Wednesday (and Winter) Warriors
Calling all Wednesday Warriors, Privateers, and Pluggers/Seed Collectors!
The Wednesday Warriors are a friendly group of volunteers who have met on a near-weekly basis since 2003 to lop and chop their way through veritable jungles of invasive vegetation. They have also sown native seeds, blazed new trails, posted boundaries, tucked in tender baby plants, created mountains of pulled garlic mustard, built boardwalks and bridges . . . and done it all with grins and grit.
Want to join in? We would love to have you!
Stewardship volunteering is a wonderful way to experience the preserves with the folks who know them best, plus get acquainted with other active people who share the conservation spirit. There are no long-term commitments, fees, strengths, or special skills required — just a willing attitude and a pair of work gloves (and we might even be able to scrounge up a pair of those for you if you don’t have them!).
Please feel free to “just show up” at the next workday – or you can email ahead to let us know you’re thinking about coming.
COVID-19 Reminder
(May 25, 2023)
Although the Public Health Emergency Order on COVID-19 has been lifted, we continue to ask volunteers to not attend workdays if you have any symptoms or known exposures to anyone who has tested positive for COVID. Thank you!
Our weather policy is that you are always empowered to make your own decision about coming out in iffy weather. If there is a definite ‘no go’ we will do our best to notify in advance. Check this page on Tuesday evenings in case there is a last minute change.
CLEAN YOUR BOOTS!
Volunteers planning to participate in our field workdays are asked to please, in advance, fully clean the boots they will be wearing in the field to avoid spreading invasive species at our preserves. With our work, we spend most of our time off-trail in our Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy preserves, and do not want to be spreading the seeds of unwanted plant species in these areas with our footwear. We also recommend the use of nylon hiking-type pants, if you have them, to reduce the inadvertent and undesired collection of “stick-tight” weed seeds that can be time-consuming to remove from clothing.
Thank you!
Upcoming Wednesday Warrior Workdays
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
9 am – 12 pm
Myers Preserve
Comstock Twp., Kalamazoo Co.
Next week we will be back at it at Myers Nature Preserve. This time, be sure to bring real rubber boots. Since we plan to take on the “moat” between the savanna and the shrubs, it could get a bit wetter than it was last week.
PLEASE NOTE: Myers Nature Preserve is not normally open to the public so here is your chance to see this gem! The volunteer Weekly Warriors generously perform essential habitat restoration work for SWMLC and have permission to access Myers Preserve, even though it is considered a refuge preserve with sensitive habitats.
BRING
Please bring your own cutting tools, work gloves, drinking water, sunscreen, and insect repellent. Tall muck boots are highly suggested because we plan to take on the “moat” between the savanna and the shrubs and it will probably be pretty wet! We will have loppers if you need to borrow a pair.
Approximate street address
9000 block of East G Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI
GPS
42.33267, -85.45602
Driving directions
Myers is on East G Avenue, between 31st and 32nd Streets. There is no parking lot, so we will park along the south side of G avenue just after the end of the guardrail above the wetland. Coming from Gull Road from the west (which you should do, to park on the south side), after crossing 31st Street, you pass under a power line in a quarter mile. After the power line, a guardrail appears on the right (south) side. When the guardrail ends (42.33267, -85.45602), park well off the road. We will walk south into the preserve from the end of the guard rail and down to the wetland edge.
♦ Caution: G Avenue has many cars going far beyond the legal speed limit. There is plenty of room to park well off the pavement on the SOUTH side: use it. Please do not park on the North side. ♦
Last week’s wrap
Brought to you by David, Jeff, John, & Kristi – Wednesday Warrior volunteers
Photos by David
Last Wednesday, September 13 . . .
Six Warriors went into Myers South Fen this week, not to be deterred by last week’s cold shower. This time it was wonderfully cool and clear and we made excellent progress on the next phase of this project. Just looking out over what we have done here is inspiring enough: instead of a wall of invasives now there is a wild party of native wildflowers: all sorts of asters, goldenrods, Joe Pye, boneset, lobelia, who knows what else. And even in the middle of the thicket of buckthorn and MF rose we are attacking now, there are still pockets of the same forbs, so it looks like this part of the fen also has an excellent seed bank.
