Prophetstown
Goal
As our goal is to enhance the native populations included in this design, avoiding genetically modified plants to ensure that growing conditions don’t become modified is critical. In all of the studies analyzed by Garbowski et al. (2021), traits which were found to improve plant performance were not those that are traditionally selected for during cultivar development. Given all of this literature, cultivars can be helpful in certain cases to help improve the survival of the species, but that does not align with the goals of this project as our priority is the flourishing of native species.
Community Project Partners
Prophetstown State Park Visitor Center Native Plant Garden
Team Members
- Connor Adamek
- Katlyn Fine
- Frannie Hideg
- Matrie Irving
- Andrea Stout
- Charlee Williams
Summary
Designing the proposed native plant garden for the Prophetstown State Park creates a unique opportunity to utilize both scientific literature to approach the environmental aspect of habitat restoration, as well as social and historical research to incorporate public education techniques and the significance of Native Americans’ history to the state park. The literature reviewed above supports the multidisciplinary approach needed to design the native plant garden. There is a consensus in the scientific literature that native plants, specifically non-cultivar plants, will provide benefits to the biodiversity of the park even on the landscaping scale of a garden. Further research to understand how cultivars and competing non-native plants are likely to impact management of the garden could be beneficial to the planning process. This native plant garden will hopefully promote increased public awareness amongst park visitors and create meaningful, sustained knowledge about the long history of the Native Americans on the land and natural resource management.
