Meadow

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To your right is a large open area with tall grasses and a few trees. The park maintains this open area by mowing it once or twice a year in order to create a meadow and prevent it from turning back into a forest (Don Allen, personal communication, March 16, 2018). This area has many native flowering plants that provide food and homes for birds and small mammals as well as pollen and nectar for pollinating bees and butterflies. According to Park Maintenance Supervisor, Don Allen (personal communication, April 17, 2018) one of the first wild flowers to bloom is called Skunk-cabbage. It’s habitat is wet soil of wooded wet lands. Other flowers include: May-apple which is common state-wide in wooded habitats; large flowered trillium, found mostly in rich soil woods and grows up to 20 inch tall and blooms through May, Jack in the pulpit an erect perennial herb that grows up to 30 inch tall and Blood Root which has a large showy flower with numerous white pedals (Don Allen, personal communication, April 17, 2018).