It is slow going, but looking at the map shows how far we have come. Mitch first set us on this in 2020, and we cleared over 2 acres of a sea of buckthorn out in the flats next to the creek over the next two years. Then last winter we cleared an acre of various woody invasives between the upland and the cleared area. We have less than half an acre to go to make the final join between the upland savanna and the restored fen!
Ahoy there! Join the “Privateers” for Monday or Friday workdays!
The Privateers are doing the same work as the Wednesday Warriors, (and in many cases, are the very same people), but they meet on Monday (or sometimes Friday), and are organized a bit differently.
They mainly disseminate their workday notices on their own online forum, but SWMLC will share information about Privateer workdays whenever info is available.
Please visit the forum to read their general guidelines and see where they plan to meet next. Things can develop on short notice due to weather forecasts and conditions, so the forum is the best place to go for up-to-date information!
Please be sure to send a message to “Admin” on the forum if you would like to receive direct email notices about upcoming workdays.
Next Privateers Workday
Monday, September 18 • 9 am – 12 pm
Portman Nature Preserve
Almena & Antwerp Townships, Van Buren Co.
We are going to take yet another run at the Portman bed of roses, and David has guaranteed (or double your money back) that we will get to the good part this time.
Monday, September 18
9 am – 12 pm
Portman Nature Preserve
Almena & Antwerp Townships, Van Buren Co.
We are going to take yet another run at the Portman bed of roses, and David has guaranteed (or double your money back) that we will get to the good part this time.
Sailin’ with the Privateers ( or what happened last week?)
Text and photos by David
Monday, September 11
Portman Nature Preserve
Four optimistic Privateers stood around in the rain this week until it became clear it wasn’t going to stop. And then, not wanting to waste a trip, they drove over to the Michigan Audubon’s nearby Martha Mott Bird Sanctuary, and stood around in the rain some more, making plans to come back on Tuesday to do some restoration work there. Which they did! Can’t let a little weather get in the way of doing some good work.
Plugging in baby plants, rescuing plants in peril, harvesting seed and later sowing it . . . learn from the best about native plants while helping to boost diversity in our preserves by volunteering with the Pluggers/Seed Collectors!
Pluggers/Seed Collectors Workdays
No seed collecting workdays are scheduled at this time –
please check back!
Thank you, Wednesday Warriors, Winter Warriors, Privateers, Pluggers/Seed Collectors!
We can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate your loyalty, energy, enthusiasm, expertise, sweat, grit, and good cheer! Thank you for all the hard work you’ve put into restoring and conserving habitat on our preserves.
We could not do it without you!
I used to pull garlic mustard on my own, and it was a terrible chore I did because it was the right thing to do. But now I actually look forward to it as a time to enjoy friends and see beautiful places. Working as a group means we actually see meaningful results. And it doesn’t hurt that we get to enjoy some of the best ice cream around.
Thank you, Wednesday Warriors!
Mitch Lettow
Carnage!
In 2003 the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) was a fledgling organization, just barely 10 years old, with only about 20 nature preserves and 20 easements. But one thing that has always set our now-25-year-old organization apart from other conservancies is our commitment to stewardship – taking care of the land that we protect, and the habitats, flora, and wildlife that first inspired our founding members to action.
Repairing the boardwalk at Jeptha Lake Fen.
In this spirit of stewardship, SWMLC held Saturday volunteer workdays on the preserves. Slaying invasive buckthorn and garlic mustard in favor of native orchids and trilliums, volunteers found satisfaction and joy in bringing these unique Southwest Michigan landscapes back to their native glory. Then-SWMLC Director Renee Kivikko made stewardship a priority for the organization. At Renee’s encouragement, Stan Rajnak, became an active volunteer and an incidental “stewardship guy,” coming to every workday he could. Early on, Stan remarked that Saturday workdays weren’t enough to finish all the work there was to do, and suggested that a group meet more often, maybe on Wednesdays? – which happened to work for this group that included retired mathematics and biology professors, a woodworker, engineers, a dentist, and retired Upjohn employees among others. And so the Wednesday Warriors were born.
