The Indigenous Landscape: Good for Business and the Environment

Keith P. Tomlinson

Parks and Recreation Business Magazine, Summer 2016

When patrons walk into our parks we want them to have a great experience. Keeping things neat, clean safe and accessible are fundamentals for any park manager.  As a result we’re rightly focused on our facilities; pools, pavilions, camp grounds, ball fields and interpretive centers. Yet it’s often our landscape and geographic setting that will lure the first time visitor. A tree lined drive, river frontage or an inviting trail head are subtle but effective marketing tools we rarely recognize. We can build on these assets by using more native plants in the landscape. Over the past twenty five years, resurgence in the use of native plants in park landscapes has provided real aesthetic, ecological and economic value. But there’s much work to be done as native plants are frequently still seen as a niche pursuit. In reality these plants are what connect our parks to the greater surrounding landscape. Whether you’re operating in sub-tropical Florida, the upper Mid-West, Coastal California or cool New England your native flora illustrates how unique your location is really is.

Trading the exotic for ecological integrity and regionalism

We’ve all seen it, a uniform row of colorful shrubs or tidy conifers lining a path or road into a park. This is the seventies landscape; neat, supposedly low maintenance, easy to grow and ecologically barren. A few years later these plants begin to volunteer in various locations around your park. Native plants decline, bird diversity dips and your maintenance crew is removing invasive species when you need them on other visitor focused projects. This is the result of using multiple

ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials that are often described as good “performers” but the reality is that many are tomorrow’s invasive weeds. Recent studies show these plants attract little wildlife when compared to native species.  As stewards of open space its incumbent upon us to strive for an improved standard and promote our own parks true ecological and aesthetic potential.

The sense of place is something most people find keenly appealing. It embodies where we live and recreate, how things smell, feel and look outside. When we consider the sense of place and the role of native plants in ours parks we’re promoting local ecology or ecoregions. Scientifically, ecoregions combine plants, topography and climate to define a distinctive place. Think the Adirondacks, Everglades, the Sonoran Desert, Ozark Mountains or Great Lakes forests. These are all ecoregions; every one of our parks is located in one.  Currently there are 115 major ecoregions described in North America. Every single one is unique and can be on display in your park by landscaping with native plants. Embracing your ecoregion is fostering a sense of place that makes your park truly unique to all visitors while increasing environmental and aesthetic quality.

Natives are beautiful, low maintenance and environmental friendly

Once you’re committed to using native plants in the landscape the relevance of your park increases aesthetically, ecologically and economically. A native plant landscape is beautiful and becomes ecologically balanced over time. This, in turn, leads to economic benefits. You’ll save on staff time controlling invasive plants. Transitioning to natives won’t eliminate weed control entirely, but it will

reduce it as you’re not planting weedy introduced species in the first place. Once established native plants require little irrigation or fertilizer. Your visitors are smart; they recognize good stewardship of the environment and are likely to invest more time and money in your site when it’s a beautiful and ecologically balanced place. Your local natural resource managers will take note as well. If your park is full of invasive landscape plants, natural resource managers will take due negative notice possibly complicating long-term property leases, steering funding sources to better managed sites and fomenting concerns with local politicians and stake holds. Alternatively, these resource manages will be the first people recognize and support your work toward responsible stewardship. When it comes time to expand or remodel facilities and schedule the requisite public hearings, your work with native plant landscapes will be recognized as a cogent approach to overall park operations. Today more park buildings strive to meet LEED certification standards; an environmentally thoughtful native focused landscape is an integral part of this process. Ideally sustainability starts in the landscape and informs the physical plant development accordingly.

Resources for making the native landscape transition

Promoting the ecoregion approach to your parks landscape has never been easier. Both new and older programs exist to support your efforts. The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center outside Austin, Texas has compiled key information about native plants across North America for decades. You can get a detailed list of suggested native species for your region on their website. A newer initiative supported in part by the LBJ Wildflower Center and others is the Sustainable Sites Initiative. The SSI brings together expertise from botanical gardens and landscape architects that provide many innovative ways to make any site better managed and more attractive. Your local chapter of the Nature Conservancy will also have valuable information on regional biodiversity and ecoregions. State agricultural extension agents offer knowledgeable support as well. Nearly all parts of the country have active native plant societies and nurseries. These growers will often “grow to order” if you’re in need of particular species. It’s important never to collect plants from the wild, always use propagated material. Finally, don’t forget your state universities and local public gardens both of which are tremendous potential resources. If funding is available, you may want to conduct a natural resource inventory of your park. This type of detailed information leads to well informed decision making. Combining any or all of these resources gives you complete access to detailed information about native plants specific to your parks ecoregion.

Setting the standard with authentic stewardship of your park

The pursuit of native plants in your park is a measurement of operational acuity in your management portfolio. Authentic leadership in today’s park agencies goes beyond staff management and revenue generation. Truly skilled managers will consider how the environmental quality of their park enhances revenue potential, donations, stakeholder support and cost savings. Sound fiscal management, public relations and increased visitation are ultimately connected to our capacity to conserve parklands with a vision of genuine stewardship. Creating a unique native plant landscape based on your ecoregion is subtle yet effective method for keeping your park environmentally relevant and ecologically healthy. The sense of place is powerful business tool when we choose to cultivate it.