance activities. Contact Rick Travis at Travisfam2@yahoo.com for an electronic copy of the volunteer form. We’ll also bring some hard copies to our work sessions.
