Pollinator habitat changes city park

New Carlisle

A New Carlisle park that in years past amounted to an overgrown field got a new look this summer thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program established a habitat by installing plants attractive to pollinators at Bobo Park — at no cost to the city.

And the installation makes a more attractive entrance to the city for those traveling along Ohio 571, City Manager Kim Jones said.

“We’re not allowed to do anything with the land. It’s supposed to remain in its natural state, and what we would do is (cut the field) maybe twice or three times a year,” Jones said. “Basically it was just overgrown field, and so we thought this would look better than just having the field.”

Not only is it more attractive, pollinators are necessary for human food production and for the health of the land, said Wedge Watkins, the service’s Regional Pollinator Coordinator for the Midwest Region based in Columbia, Mo. His region includes Ohio and seven other states.

“Two-thirds of what we eat is pollinated by a pollinator, so anything that produces a seed or a fruit basically relies on pollinators with few exceptions,” Watkins said.

While he couldn’t confirm where funding for the New Carlisle project came from, he said the installation was likely paid for through its private lands program.

The installation has also reduced the hours and dollars the city spent cutting the nearly 5-acre field. Now, crews only mow a frame around the habitat, Jones said.

It’s part of a nearly 24-acre parcel that includes the field, and about 18.5-acres of woodland, according to the Clark County Auditor’s geographic information system.

The park, given to the city about 10 years through a grant from the Honeycreek Watershed, was named Bobo Park Honeycreek Watershed Conservation Area in 2008.

Councilman Dick Zsambok suggested installing a pollinator habitat several years ago, she said.

“I just started checking around to see if there was any way we could get seed. I figured we would have to do it,” she said.

But the Fish and Wildlife service did the work for the city.

“We didn’t have to pay for anything and they put down the vegetation killer at the beginning and they put down the flowers, the seeds,” Jones said.

An ordinance ratifying an agreement with the service will go before council for a vote Monday, essentially so the service can pay the person who did the work, Jones said.

The city is also looking to make improvements to a small parking area, possible installing gravel and parking blocks, she said.

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