Wurster Park Shakes off Winter - With a Little Help
by Laurie Posner
On a sun-drenched morning in April, nearly two dozen neighbors and community members joined Adopt-A-Park Coordinator Dana Novak for a community workday in Wurster Park. Dana had rolled in the city’s full-size pickup and trailer, well stocked with wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes and gloves. The work party, coordinated with Rita Mitchell and other park adopters, dug into spring projects across the park.
Community volunteers kick off spring with an April workday in Wurster Park.
One group tackled weeds around mature trees and new saplings. Some pulled invasive onions crowding out native bloodroot at the base of Wurster's champion chinkapin oak. Others weeded and bermed the caged saplings — a northern red oak, black oak, dogwood and blackgum tree — near the playground. A crew on the hillside beneath the park's champion black oak weeded and mulched the tiny oaks there, setting the stage for the next generation of big oaks at Wurster.
VolleyBros, a social volleyball league in Ann Arbor for gay, bi, trans, and queer men, edged and raked the sand volleyball court before joining the weeding crews. The pollinator garden near the playground got attention too, with volunteers leaving leggy stems of blue false indigo a few more weeks for butterflies and bees. Before wrapping up, the group hauled a bramble of storm-felled branches into the trailer.
Volunteers spruced up the pollinator garden near the playground.
“I loved the energy of all the volunteers as we shifted among various tasks,” Rita said, “weeding the playground, trimming grass, and mulching the trees in protective cages, and pulling invasives at the edge of the wooded area. It was a great cooperative effort.”
Rooted in the Old West Side — tucked between West Madison, Third and Edgewood Place — Wurster Park belongs to its neighborhood in the fullest sense: snow sleds and saucers, dog walkers, impromptu soccer, children's birthdays, volleyball, a good book on a bench. Once a gravel pit, today it is beloved by the community.
“I’ve worked in the park for about 20 years,” Rita said. “It’s a great place to touch the earth. I appreciate the city’s flexibility of allowing installation of the pollinator gardens. I love to see how the trees around the playground have grown, and to think about what they will be like in another 20 years.”
Wurster’s pollinator gardens are havens for butterflies and bees.
“Wurster Park has champion trees, native plantings, a playground, a volleyball court and real natural character,” Dana added. “That's worth showing up for — and workdays like our spring event are how neighbors come together to protect it and keep it thriving for everyone.”
Among those who have cared for Wurster over the years, Lucy Miller and Chris and Deb VandenBroek recently retired from their roles as park adopters — and deserve a heartfelt thank you. This spring's volunteers carry that work forward. There's ample room to join them.
Spring Has Sprung: Join the Fun
Join the City of Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation Unit in early June for Park Spotlight at Wurster. (Registration required.)
June 8-11: Wurster Park (525 W. Madison St.)
Monday - 11:00 - noon K-5 Program: Watercolors
Tuesday - 10:30-11:30 a.m. Pre-K Storytime
Thursday - 10:00 a.m.-noon: Love a Park Volunteer Workday
Learn more about Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation’s volunteer opportunities in the parks and sign up for workdays at Wurster Park.
