Persistent engagement with invasive species management is creating changes in Schiller Park due to continued forest restoration efforts by the City of Syracuse and Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC). Over 2024, OEC crews were involved with clearing around existing plantings to protect prior investments and additionally planting new plants on the north slope, where large swaths of invasive understory plants were removed.
October 19th 2024, one of the largest community planting events in a natural area space in Syracuse NY was conducted with 122 volunteers. Volunteers from all over the community planted 710 plants that included many species of woody and herbaceous plants of various stock types and sizes. “I can’t wait to see what it looks like in five to ten years, see who it brings and what it brings,” said Sianna Avery, an OEC Young Adult Crewmember who started in 2024. These events are at the core of what OEC strives to accomplish.
Connor Conde’s first season with OEC as a Crew Leader was based out of Schiller Park. Terrance Castro-Valdes and Barbadu Raacha led youth crews in this forest over the summer season and all these crews’ field tasks focused around different mechanical control methods for typical invasive woody shrubs in the Northeast region of the US. “Thicker patches we would go through with power tools. It was largely buckthorn. So, we spent about half the season on the south side of the upper slope. More dense growth we would go through with the forest clearing saw, more surgical removal we would go through with hand tools, which was really nice after it rained to just be able to yank things up. But for the most part, we were just going through with loppers, and I think that’s why it’s so cool to go and look at the work that we’ve done, knowing that a lot of the time it was just like two or three people going through with loppers and we still were able to clear so much,” said Connor. Those persistent visits allowed for the crew’s resilience and growth to showcase itself, “It was really with me cutting stuff down. I was scared that I was gonna slip or something so that’s really why I didn’t like it at first but then I started to get the hang of it,” said Nataisa Bowens, a Young Adult Crewmember with OEC.
Many stand out moments from multiple OEC members involved the seemingly fleeting day to day interactions with people passing through the park doing whatever activity they had set out for. Many crews spoke about one person walking their dog through the park over the summer. The crews had mentioned he said Schiller Park was starting to look and feel similar to when he was a kid, before the understory of the park was constricted by invasive woody shrubs so dense that you could hardly see 10 feet into the forests. Referring to the interaction, Adrian Reid, a crew leader with OEC said, “it’s like somebody can leave just that much of an impact on my whole entire day, and I’m like, I don’t even know who you are. I can leave that impact on their day. They don’t even know who I am,” said Adrian. “The fact that we are showing us being active participants in the change of Schiller is really affecting the community, which is affecting me. Hearing that feedback is a good pat on the back, because sometimes you don’t see the feedback. So, I’ve been working at Schiller, not for nothing.”
Continued management is needed to exhaust the existing seed bank of invasive plants but also to dissipate the negative perception the park used to carry. Through OEC’s work the ability to engage and educate multiple groups of public about the benefits of Natural Areas in city parks can be achieved. Since 2020, 227 volunteers and many more crew members have engaged in education, management and planting work in Schiller Park in association with OEC. Adrian referenced their relationship with Schiller Park’s reforestation efforts, “I’m starting from scratch literally, I’m taking a blank slate, and I’m making it … building the whole forest. Constructing it, building it, the layout, and everything like that is under my fingertips, which is like … I never thought I would’ve been doing that type of stuff.”