Valentine is one of the neighborhoods lucky enough to have Roanoke Park as our local park. Over the past decade, volunteers have been working to clear the park of non-native plants, add new features and make other improvements. Valentine board member David Snodgrass serves as our representative to the Roanoke Park Conservancy Board and keeps us informed of activities there.
At our March 27, 2024 meeting, Conservancy member Chris DeLong shared progress at the park and afterwards sent us a list of links to learn more about the restoration, how to support the park, and other sites he finds helpful. Here is his list:
Reach him at [email protected]
Be alerted to Roanoke Park work days by signing up for our email list on roanokeparkkc.org and selecting “I especially like hearing about: Work Days (weeding / seeding / planting)”
And here’s the volunteers CalTopo map of the designated “best 6 acres:” https://caltopo.com/m/0LKCH
Contact Chris DeLong at [email protected]
Social media: https://www.facebook.com/RoanokeParkKC and https://www.instagram.com/roanokeparkkc/
Donations to Roanoke Park Conservancy accepted via our website Donate button to write a check, or Venmo:
https://venmo.com/u/roanokeparkkc
Our direct to paypal url needs fixing so see the attached QR instead.
Here’s the page from which you can download the Ecological Restoration Master Plan.
https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/master-plan/171-restoration-plan
And a direct link to the pdf. The Ecological Restoration Plan is pages 9-21 here (it includes a report on the 2012 tree inventory at the end).
https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/RP-MasterPlan-Progress082013.pdf
Roanoke Park Biodiversity Project. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/roanoke-park-biodiversity
The iNaturalist app helps you ID plants you find in the wild, with confirmation from the iNat community, some of whom are leading experts in their fields.
Trees and Trails Map. This article tells all about it with links to the map and a video explainer.
https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/trails/230-roanoke-park-trees-and-trails
RP YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RoanokeParkKC
See the “Resources mentioned in video” link in the description of my seeding video for a list of species used.
For this past year’s seeding, find the list on posts about the Super Seeding Saturday event:
In comments here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C23BFSrRVL3/ or discussion tab here: https://www.facebook.com/events/388134647148627/?active_tab=discussion
Our pages on the scourge of bush honeysuckle:
https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/174-stop-honeysuckle and https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/64-bush-honeysuckle
And the scourge of wintercreeper:
https://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/park-challenges/175-wintercreeper
We’re also fighting buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima).
Doug Tallamy books: “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope” – I neglected to mention it but his current environmental effort is Homegrown National Park: https://homegrownnationalpark.org The idea that if we all allotted part of our yards to environmental function it would be the largest National Park in the US by far.
- Here’s one of the presentations he gives around the country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGiolMPNo9I