Franklin Soil and Water property located on Hellbranch Run in Big Darby Creek watershed
November 4th, 2011
Hellbranch meadows with beans
Today,Bob Sherman, Water Quality Field Technician, and I took a trip to Hellbranch Meadows to see how harvesting was going. The beans were smaller than Bob’s own fields because this area tends to be wet and it was a very wet spring, delaying planting.
July 18th, 2011
Native perennials in bloom along Murnan Rd.
David supplies us with the latest update from Hellbranch Meadows:
The wildflower planting and windbreak that was planned and planted last year is making itself apparent. Black- eyed Susan, coneflower and swamp milkweed are blooming.
July 7th, 2011
Rows beans
Bob visited Hellbranch Meadows today and brought back photos of the field that is in soybeans now to prepare for the fall planting of native prairie species. Our farmer/ partner will probably have to spray once more because of hard-to-kill invasive weeds that will make prairie establishment difficult.
June 3rd, 2011
Dancing butterflies, possibly clouded sulphur butterflies
When I visited Hellbranch Meadows this afternoon, I thought I was going to look at things: birds, butterflies, the level of the ephemeral pools, and whether it had been planted yet with the beans that are preparing the way for the prairie seeds. What I ended up doing was listening – to the myriad clickings, buzzings, chirpings, and trillings that distinguish the seasons as surely as the solid or liquid state of precipitation. It was so loudly alive.
On the walk out, I did get to witness a dance between two butterflies as bright as daffodils. They, of course, were not very noisy.
April 29th, 2011
Hellbranch Meadow's field with foxtail
Driving by Hellbranch Meadows you would be excused for feeling confused. What are we doing with this conservation demonstration area – farming it? An innovative way to prepare land for prairie seeding is to first plant soy beans. We are following the example of Metro Parks who is in the forefront of native habitat restoration.
During the growing season, the farmer will apply herbicides to increase his yield and remove the many invasives that would make prairie establishment difficult. Among these is the infamous multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), whose red stems take root wherever they come in contact with the ground, making nearly impenetrable thickets.
