August 2008

Looking for the 1000th Member

Thank you to all our wonderful members for being Park Nuts! You have helped us get closer to our goal of 1000 members this year. Right now we are just over 800 and we need 200 more members to reach our goal. Be a Park Nut too!

Free Hat!
If you're not a member yet, sign up before September 1 and receive a free Olmsted Parks Conservancy hat along with your regular membership benefits.

1000th Member!
Be our 1000th member and we'll plant a tree in your name.

The membership program helps support our operations so we can do projects like the play-all playground in Iroquois Park, pavilion restoration in Shawnee Park, tree planting on the Parkways, trail building in Cherokee Park.

Sign-up today.

Poetry on the Parkways

"I think I shall never see, A poem as lovely as...an Olmsted Parkway lined with complete rows of trees!"

This is what Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned when he planned Louisville's park system over a century ago: parkways graced with double (sometimes triple) rows of lovely shade trees on both sides of the road. In some areas, the vision is reality. In many others, there are "vacancies" -- areas where trees have died or have been removed for one reason or another.

Metro Parks and the Olmsted Parks Conservancy have begun collaborating on a stepped-up schedule to fill all the vacancies within the next several years. Just recently, the Metro Parks Forestry team planted almost 200 new trees along Southern Parkway and 150 along Eastern Parkway. Most frequently planted are pin oak, sycamore and catalpa, plus 24 other native species. A variety of species reduces the chances of a major kill-off in the event of a disease or infestation. Many of the species we've selected are ones Frederick Law Olmsted utilized. And of course all are native to Kentucky, to ensure their survival in our specific environment.

To further ensure viability of the young saplings, we use "gator bags" - the green vinyl water-filled bags which drip onto the roots at an appropriate rate. This practice minimizes tree loss during times of little precipitation, and reduces the costs associated with traditional labor-intensive watering.

Metro Parks Forestry crew will again be busy during the next planting seasons, until all 1,400 vacancies along the Olmsted Parkways are filled.

FREE Park Explorations Start Soon

Olmsted Parks Conservancy invites you to come to the park and enjoy a beautiful and educational FREE walk in one of our historic parks. Crawl around a creek, explore the Iroquois prairie and venture through the woods with a knowledgeable guide, learn more about our historic and unique urban natural areas. See the full schedule of Walks.