MLK Day at the OAC

The Outdoor Activity Center (OAC) has a long term vision of restoring their 26 acre forest and grounds to a healthy, native plant community.

Working together for the past eighteen months, the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), EcoAddendum, Park Pride, Trees Atlanta, West Atlanta Mountain Bike Association and many volunteers,  removed invasive species from the garden site and its immediate surroundings during regular and intensive volunteer workdays.  The Atlanta Botanical Garden donated twolarge truckload of organic compost to topdress this project.  EcoAddendum has developed a garden plan and native plant list for the butterfly garden site.  Although the entire OAC grounds comprise 26 acres, the first efforts are being concentrated on the eighteen by thirty five foot butterfly garden.

Planting species native to the Georgia piedmont region recreates the foundation of the local food web and ecosystem that has been lost over the past two hundred years ago due to poor land management practices.  Reintroducing these environmental building blocks creates a sustaining base that supports missing insects, butterflies, pollinators, birds and other animals.  This, in turn, creates an outdoor classroom for environmental journaling, science observation, and collaborative art projects.

These projects expose our local youth and community to native plants, the species they support, and the local ecotone and food web, things that they may not see otherwise in urban Atlanta.  Programming and related activities develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of Atlanta’s urban forest and meadow, and ultimately foster stewardship.

The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) and EcoAddendum have developed an environmental experiential after school program for the youth of Southwest Atlanta which is scheduled to debut March 2009.  The activities include orienteering, hiking, journaling and environmentally based art projects.  The native plant garden is an important element of this program and deepens the experiential aspect of all the planned activities.  Active documented use of the garden during the OAC’s Junior Naturalist program through journaling, drawing projects, and other related stewardship and gardening activities create a measurable outcome for this garden.

By Cecilia Marrero

What’s blooming at Hurt Park? These perennials are in the their second year  with a showcase of blooms  for all three seasons.   For this spring, the vibrant red explosions are the Scarlet Beebalm, Monarda didyma.   A pale purple bracketed spike, host to butterflies, is the Purple Giant-Hyssop, Agastache scrophulariifolia. Eastern Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, a host to pollinators, has drooping brilliant lavendar petals surrounding a spiny dark center.  Still on it’s way showing yellow bud heads is the Black Eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida.   Come take a look at this glorious scene in downtown Atlanta, across from the Georgia State University’s Florence Kopleff Recital Hall.  Too beautiful to miss!

By Pandra Williams and Steve Bowling

The diversity chronicled by naturalists wandering the North American continent in the 18th and 19th centuries no longer surrounds us in our daily lives. To buy a shrub or plant for our yard, most of us go to a “big box” chain or store, and select from row upon row of cloned plants that originated in Asia or South America, have been bred and engineered only to “stun” the human eye while offering little if any value to wildlife, and are frequently grown in and shipped from distant states. The amazing variety of plants and the diversity of natural environments as described by William Bartram have been degraded and reduced to shadows of what they formerly were.

Georgia’s native species are adapted to the soils, seasons, climate, and wildlife of our state. Even populations of the same species growing in different parts of the state have evolved over time to best “fit” right where they grow. Native plants grown from stock that originated in the state thrive in Georgia’s climate, require less maintenance and water, better support bird and wildlife populations, and heal the environment.

EcoAddendum is a non-profit organization whose mission is to put native plants back into Georgia’s landscape through the promotion of the use of local species in landscaping and the restoration of the state’s natural environments. Our goal is to propagate material that originated within the state and to maintain a large, diverse gene pool for each species rather than following the common practice of propagating numerous plants from a few select individuals.

EcoAddendum designs and installs public and private plantings that are both attractive for humans and beneficial to birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. As we are non-profit, these services are provided at near cost, any revenues going toward the perpetuation of our stated goals. We also give educational programs on how and why to plant native species and promote volunteer participation in their planting and maintenance. We are co-operating with Atlanta Audubon, the U.S. Forest Service, and other organizations in the National Wildlife Federation sponsored Flyway Cities Coalition, a nationwide effort to promote activities beneficial to migratory birds passing through urban areas.

The flora and fauna that are our natural history are just as much a part of Georgia’s legacy as the human history that was and still is shaped by it. We are all diminished by its loss.
If you would like any additional information about the Flyway Cities Coalition, please see  flywaycities.org.