A group of Evansville’s North Woods Nature Trail supporters are taking a muggy, muddy hike on Saturday morning through the North Woods Nature Trail.
Steve Heeger with Friends of the North Woods is leading the hike, which was part of the “Happy Birthday North Woods'' celebration. It included members of the Igleheart family who donated the original 35 acres to the city of Evansville, to become a park.
The intimate gathering marked 20 years of trail development, and invasive species remediation.
While walking the trails, Heeger is talking about how his group fights invasive plant species, in this case privet, a flowering plant that can explode unchecked in wooded areas.
“We just came back a couple of months later and sprayed it, and it's eliminated,” he said, adding that it had taken over a large area inside the trail — “… like a jungle, it was on both sides of the trail.”
Now, native jewel weed has taken over, which Diane Mason of Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA) said is very important. “The reason our native plants are so important is because they support native insects and caterpillars, and things like that. And those insects and caterpillars are protein for fledgling birds.”
Invasive species include wintercreeper, honeysuckle and English ivy. CISMA is one group that is key to the ongoing maintenance of the trails today, but in 2003, other groups were just getting this system built.
Early supporters like the Evansville Parks Foundation, and Roterian Jeffrey Berger spoke about the need for a trail in this area of Evansville, and the trail’s early development.
While it’s been 20 years since the development of the North Woods Nature Trails, it’s been seven years of CISMA, which fights invasive plant species through events like Weed Wrangles.
Mason said eliminating invasive species from parks and even your yard is important.
The next Weed Wrangle event at this park is Saturday November 4th.
Of course prior to any trail plan, the land had to be donated to the city of Evansville. In this case it was Belle Smith Igleheart who donated the 35 acres that would become the trail system, in the 1950s.
Belle (Jingle) Igleheart-Hagey spoke about her family’s involvement, and her great-grandmother’s awareness of the importance of a trail system in this area of Evansville.
“I take my hat off to her for being that forward thinking, because I think most people weren't so aware, in the 50s, that it was an issue,” she said. “Our whole family is thrilled that the park has been used the way it is, and that this woodland park has been maintained.”
She said it’s especially important for inner-city children to experience such environments.
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