NO MOW SITE

It is extremely important not to disturb the soils any more than they have already have been disturbed previously. This is why we try and impress maintenance crews not to mow these areas while they are healing. The large mowing equipment compacts the soil structure and squashes out the oxygen and water spaces that the soil organisms and roots need for survival. The sheer weight and movement of these machines basically plows- up the soil and destroys the precious most top 3” – 6” layers. Creating sub-soils to reach the surface and create a micro – site for invasive species to move in. The desirable native plants that are emerging can not bare the weight of these heavy machines either. A new plant community will emerge that will adapt to these new environmental conditions may not be the one that has been indigenous to this site before. When the site was graded and imported soils were brought in to fill or removed from the original grade. There have been so many man – made disturbances to this site we will need to wait and observe which plant communities will persist. If we are going to give native species half a chance we may need to consider how our traditional management practices effect the environmental conditions of the site. That means the soils, the hydrology, the grade or topography, the solar orientation, and the desirable plant communities that are now able to adapt to these new conditions. How do we manage these new conditions, or “how can we be a good steward of this site?” How we work together with the bio-spheric processes of the Hydrological Cycle, the Nutrients that are constantly cycling throughout this site, the Solar Energy that flow, to enable the Natural Community to move towards its evolutionary path and still live within our desired objectives and goals? Is this is what we Desire, and Design for?

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