Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: Residents seek to restore native plant garden at former lake in Ypsi's Prospect Park
Luna Lake Native Garden Restoration Event
Transcription:
Rylee Barnsdale: You're listening to 89 one WEMU. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. A lot of local residents might not realize that the overgrown shrubs, saplings and wildflowers over on the south side of Prospect Park in Ypsilanti were once home to a crescent-shaped pond called Luna Lake and later a native plant garden. Now, residents and neighborhood association leaders are hoping to restore and beautify this garden, starting with a workday planned for early this October. With me today is community resident Rachel Blistein, who is working with Ypsi's historic Eastside Neighborhood Association to bring the Luna Lake Native Garden back to life. Hi, Rachel! Thanks so much for being here!
Rachel Blistein: Hi, Rylee! It's a pleasure to be here!
Rylee Barnsdale: So, Prospect Park is one of the oldest parks here in Ypsi. Can you tell us a little bit more about the history of Luna Lake, specifically, what the importance of this kind of area is to the surrounding community?
Rachel Blistein: Yeah, absolutely! So, Prospect Park is a really interesting park. The history is pretty fascinating. It started out as the city's first cemetery. And I believe that was in the 1840s that that was created. And then, in 1893, when the cemetery was relocated to Highland. It was turned into a community park. But the interesting thing is that was undertaken by a group of local citizens, actually mostly women, who started the project and saw it through to completion. And then, Luna Lake is kind of continuing in that same tradition. It was initially a formal pond with formal gardens surrounding it. And I think people took out paddle boats, and there was a fountain. And that fell into disrepair sometime around, I believe, it was between the 1950s and 1980s. The pond and water pipes that service it fell into disrepair, and the money needed to fix that permanently would have been exorbitantly expensive for the city. So, it just sort of lay fallow and was empty. A whole bunch of weeds grew in there, and it just became sort of a trash can, unfortunately. So, there is a lot of litter. And the local neighborhood association--Historic Eastside Neighborhood Association--undertook this project to rehabilitate it and turn it into a native plants garden, so that it could be more independently maintained and wouldn't require so much money. And that was in the early 2000s. They raised, I think, around $2,500.
Rylee Barnsdale: Oh, wow!
Rachel Blistein: So, again, it was a community effort to restore it. And then, I came along in around 2007, joined the neighborhood association and got involved because I was working as a landscape architect at the time and helped to refine the plan that they had as a native plants garden that had initially been created by Greg Bocklabeck, the owner of Native Plants Nursery. And we also got a grant--an additional $500 from the Michigan Wildflower Association. And then finally, in 2008, we were able to purchase the plants and get all the mulch and do all the things needed to establish the garden.
Rylee Barnsdale: So, it's really been kind of a roller coaster over at Luna Lake and Prospect Park. So, Rachel, you are working with the Friends of Prospect Park on this project. How did the group come to the decision to restore the park this go-around? What was the community conversation like?
Rachel Blistein: Well, to be totally honest, it was just me finally having enough time to get the community conversation started again. I think there's a lot of goodwill and intention behind it, and you really just need to have the time to organize and get all the players together and get everyone's schedules lined up. So, I finally had enough time to do that. I've been looking at every time I walked by Luna Lake and through the park. It was kind of just weighing on my mind. So it was really just a longtime goal that I finally had enough space to get the ball rolling. And thankfully, a lot of the people who are originally involved with the project also have time. So, all the stars just aligned and hopefully are going to give us a really great turnout for the event.
Rylee Barnsdale: Building up some excitement for the event, too. It sounds like there are folks that are really into bringing this resource back to life in a way and preserving the memory of what the park is as a historical site for the area.
Rachel Blistein: Absolutely, yeah! There was so much work that went into creating it back in the early 2000s. And we really just want to maintain that investment for the community.
Rylee Barnsdale: And I assume a project of this nature is one that takes a lot of time and a lot of resources. We're breaking ground, so to speak, on October 6th. Correct?
Rachel Blistein: That's right. Sunday, October 6th. Uh huh.
Rylee Barnsdale: What can folks expect if they drop by the event? What are the plans for this round of cleanup?
