The Anchorage Park Foundation is helping to bolster the science underlying park management with four new grants. Grant results will influence more ecological decisions on a range of natural resource issues.

• Muldoon Park - Forest Health Protection
  Grant from U.S.D.A. Forest Service, State & Private Forestry
  
  This project will reduce the future impacts of spruce bark beetles on 10 acres of impacted forest and reduce the fire hazard in Muldoon Park.  New trees will be planted to establish a younger and more vigorous forest.  Work will be conducted by P&R Department staff with contributions by the King Career Center Natural Resource Management Class and Youth Employment in Parks.

• Invasive Plant Inventory and 'May Day' Trial Control
  Grant from U.S.D.A. Forest Service, State & Private Forestry
  
  The Alaska Natural Heritage Program is conducting a systematic survey of the Coastal Trail, Chester and Campbell Creek Trails and Kincaid Park to determine the extent and locations of invasive plant infestations.  Trial controls will also be conducted for more of Anchorage's most problematic species, Prunus padus more commonly known as 'May Day' or 'Birdcherry'. 

   

• Aquatic Invertebrate Study along Chester and Campbell Creeks
  Grants from US Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S.D.A. Forest Service with matching contributions from University of Alaska Fairbanks.  
  
  Graduate student David Roon begins work this summer by conducting a leaf litter analysis of native plant and 'May Day' leaf litter and will contrast the aquatic invertebrate mass per leaf mass.  The results will help predict how the future ecological effects on streams and fishes might look as May Day trees spread.

Partners include:

• UAF Cooperative Extension Service
• US Fish & Wildlife Service
• USDA Forest Service
• King Career Center

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For more information contact Anchorage Parks & Recreation Volunteer Coordinator Wade Collins at 343-4460 or CollinsWA@muni.org