On Saturday, April 25th, Missouri Conservation Corps led a team of energetic and enthusiastic volunteers during the first official invasives removal event in Columbia’s Alspaugh Park. Our volunteers were participating in a multi-site event called For Columbia, and most of our volunteers were MU students and MU student leaders. After a brief introduction to the park and a discussion of the tools and methods of invasive removal, we divided our group of volunteers into four teams and set out to conquer the honeysuckle of Alspaugh Park.
Volunteers were given tools and gloves, and most of our work was done with loppers or hand saws. A few of our eager volunteers used work hoes and their hands to pull the honeysuckle out of the ground without making a single cut. Working along a creek next to a beautiful pecan grove, the volunteers cleared invasive honeysuckle, autumn olive, and burning bush from the landscape, revealing a healthy population of coralberry, wild sweet William, and other native shrubs and spring ephemerals. During a break in the work, some of the volunteers explored the creek, while a group of volunteers was enlightened by Missouri Conservation Corps Naturalist, Laura Semken.
Missouri Conservation Corps is excited to begin working in Alspaugh Park. One of Columbia’s newest parks, Alspaugh is heavily forested and contains the reminders of historic coal mining and brick making activity, as well as two historic cemeteries. Donated to the City of Columbia by the Alspaugh Family in 2023, the land is rugged and hilly, crisscrossed by several small tributaries and bound on the west by Hinkson Creek. Our goal in the park is to begin removing invasives with guidance and partnership from Columbia Parks and Recreation and from Missouri Department of Conservation. Our work will involve hand tools and volunteer effort, making little impact on the land, but making a large impact on the invasive species growing in the park. By removing the invasives now, we hope to restore the native habitat that once flourished on this land. We also hope to improve the ecological health of Alspaugh Park in order to ensure a natural and healthy experience for the park’s future walkers, hikers, birders, and visitors.
Our next work events in Alspaugh Park are scheduled for Fall 2026.
Photos by Stephen Bybee for Missouri Conservation Corps
