Hundreds of Volunteers Lined Up for Cleanup, Weeding and Planting in Hart Park

This year’s Annual River Cleanup at Hart Park will take on a new dimension.

In fact, it should be something of an extravaganza.

A host of volunteers, including 200 employees from Kohl’s Corp. and more from Marquette University, will descend on the park on April 21 not only to pick up trash in and along the river but also to pull weeds, cut brush – and plant 320 new trees and shrubs in “Wauwatosa’s front yard.”

Annual cleanup and weed-out efforts in Tosa’s only city-owned park have been co-sponsored for years by the Friends of Hart Park Foundation (FOHP) and Milwaukee Riverkeeper.

But this year, more are getting into the act with the backing of a $4,000 grant to the park friends group from the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, also known as the “Sweet Water Trust.”

The grant will pay for $3,000 worth of trees and shrubs to be planted at this spring’s event and another $1,000 worth of native grasses and flowering perennial plants this fall.

These awards for local grassroots efforts are available through the support of the Fund for Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, Wisconsin Energy Foundation and CH2M HILL.

Wauwatosa Patch is also pleased to be a partner in the project.

Weeding out, planting in

Rosemary Wehnes, president of FOHP, wrote the grant proposal with the advice of Riverkeeper Cheryl Nenn.

“You know the old saying,” Wehnes said, “’Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers is?’

“Along the Menomonee River in Wauwatosa, one does wonder where our native flowers, shrubs and trees ‘is.’

“Well, they have been crowded out along the river banks by invasive species, particularly buckthorn.”

Buckthorn is a Eurasian species imported to America as a prime candidate for hedge plantings: It is dense, thorny and admits of no competitors.

Unfortunately, it has escaped from cultivation and, thanks to those same characteristics, it has overwhelmed native woodlands throughout eastern North America.

The FOHP has been cutting buckthorn and other invasive shrubs, especially foreign honeysuckle, for five years, and has beaten them back. But, Wehnes said, they just keep returning to the areas bared by clearing.

The idea this year is to remove the invasives and immediately replace them with native plantings, in the hope that more diversity will help combat the interlopers.

Native species will include varieties of oak, birch, dogwood, serviceberry and buttonbush.

“We’ll be out there whatever weather we’re having – unless there’s lightning,” Wehnes said. “So dress accordingly.”

Planting Patches of native history

The work will focus mainly on planting native tree and shrub varieties along the immediate north bank of the Menomonee from North 70th Street to near the Muellner Building.

But at Wehnes request, Wauwatosa Patch will be sponsoring, designing and supervising the installation of two new native groves in the wide-open, blank-slate area east of North 68th Street.

One of these groves will be a Bur Oak Savanna Patch about 100 yards east of the “Council Circle” of benches south of Hart Park Square.

Such savannas ­– prairie dotted with fire-proof bur oaks – were once the dominant plant community of south Wisconsin, covering 5.5 million acres. Now, the remaining oak savannas can be measured in mere dozens of fragmented acres.

“It will be nice to have a spot to have some more bur oaks,” said Parks and Forestry Superintendent Ken Walbrant. “There aren’t a lot of places along the streets to put them.

“It’s a neat tree, and it’s a pretty tough tree.”

The other standalone grove will be a Kentucky Coffee Tree Patch, another 100 yards east, featuring the rare native species valued and cultivated by Native Americans for its rock-hard seeds, which women used as counters in their favorite games of chance.

Patch will also be donating native perennials to plantings in both groves.

Let’s go!

Annual River Cleanup, Weed-Out and Plant-in at Hart Park

When: 9 a.m. to noon April 21

Where: Meet at the Muellner Building, Hart Park, 7300 Chestnut St.

Provided: Tools, gloves, free T-shirts, coffee and snacks

Bring: Your own favorite tools including shovels, saws, loppers, shears and rakes

Wear:  Boots, pants, long sleeves, safety glasses or sunglasses

Contact: ihartpark@gmail.com or 414-828-1357. Skilled volunteers to lead planting teams are needed. If you have experience with invasive plants or in horticulture, please contact us.

To come: In the fall, FOHP will again be recruiting volunteers to plant native grasses and forbs in the area.

More you can do: If you enjoy walks in Hart Park, consider bringing a bag to pick up any litter you see on your hikes.