Fall Plantemonium Recap

This weekend the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation hosted our annual Fall Plantemonium on Saturday October 1st. On this crisp fall morning our staff members and just under 100 volunteers rolled up their sleeves to plant 800 native plants into the Rosewood Nature Study Area. This super fun event was the perfect way to kick off fall, and the perfect time to plant species that need time to establish a solid root foundation and properly adjust to their environment before springtime rolls around! These new plants will help our wetlands by attracting pollinators, providing a food source/habitat for local wildlife, and help to stabilize stream banks.

As families, friends, coworkers, and other individuals slowly began to roll into the parking lot, our staff met them at the check in table with a smile and a special group card that would tell them which group they would be planting with for the day. After checking in, volunteers gathered to enjoy the view of the beautiful morning fog lifting off of the Rosewood Pond as they fueled up with some delicious bagels provided by the local My Favorite Muffin. After enjoying a little breakfast, our Nature Study Area VP, Elena Larsen, gave our volunteers safety training on how to utilize all of the tools we would be using.

The volunteers were then divided into three separate groups, Leafcutter Bee, Sphinx Moth, and Praying Mantis, all named after different types of insects! Once divided up, the three groups were sent out into the wetlands with our Wetland Technicians to begin the Plantemonium! While out in the wetlands our volunteers saw demonstrations on how to plant each of the species provided, grabbed their shovels, and quickly jumped into action!

During the event volunteers planted red-twig dogwood, great basin wildrye, creeping wildrye, chokecherry, golden currant, wild rose, arroyo willow, yellow willow, buffaloberry, yarrow, indian ricegrass, douglas’ sagewort, and coyote willow. Wow!

After a couple hours of getting all the native plants into their new homes, we thanked our volunteers and bid them adieu! As people exited, we asked them to put their group cards into an either a “yes” or “no” box with the question “Do you feel you positively benefited your community today?”. And we were thrilled to see an unanimous response of “yes”!

The staff here at Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation is extremely grateful to everyone who took time to come out to this event and help us on our continuous mission to restore Rosewood Nature Study Area into a natural wetland.

Currently, the Nature Study Area also has a lot of invasive species present, such as whitetop, that overcrowds and stunts the growth of native plants, hosts agricultural pests and/or viruses, and reduces biodiversity in the area. However, with the help of our Wetland Technicians and our hard at work goats, the area is slowly clearing of these invasive species and making room for the hundreds of new native plants our volunteers helped us introduce into the wetlands. If you are interested in helping restore our native wetlands, keep an eye out for future volunteer opportunities or join our team!