Union Congregational Church UCC in Green Bay set out to do a restoration of bird habitat in an oak/hickory forest edge with the help of Wisconsin Conference UCC Grants. Here is their story along with the budget.
November 2024 Report
Project story. This project got off to a slow start. Although we had cleared the 59 autumn olive shrubs before beginning work, the site analysis was not thorough enough. River rock buffers exist in other places on church property but none were as deep or wide as what we discovered when we began removal. In the end on the west side, we took out eight cubic yards of river rock (dump truck’s worth) along with a ground layer of 360 square feet of landscape cloth. Doing this work by hand, it was easy to see the effects of the landscape cloth plus the six per cent slope on drainage and rock migration. Frankly, it took all summer to move it to congregation members, church neighbors, a business site, other places on the church property and several cubic feet to Heritage Hill State Park, with the last load finding a home the first week of November. We were determined not to make our problem someone else’s but to find uses for this unwanted resource and keep as much as we could onsite.
Because development of the west bed was going to be delayed, we combined the Wild Ones and Wisconsin Conference grants into one bed on the east side. The purpose of both was the same: restoration of bird habitat in an oak/hickory forest edge. After checking with Digger’s Hotline, the bed was stump ground using funds from the Conference grant and planted with shrubs we had purchased from the Wild Ones Fox Valley sale in May. By the end of June, twelve shrubs were in the ground and showing water stress. We watered deeply every week but did not continue to plant until mid-October when an additional nine understory shrubs were installed. About half of the forest floor plants survived the summer including Pennsylvania sedge, Solomon’s plume, and golden alexanders. Though the look is spindly now, we expect to have a varied and useful border next year.
At the end of June, jumping worms were discovered on the church property. Much of July was spent uncovering their hideouts and preferences and removing them. We learned more about how other places were studying and managing them. By the end of the summer based on the advice of Green Bay Botanical Garden’s horticulturalist Mark Konlock and A Four Season Tree Care arborist Mike Maederer, we understood we had to live with them.
Our practices did change in the interim because of the jumping worms’ interest in fence posts, turf roots and wood chips. We had planned to suppress grass using wood chip mulch but discovered this was creating very pleasant living conditions so only used mulch in limited areas around the shrubs. We will have to factor the worms’ preference for turf grass next spring when we plant the oak trees.
The pause in work was helpful in gathering information about tree planting. Mike’s rule of thumb: if you want two trees, plant three. Asked about adding seedlings, he said white oak seedlings like to be planted after leafing out, not while dormant. He also urged caution in planting a shagbark too close to parked cars, given the size and messiness of hickory nuts. So we have hedged our bets and consolidated the plan for spring – three white oaks and a variety of white, swamp white or bur oak seedlings, whatever is available. There is enough sunny space to accommodate this number.
Per John Curtis’s Vegetation in Wisconsin for the oak/hickory forest, common forest floor plants we intend to add are wild geranium (rabbits willing), woodland sunflower, jack in the pulpit, lady fern, baneberry and merrybells. We will seed or transplant some enchanter’s nightshade and tick trefoils, since they are not available in the trade. Some of the forest floor plants require double dormancy so for these we will buy plants. For others and for the periphery of the forest edge garden we use the winter sowing in containers method. I anticipate a winter sowing day/workshop for the congregation in January 2025. Plants that are winter sown are often repotted and held until midsummer or later before planting out. We have a plant corral for that.
Volunteers and congregation interest. In addition to the four people who removed autumn olive in the spring, twelve volunteers helped with the project this summer, mostly in the areas of rock removal and soil restoration. We used soil that had been excavated for two concrete projects to fill in the void left by the rocks. We have also benefited from the enthusiastic support of the church sexton, Brad Dorin.
In May several members of the congregation visited the site as part of a look at the native plantings that had been growing since 2021. We shared native plants with some over the summer. We continue to put notices in the church bulletin about early pollinators, butterfly visitors to the garden, the value of leaves, and the importance of not cutting the fall garden to the ground, extending the mission of both Wild Ones and Wisconsin Conference Creation Care.
Fall 2023 shows part of the 75 by 25 foot area that Union will turn in to a forest edge bird habitat. The invasive autumn olive hedge was hand cut in fall, then stump ground in the spring.
Stone Removal. Union members (l to r) Jeff Carels, Deb Rose and Larry Rose were part of a six person team removing river rock to prepare a sunny 50 by 9 foot bed for planting.
One of the requirements of a natural garden in Green Bay is a buffer zone along the outside of the property. Some of the rock was installed in a sidewalk adjacent trench. The location was chosen because it was not a slope and the shade would inhibit weed growth without landscape cloth.
Budget
| Wild Ones and Wisconsin Conference budget for Union Church Creation Care application | |||||||
| 2024 | 2024 | 2025 | 2025 | ||||
| Item | Each | Cost | Wild Ones | WI Conf | Wild Ones | WI Conf | |
| 1 | Soil test and postage | 70 | 35 | 35 | |||
| 1 | Stump grinding autumn olive east side | 225 | 225 | ||||
| 10 | native shrubs: corylus, viburnum, hamamelis, amelanchier | 302 | 302 | ||||
| 9 | native shrubs: rhus, aronia, amelanchier, diervilla | 185 | 185 | ||||
| 1 | native shrub elderberry | 10 | 10 | ||||
| 1 | hypericum kalmianum | 30 | |||||
| 3 | 1 inch diameter oaks | 330 | 330 | ||||
| 3 | tree protection, wrap and cages | 50 | 50 | ||||
| 5 | carex pensylvanica | 5 | 25 | 25 | |||
| 4 | forest floor plants | 4 | 20 | 20 | |||
| 20 | forest floor herbaceous plants | 5 | 100 | 100 | |||
| 5 | forest floor herbaceous plants | 12 | 60 | 60 | |||
| 4 | cu ft Pro Mix potting soil, winter sowing, 40 containers | 43 | 43 | ||||
| 7 | varieties of native plant seeds | 26 | 26 | ||||
| stump grinding west side | 200 | ||||||
| fence support | 50 | ||||||
| Total | 1696 | 357 | 470 | 140 | 509 | ||