Missouri Conservation Corps has recently published our spring volunteer events calendar, comprising dates and events stretching from April 15 to May 15. Our volunteer work events this spring will take place in Columbia’s Kiwanis Park and in Garth Nature Area, and Missouri Conservation Corps will also be hosting a booth at both Birds, Bees, and Blooms in Arrow Rock and at Columbia’s Earth Day Festival in downtown Columbia. As of the writing of this article, we have hosted two of our spring work events in Kiwanis Park, and we are getting ready for a weekend of environmentally focused festivals.
Because of the recent rains, and because honeysuckle is starting to send up new shoots in the spring, we have been using the removal methods of hand pulling and removal by work hoes…we call these our Hack and Pull Workdays. When we start to encounter large honeysuckle, or when the soil dries out and makes hand pulling difficult, we will transition to our cut and spray method of removal.
This is also a good time of year to find spring ephemerals and wildflowers in the spaces we work in, and 2025 seems to be bringing a bumper crop of these tiny jewels of the forest. In Kiwanis Park this year we have found toothwort, sweet William, trillium, purple and yellow violets, ferns, wild ginger, Dutchman’s breeches, and an incredible abundance of trout lily. Yes…we are using the colloquial terminologies because we are not quite proficient in the proper Latin names for all of these discoveries…maybe next year. We are attributing this resurgence in spring ephemerals to the positive impact that honeysuckle removal has made on the forest ecosystem in the park. As the honeysuckle is cut down and removed, the spring wildflowers no longer must compete for sunlight, moisture or nutrients. If you get a chance, stop by Kiwanis Park and take a long, leisurely hike through this central Columbia park while this beautiful display is at its peak!
Photographs documenting the resurgence of spring ephemerals in Columbia’s Kiwanis Park