Planting seedlings at Pilgrim Haven Natural Area
The very first workday entailed assembling and organizing the assortment of weapons the Warriors would use in battle – gas cans, water backpacks, shovels, and loppers – collected from garage sales and donations over the years. Once this unlikely armory had some rhyme and reason, the real work began.
The Warriors’ second workday was POSSIBLY over-ambitious, with a plan to build a 200-foot floating boardwalk at Jeptha Lake Fen to share the spectacular views of the prairie fen, the lake, and the wildflowers! With the woodworking savvy of Ralph Babcock, the youthful spirit of SWMLC staffer Nate Fuller and his father-in-law’s trailer (thanks Bill Jones!), and the handiness and can-do-attitude of the rest of the Warriors, the boardwalk was constructed in sections in the SWMLC office parking lot, transported to the preserve, and assembled over 3 different workdays. It still stands today, sturdy and meticulously straight, as a testament to the Warriors and their passion to share nature with everyone.
Sorting seeds prior to dispersal.
Most other workdays were more ecologically-focused. Warriors learned to identify and control invasive plants through chopping, spraying or pulling; and learned which plants were native and how to encourage their spread through seed collecting, planting, and reducing competition. For 2 years, Stan organized and led the workday at a different preserve each week, with a concise mission to help resuscitate a patch of habitat in need.
Careful, she’s got an axe!
Eventually Stan realized he preferred diving into the bushes and chopping down honeysuckle to workday logistics. Dr. Paul Olexia, a former SWMLC board member and retired Kalamazoo College biology professor, stepped in to lead workdays alongside then-newbie Kristi Chapman. Kristi had just retired and stumbled upon an advertisement for a workday in the Kalamazoo Gazette, and seized the opportunity to spend more time in the outdoors while giving back to the community. Remembering her first workday, Kristi remarked, “It was just more fun than I could imagine, and you got to see a place you had never experienced before.” Hook, line, and sinker, Kristi was smitten, and quickly became the Warriors’ organizer, motivator, and master team-builder. Now, with Paul Olexia’s ecological know-how, botanical savvy, and infectious knowledge of natural history, combined with Kristi’s charisma, humor, energy, and coordination, the Warriors charged full steam ahead across SWWMLC preserves, leaving heaps of garlic mustard, dulled loppers, autumn olive stumps, sturdy boardwalks, spring beauties, and invaluable memories in their wake.
Today, hundreds of workdays and nearly 14 years later the Wednesday Warriors have transformed hundreds of acres of SWMLC preserves into resilient and diverse habitat for the enjoyment of wildlife and people alike. At the end of the day however, Stan and Kristi and the Warriors agree, there is no one project that stands out as the most important accomplishment. What stands out, they say, is the incremental, persistent, week-to-week, year-to-year changes on the preserves. “A lot of places are a lot better off because of our work,” remembers Stan. Looking over a patch of a SWMLC preserve after a 3-hour workday, and knowing that piece of the earth is better off – healthier – thanks to the work of a group of willing hands, is a tangible and satisfying feeling that has proven addicting for this intrepid group of volunteers.
Marching into an age of new and improved habitat restoration techniques, amazing and accessible technology, precise and breakneck communications, and a newfound appreciation for the natural world, the Warriors are looking toward the future. Building on years of accomplishments and memories, the Warriors are LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE – looking forward to new volunteers – not only to share the work, but to share in the stewardship experience and the knowledge this group of largely self-taught naturalists has collected over the years. For anyone with curiosity and a few hours, reflects Kristi, these workdays are a great opportunity to learn about botany, butterflies, geology, mechanics, and even one-liners! AND I can tell you personally that the Warriors are some of the most interesting and welcoming folks out there, and are a blast to work with!
So in tipping our hats to our Wednesday Warriors past and present, we invite new volunteers to come forward to get some fresh air and exercise, to learn, to give back, and most importantly, to make some new friends. Although we can’t thank the Warriors enough, Kristi doesn’t hesitate to correct us – “Don’t thank me, it’s my organization too! This is what we all like to do, and what we care about. It’s the volunteer-driven heart that makes the organization so strong.”
Well, we’re gonna do it anyway – “Thanks for everything. Wednesday Warriors! And we’re looking forward to the next 25 years!”
(A shorter version of this story first appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of Landscapes.)