Patrick Murphy  - Ann Armstrong Native Species Pocket Park

Ann Armstrong Native Species Pocket Park at North & Alpine
The Prairie Finds a Home in the Heart of the City of Boulder.
Pictures (4.6 M Adobe .pdf)

The park was officially named by Boulder Parks and Recreation  on November 24, 2008. Click here to find out more about Ann Armstrong.

The City of Boulder purchased and removed a house that was in the Goose Creek floodplain at the corner of North and Alpine. The plan was to create a pocket park but the 8,000+ sq.ft. site was idle for quite a while and it was becoming an eyesore with trash and tall weeds. I have been collecting native Liatris punctata seed from the hillside behind my house on North Street and planting it with some success around my house. The bulk of the seed was donated to Boulder Open Space. I thought the pocket park site would make a great prairie grassland demonstration plot so I decided to test the site with some of this seed.

In 1999 I planted some of the Liatris seed to see if it would survive at the site with no watering. A lot of the seed did survive, and to my amazement, one plant even flowered that same (see Pictures [4.6 M Adobe .pdf]) summer. Keep in mind that 1999 was a wet year (see the climate diagrams in the Download Center). I designed a park layout, distributed fliers to the neighborhood and made a presentation to the Old North Boulder Neighborhood Association. (Site Location & Layout) (Flier Text)

The Boulder Parks and Recreation Department approved the plan and paid for the initial work. The work included site grading, seeding with buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) (@ 90 Pure Live Seed PLS/sq.ft.) in the sunny areas, and creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra) (@ 90 PLS/sq.ft.) under the cottonwoods, and hydraulic mulching. NO topsoil and NO fertilizers were ever applied. The soil was fill material with about 15% stone that was about 5cm in diameter on average. The initial seeding was completed in early April, 2000. I think the total cost was about $4,700.00. Most of this cost was due to the site preparation and hydraulic mulching. The mobilization of the equipment (skid loader and hydraulic mulcher) has a high initial expense. The skid loader and handwork were used to scrape and remove or bury the old vegetation. The hydraulic mulcher was used to apply wood fiber mulch @ 2,000 lbs./acre with tackifier @ of 200 lbs./acre. Based on a very rough estimate from the Parks & Recreation Department, the design and installation of a typical park of this size with no amenities would cost $42,000 to $84,000 and the annual maintenance would be about $1,200. A similar 11,000 sq.ft. park with no amenities on a difficult site was recently installed at a cost of $150,000.

There should always be somebody on-site to check these installations, or things can go very wrong. For example, right before the buffalo grass seed was to be applied, the crew leader held out a 3-pound bag of the buffalo grass seed and asked if it was the right stuff. I looked at it and said "Yes, but where is the rest?". He said that 3 pounds was all that was called for. I was shocked since there were actually supposed to be about 33 pounds applied. Imagine how baffling the results would have been if only about 10% of the specified seed had been applied. Ultimately the right amount of seed was applied.

Boulder City Open Space donated 5 potted native hawthorns (Crataegus erythropoda), Dianne Andrews donated native tall grass seed that included big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and panic grass (Panicum virgatum), Mary Jane Howell and Richard Scully contributed native beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) seed, and Rick Brune contributed sporocarps for Water Clover (Marsilea vestitia). I contributed seed for Liatris punctata, and Gaillardia pulchella and I also salvaged some native sod from construction sites near Louisville. The sod contained big bluestem, western wheat (Pascopyrum smithii), blue grama (Chondrosum gracile), and unfortunately a little cheat grass (Anisantha tectorum). William VanVleit helped plant the Liatris and Gaillardia seed, and Steve Najarian helped plant the hawthorn. Lynn Riedle from Boulder City Open Space donated additional sod in the second growing season. This sod contained primarily side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula).

Summer 2000 was hot and dry, but we had irrigation all summer, so the site did well. The buffalo grass had low cover (about 25%) but was distributed everywhere. All of the hawthorns survived, and the Liatris and Gaillardia did extremely well. There are many weedy species, including a perennial grass species that was a contaminant in the seed mix. Another pest was the aggressive introduced annual bristle grass (Setaria glauca) but I figured out a great trick to help control it at this small park. I used a bagging lawnmower (now quite rare since everyone uses mulch mowers) and waited until the crop of bristle grass seed was just right then I sucked it all up with the mower and sent it to the mulch-bin-of-no-return. Presto – the big problem was now easy to manage with hand pulling. I just use a hoe to keep the clovers, dandelions, and black medic at bay. Sure wish I had a pet bison to do the work. The good news is that with just moderate maintenance (which I make sure happens), the natives will prosper. In support of another goal of mine, I eventually had the city supply 2 signs that indicate dogs have to be on leash and the poop needs to be scooped. Without the signs there was a growing problem of dog poop accumulation. Even with the signs there is still a small problem of irresponsible dog owners.  What to do...what to do?

One of the many surprises was the establishment of sedges (Carex spp.), rushes (Juncus spp.), bulrush (Schoenoplectus lacustris) and cattail (Typha latifolia) in a basin that apparently was on a clay lens and held water. None of these species were originally at the site and none were planted. They just showed up.

Spring/Summer 2001 precipitation was amazingly close to average. The buffalo grass cover is now about 70%, The Gaillardia did better than expected with some large clumps of flowers and the Liatris did well but did not flower in abundance. I anticipate a lot of flowers next year. I only watered the whole site about once every 2 weeks with a few extra fillings of the "wetland" basin. I do not plan to water at all next summer, with the exception of the mini-playa/wetland that I will water only if we get a long dry spell. I mow the site once in the spring (June) and once in the fall (October). I think a park bench as a memorial to Ann Armstrong should be installed once the buffalo grass achieves close to 100% cover.

I anticipate that the up-front costs will be paid back by the beauty and low maintenance costs of the future. Time will tell, and there is a lot of handwork still to be done. The continual surprise of finding new unexpected natives makes every trip to the park worthwhile. I am looking for help with the weeding now that the species are easier to distinguish. Contact me at 303-444-4358 if you would like to participate in caring for this experiment in urban restoration.

Special Thanks to the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department for supporting this project. My initial contacts there were Ken Ramsey (retired) and Russ Driskill.  Additional thanks to Mike Gurrola at Parks and Recreation for shepherding the naming of the Park in honor of Ann Armstrong.

 Definition of Ecotone - a transition zone between two ecological communities usually exhibiting competition between organisms common to both.  In terms of biological communities, these "in between" areas are typically the most productive and diverse zones on the landscape.