BUTTERFLY MEADOW TRAIL
by Karen Walton, Cultural Landscape Committee

One of the most interesting trails at Ruthven Park is the Butterfly Meadow Trail, where you will see many species of butterflies and interesting wild flowers. As you enjoy your walk, you will be following a direct route to the Thompson family cemetery where more history is waiting for you to discover.

At the spring cleanup, the trail was made wider for easier access and this concept has been maintained. Also, at this time, several volunteers conducted a controlled burn in the southwest quadrant of the trail. This burn was done to rid the area of grasses and to encourage new growth of existing “wild ”plants. It also gave us a chance to do a seed planting to produce meadowland, which would encourage more butterflies. In the northeast corner we planted a wild flower mixture of perennials and annuals consisting of African Daisy, Bachelor Buttons, Butterfly Weed Catchfly, Columbine, Socmos, Eoreopsis, Lipines and Prairie Emeflower. Sungold Sunflowers went in the north west corner and in the south east corner we planted Marguerite Shasta and Rudbeckia Hirta. In the middle of the north position, Gail Collins, one of our directors, planted a clump of Brown-eyed Susans, which originated from a plant out of her great grandfathers' farm in Burlington. We were also fortunate to have 300 plants donated by another Land Trust director, Mary Gartshore. These plants were native species, consisting of Wild Strawberry, Great Lobelia, Closed Genetian and Michigan Lily.

We are waiting to see the results of our efforts but realize that it will take a number of years to achieve the desired effect in the meadow. It is also keeping us busy cutting out the tree growth in the meadow, namely Black Walnut, Sumac and Maples. It is amazing how much area these small trees and branches cover, which in turn chokes off the growth of the wild flowers. As you can see, there is much work to be done in creating a butterfly meadow. The volunteers of the Cultural Landscape Committee, under the direction of Chairman Rick Ludkin, will continue this effort with more controlled burns and plantings.