by Jan Axelson, president of the Friends board
Each fall, groups of volunteers fan out across Dane County to collect seeds from prairies and woodlands. The seeds are used to make new prairies and add native plantings to restored woods in locations around the county.
Yahara Heights, Lake View Hill, and Warner Park are Northside parks that have benefitted from these efforts. At Warner Park, school children helped scatter seed on the sledding hill and meadow.
No experience is needed to help with seed collecting. Dane County Parks staff show examples of the target seedheads and provide tips on how to identify them. Each volunteer receives a garden pruners and a seed-collecting bag, which is a repurposed chicken-feed bag with a volunteer-sewn shoulder strap. To gather seeds, you use the pruners to snip off the seedheads and place them in the bags.
When collecting is finished, volunteers pour the seeds into large sacks for hauling to the county’s seed-processing shed on Madison’s south side. Seed-collecting events are typically three hours and include a break with snacks.
In late fall, volunteers also help with cleaning, bagging, and weighing the seeds, with each location to be seeded receiving a custom seed mix.
This fall, Dane County Parks is hosting a seed-collecting event at Yahara Heights Park on the morning of October 16. Yahara Heights is located on the west side of Cherokee Marsh, off River Road at HWY 113. The restored 40-acre prairie at Yahara Heights was planted entirely by volunteers over multiple years and now serves as a seed source for new prairie plantings.
In addition, we are offering a Saturday seed collecting event co-sponsored with the Four Lakes chapter of the Sierra Club, Oct 19, 9:30 AM - 12:00 noon, also at Yahara Heights Park. Meet near 5133 Caton Ln, Waunakee, at the intersection of Caton Ln and Riverview Dr, just off River Rd.
This winter, the Friends of Cherokee Marsh will be seeding a recently cleared wooded area at Yahara Heights. To learn more about these and other volunteer events at Cherokee Marsh, check the home page regularly and/or sign up to receive event notices.
A version of this story appeared in the Northside News.