Rachel Blistein: Right. So, for this round of cleanup, thankfully, a lot of the native plants that we established are thriving. So, there is really just a need to weed out a lot of the invasives. Some of which are pretty established. So, there's going to be a lot of weeding, a lot of mulch spreading, which we hope to have some heavy equipment to help us out with. But I believe we're getting four dump trucks worth of mulch from the city for that. So, that's a lot of mulch. So, we'll be spreading mulch to sort of try and suppress weeds, clean up the edge, just make it look a little bit more cared for. And then, we're going to be removing a lot of invasive species. If people can bring their own tools, that's immensely helpful: things like shovels and especially wheelbarrows, we always need lots of wheelbarrows, gloves. So, we won't be providing any tools, but we will have a lot of direction and we will have a lot of the, like I said, people who've been with the garden since the beginning, helping to direct work and give people tasks.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, chatting with community resident Rachel Blistein about the restoration of Luna Lake in Prospect Park. So, Rachel, you mentioned you are a local business owner here in Ypsi. You have a background in landscape architecture. Is that correct?
Rachel Blistein: That's right, yeah. When I moved to Ypsi, I was working as a landscape architect, and now I own a hair care business.
Rylee Barnsdale: I mean, obviously, you have this immense care and passion for the natural space that isn't right in your backyard, too. But what drove you to want to do that on top of everything else you're doing?
Rachel Blistein: Right. Yeah, Well, it's an amazing park. I mean, the park is such a great resource for the community. We have Ypsilanti International Elementary School, which was Adam's at the time when we started the project way back when. At one end of the park, you've got the East Side neighborhood adjacent to it--the historic East Side on the other side of it. So, there's just a lot of people that use that park, and it seems like such a great community resource. And I'm naturally always looking for opportunities because I'm a big gardener and a big plant person to establish more native plants and get more wildlife and just kind of help the ecosystem wherever we can. So, that just seemed like an amazing opportunity. It's a very big space. It's 164 feet long. So, that is a huge area and can really make a big impact.
Rylee Barnsdale: And then, once the project is all complete and all of the new plants that have been planted are in the ground and things are ready for folks to walk through and enjoy again, what does Luna Lake look like at the end of all of this?
Rachel Blistein: Well, hopefully, if we are successful in accomplishing everything we want to do on this upcoming workday, we'll be able to establish some paths actually through the garden. Right now, it's pretty blocked by overgrown vegetation. So, the goal is really to allow people more access points into the garden where you can sit and actually observe nature up close. It'll also look a lot more cared for and planned. I think the problem right now is just that it looks relatively abandoned. And so, people don't realize that it's a resource for the community. My hope is to use this as a jumping-off point to try and get more community support and possibly some grants to try and restore other parts of the park. So, we're hoping that by having Luna Lake be fully established and restored, we can get some signage, we can really encourage more awareness of that as an asset and use that as a leverage to try and improve and enhance the rest of the park.
Rylee Barnsdale: And as far as keeping things tidy and well-maintained after the fact, what does that look like for you guys? Is that still going to be a relatively community-based effort of going in and making sure things are trimmed back and still looking beautiful? Is that something that you work with the township on? What does it look like after everything's said and done?
Rachel Blistein: Yeah. Hopefully, it will be able to sort of regain the momentum that we had before. Previously, we were doing a lot of the cleanups on what was Ypsi Pride, which is now not called Ypsi Pride anymore, but using those workdays worked really well because we could get a lot of people out. And the city has always been great at helping us get mulch and other supplies that we needed. So, we're hoping to continue in that tradition.
Rylee Barnsdale: Obviously, a project like this is very subject to weather. It's very subject to the amount of resources and having people to come out and work on things. Is there a timeline on when we're hoping to have things finished? Is this workday going to be the only workday? Are there more workdays planned or potentially planned? What does it look like as far as getting more folks involved?
Rachel Blistein: Hopefully, we will be able to get everything done, which is pretty ambitious, but we're hoping we can get everything done on this one workday, because, here in Michigan, we're running out of time. So usually, the middle of October is when things get sketchy. So, if more work is needed, it would probably be a spring cleanup.
Rylee Barnsdale: Thank you so much, Rachel, for being here to give us a good idea of what the future of Luna Lake and Prospect Park looks like. This seems like a really wonderful way to not only improve this wonderful community resource, but also educate folks on on the native plants that are growing right there in their backyard and then also just having this historic landmark really in the area for people to come out and enjoy. So, I commend you for the work that you and everyone else involved with the project is doing!
Rachel Blistein: Thank you! It's definitely very much a team effort!
Rylee Barnsdale: And the cleanup--that is October 6th. At what time?
Rachel Blistein: It's going to be running from 10 AM to 3 PM, and we have a Facebook page. If you search Luna Lake Native Garden Restoration, you'll be able to find it there. And, yeah, we'll be working from 10 to 3.
Rylee Barnsdale: And bring your own tools.
Rachel Blistein: Bring your own tools and some gloves.
Rylee Barnsdale: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at wemu.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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