Grand Rapids man hopes to restore monarch population

GRAND RAPIDS – Another project in underway to beautify the Four Mile Creek area near White Sands Beach at Lake Wazeecha — and organizers could use some extra hands Tuesday.

Bouyed with grants, donations, and volunteers, work is beginning on “Marley’s Mile Wildlife Prairie,” a community-supported effort to re-establish the monarch population and wildflowers along the a 4.1 mile walking and biking trail path near the creek. The project comes on the heels of efforts to restore Four Mile Creek itself.

“The reason why we call it Marley’s Mile is there’s loop that we walk,” said Bill Jarvis, the 54-year-old Grand Rapids resident who has lived near the path for 16 years and initiated the project. “I walk it every morning; I walk it every evening with my dog,”

The name for The Friends of Lake Wazeecha project comes from Jarvis’ yellow lab, Marley.

One of the inspirations for the effort was a story Jarvis read in the Daily Tribune regarding the decline of the monarch population, he said.

“If monarch butterflies don’t have habitat, we don’t have monarch butterflies,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis completed the Wood County Master Gardeners program in 2014; one of the requirements is to volunteer 24 hours in a horticultural-type area.

The volunteer part of the project will include cleaning the area of sawdust that remains from trees cut down to protect the dam and planting milkweed, Jarvis said.

“The milkweed is one of the big plants we’re going to be trying to grow in this area, along with the wildflowers that provide the nectar (for the monarchs),” Jarvis said. “Plus it will look a lot prettier.”

And while most of the labor is volunteer, there is a cost to cover seed, which can be costly, Jarvis said. He’s already been awarded a “What If” grant from the Incourage Community Foundation, and has a donation from his employer, Valley Communities Credit Union, which has a branch in Wisconsin Rapids.

The “What If” grants are geared to fund resident-led projects that bring people together to move a good idea to action.

“The focus of these grants is people — people doing things together,” said Dawn Vruwink of the Incourage Community Foundation.

“This is a really great example of a resident bringing other people together to move the idea to action, in this instance the idea is restoration and beautification,” Vruwink said, referring to Jarvis’ idea. “He’s a local resident and he came up with this idea he thinks that other people could be part of this and help benefit the community.”

The grants are for up to $2,500 and average between $1,000 to $1,500 per grant, Vruwink said. Some recent grants included a local teen creating comfort packs for children displaced by fire, the Ward 1 clean-up and neighborhood watch project, and the downtown flower baskets.

Residents work with partner organizations — in Jarvis’ case, the Wood County Parks & Forestry Department — which help collaborate on the projects.

“The project really initiated due to some maintenance we had to do the dam dike structure itself,” said Chad Schooley, park administrator.

The county had to remove trees and underbrush by the dam.

“We really didn’t have a really good plan as far as what we were going to do with that area,” Schooley said. “(This project) will give a real, eye-appealing look along that walk trail.”

Jarvis approached Schooley with his idea, and then presented it to the highway infrastructure and recreation committee — all who liked the idea. The county has cleared trees and brush, scraped the area down to bare mineral soil, and will provide the snow fencing and posts to surround the area once it is seeded.

Jarvis hopes to have a good turnout Tuesday to start raking. The more people that show up, the better. Work will start on a 50-by-100-foot area.

“If you had five people show up, you can probably get the whole thing done in two hours,” Jarvis said. “What our hope is volunteers will take off with this.

“The walking trail gets used by a lot of people,” Jarvis said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Deb Cleworth can be reached at 715-423-7200, ext. 6730 or deb.cleworth@cwnews.net. Follow her on Twitter @DebCleworth.

Come and rake

•5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. April 14

•Bring garden gloves and a rake

•White Sands Beach, down the walking trail, next to Four Mile Creek.

•Go to www.incouragecf.org and click on “Grantseekers” for more information on “What If’” grants.

Project time line

•In spring 2015, Wood County Parks department employees will complete phase one of preparing the planting site.

•Phase two: Raking, laying of plastic sheeting to choke off weed growth and the installation of a temporary snow fence to secure the area will be installed by volunteers in mid spring 2015.

•Phase three: In early September 2015, plastic sheeting will be removed and the final preparations for seeding the area with milkweed and wildflower seeds will be completed by volunteers.

•Phase four: In spring 2016, temporary fencing will be removed and some general maintenance will be completed by volunteers

•Phase five: Summer of 2016: Flowers and reproducing monarchs.

•Go to the project Facebook page at Marley's Mile Wildflower Prairie to follow the project.