NEED HELP: Point Creek Natural Area Management Team and Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership

                           Volunteers Needed to Plant 2,000 Trees

Point Creek Park  Planting a Forest   May 3, 4, 5  Fri. Sat. Sun.

Weather permitting:  Everyday until all are planted

Time:  8:00 – 5:00 pm   Indicate what day and time you can volunteer

Contact:  Ron Schaper  920 489 4330    email  [email protected]

Directions:   10565 Lakeshore Road, Newton,  4.2 miles north of Cleveland on Hwy LS

Please Bring:  work gloves,  (garden trowel / small shovel,  hammer, kneeling pad)

Instructions:  We will create teams of 2-3 individuals with buckets of tree saplings to:

                                         Place tree into pre-dug hole

                                         Cover roots with soil with trowel

                                         Drive a stake into ground with hammer

                                         Attach protective tube to stake   

Point Creek Natural Area Management Team and Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP) are sponsoring this significant tree planting. Funds used to purchase trees are from the proceeds of logging and a US Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program Grant provided by LNRP.

The goal is to convert the existing 39 acre pine plantation of Point Creek Park to a Mature Northern Hardwood Forest present on the south side of Point Creek on land owned by UWGB. Eventually it will become like the 25 acre Old Growth (virgin) Forest at Lakeshore Technical College, which represents 3% of Old Growth Forests remaining in Wisconsin. That underscores the importance of this project. Logging Point Creek Park this past summer thinned the pines and opened clear areas for planting.

We used Old Growth and Mature Northern Hardwood Forests in the area as a guide for our tree selection. All the different tree species at their relative ratios will be planted.  Composition of trees planted will mirror those of a mature forest. It is anticipated  this selection of trees will bypass several hundred years of succession and  speed the process of attaining  a climax forest. Some active forest management will also be necessary.

In 30 to 50 years a canopy  develops, and trees begin producing seeds. The canopy’s  shade controls All of what grows. It will shade out invasives, introduced forest flowers will spread, and a second generation of trees will  begin a self-sustaining Northern Hardwood Forest.

There Will Be No End to the Good You Have Done