This new Leon County park is located in NW Tallahassee and opened 2 years ago. It’s on Fred George Rd and named after, you guessed it, Fred George (1890-1983).
Fred and his wife lived on the property all their lives. Their house was torn down about 30 years ago. The general area is noted for sinkholes, basins and wetlands. Lake Jackson, the disappearing lake, is not too far away.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge where we amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to share in the comments what you see in your own part of the world.
|
January 2018
The park is only a few miles down I-10 from me and the other day I decided I should stop and look it over after a bit of shopping in town. The high ground on the SW corner has ballfields, playground and picnic areas. Also a small museum with photos and artifacts from the Fred years. Naturalist that I am, I was there to explore the woods and see what is growing.
The first day I followed a wide trail up the east side past the polebarn and thru the former fields.
Disappointing as the fields are overgrown with invasive plants like Mimosa and Honeysuckle running rampant.
Sure there was lots of Goldenrod but when you see tons of Betony, a native but weedy plant, you know the land has been heavily altered and then not maintained.
Going downhill into the woods, the wetlands, I noticed a series of ditches. Since they were mostly straight, I assumed Fred put these in for drainage, to turn non-productive land into grazing for cattle. I don’t fault Fred for doing what so many did a 100 years ago, doing what he had to do to survive. There was lots of empty land everywhere — how could we ever use it all up?
Once Fred passed on and the cows were gone, trees moved in. This slight depression where one ditch started was taken over with Sweetgum. I doubt it ever goes back to its normal wetland status.
and the ditch kept getting bigger and wider. The Live Oaks do not live in wetlands — one more indication of how the land was changed.
bigger and deeper and you can see where dirt had been piled up. I was standing on a mound to take this photo. Without cows grazing, other trees like Water Oak and Laurelcherry are getting established.
I did find some good native plants - 1 Grape Fern where there are usually dozens like in my woods;
and 1 very small Parsley Hawthorn.
There were also these huge vines running up the trees near the eastside RR tracks; more Honeysuckle or maybe invasive Wisteria. The county’s solution was to cut the vines and the trees supporting them. I did not see any regrowth so I guess they used herbicide too.
If you look at the map, up on the northside near a subdivision, there’s a huge dropoff, maybe a 100’. At least it seemed like that with the big pine trees towering over. It’s called Fred George Sink on the map. A sink is a natural karst-related hole in the ground. This one is kinda odd - in addition to any run-off from up top, there’s a wide streambed behind me flowing towards the base. The bed was dry given the lack of recent rainfall but was full of tree limbs and trash falling down or washing in.
Given the nearby subdivision, there was a lot of invasive plants like some English Ivy hanging down. The other day I posted this photo of 100s of Coral Ardisia berries I picked while wandering.
Here’s what you get went you let them go - 100s of seedlings. Not all will survive but within a couple years the best will be a foot high and producing more berries.
OK, it’s past 9 already, time to publish this. Thanks for stopping by, hope to see ya in the comments.
* * * * * * * *
"Spotlight on Green News and Views" is posted every Saturday and Wednesday on the Daily Kos front page. It's a great way to catch up on diaries you might have missed.
|