Green Spaces Action Team
The Green Spaces Action Team concentrates on:
• promoting protection and expansion of green areas
• decreasing mowing
• planting more trees to help pull carbon emissions out of the atmosphere
• educating homeowners and landowners about the benefits of using sustainable practices on their property
• supporting local farmers using sustainable techniques
Dispatches from
Green Spaces Action Team
Tree Life – March 4, 2023
Mark your calendar for 6 PM on March 30 for a free program on tree planting featuring arborist Alison Holets, of Canopy Climbers, LLC in Baraboo. Alison will discuss the steps of planting a tree to give it the best chance to thrive, including considerations such as the types of trees to plant, location, and soil type. Attendees can enter a drawing to win a tree seedling donated by the Chief River Nursery Company. Varieties of tree seedlings will be Shagbark Hickory and Allegheny Serviceberry.
As you think about tree planting, here are a few book titles that might provoke some thoughts about the role of trees in a healthy ecosystem. Doug Tallamy, is a professor in the department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He is the author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife With Native Plants (2009); Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard (2020); and The Nature of Oaks: The Rick Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees (2021).
Native Plants for All – March 1, 2023
At our meeting on February 28, we discussed plans for the Native Plant Fundraiser, scheduled for Saturday, May 20, starting at 9 AM at the Wise Pavilion in the Maxwell-Potter Conservancy, 700 Hill St. in Baraboo. We are set to put in our plant order with Taylor Creek Nursery. Thanks to Green Spaces Action Team member Marcy Huffaker, who is a Baraboo landscape designer and owner of Half-Aker Designs, for her expertise in choosing and obtaining these plants!
The purpose for this plant sale, besides raising some money to help Powered Up Baraboo continue with our work in the community, is to raise public awareness of the benefits of substituting lawn space with native plants. Rather than cover our yards with non-native vegetation that requires inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and regular mowing, we can create beds of native plants that have evolved in this region, along with native animal species, including pollinators. The plant varieties we plan to order include:
Wild Geranium
Rattlesnake Master
Golden Alexander
Purple Coneflower
New England Aster
Wild Blue Phlox
Routh Blazing Star
Purple Prairie Clover
Blue False Indigo
Butterly Weed
Plants will be $4 each, a bargain for these varieties. Read about each variety on this page of our website: https://www.poweredupbaraboo.org/items
