ALPA At Work

Fall 2024 ALPA members have continued helping out around the preserve by wrapping trees, clearing out the beaver deceiver, maintaining dog waste stations, pulling garlic mustard, relmoving litter from trails and other tasks. More importantly they have continued to keep the Management Council informed and updated, and monitored planned WMU projects, and brought attention to potential and current problems, and suggested solutions. Board members are also creating and posting new shadowbox displays every season.

Summer 2022 The garden club of Kalamazoo held its annual flower show and competition last summer 2022 and they invited ALPA to bring information and a display about asylum Lake preserve. Many people stopped by the booth on the blistering hot day to ask questions and look at the information. We were told several interesting stories/memories about the preserve. This place has been special to the citizens of Kalamazoo for a very long time.

February 2022 ALPA member, Tom Holmes spent time wrapping a number of hardwood trees with chicken wire to encourage the beavers to dine on their usual diet of softwood trees, leaving young oak and hickory trees to flourish.

January 2022 The red trail, off the Parkview parking lot, was recently rerouted due to the exposure of the tree roots that threatened the health of the trees. The initial phase is complete and the next step will be the reseeding of the native plants that were disturbed during the relocation process. These areas will be roped off and we ask visitors to stay on the traiol to support the effort of restabilizing the area with grasses. This revitalization project has been accomplished through the efforts of ALPA members, citizen volunteers and the Asylum Lake Policy and Management Council, which oversees the preserve.

On two Saturdays in May 2021, ALPA sponsosred and organized a successful garlic mustard pull. With the help of dozens of community volunteers and WMU over, 85 bags of the invasive weed was buried in a pit on the property

Ass a way to participate in Earth Day Kalamazoo and also offer our members and community a substitute for our annual meeting speaker/presentation, members of the the ALPA Board created a video to share with the Earth Day Festival and the community. The video is also available on the the Kalamazoo Earth Day 2021 website under community videos day 6.

ALPA MEMEBERS SPRUCE UP PARKVIEW ENTRANCE

On Saturday September 26, 2020 ALPA board members joined Paul McNellis to spruce up the entrance area on Parkview. Members trimmed and cleared weeds around signs and spread mulch to keep the weeds down. A water bag was placed around the tree planted recently in memory of Arthur Falk who was an ardent supporter of the Preserve. We are planning more projects in the future and will need some volunteers. Contact us to sign up.