On the Trails

Over the last 6 years Wells Branch has really stepped up planting new trees, starting with the Trees for Trails program that planted hundreds of trees.  

Then we started the grow zone project that allows nature to do what it does best. There are over 50 little startup pecans, dogwoods and oaks, along the creek, over on the east side between Wells Branch Parkway and Wells Port.

Then we moved to clearing large invasive plants and planting Texas native trees in their place, we will have one more effort this winter and that should be the last of the big invasives inside Wells Branch.  

We now have an arborist doing a tree survey and tagging effort along the green belt. The goal is to report any unhealthy trees and to help us plan to grow our tree canopy.  The survey will give us data on what species we have and which ones we don’t, helping us define what species to plant based on our biodiversity goals.   It will also give us insight into where planting may do the most good.  The tree tags could be used by residents to notify the MUD office about downed tree limbs and the survey data will eventually be online, residents will be able to pull up data on a tree based on the number on the tree tag.

It’s great being outside, learning about our local plants and we want to share it with others.  We have been changing the efforts of our Keep Wells Branch Beautiful events from mostly cleaning up and doing invasive pulls to an educational, family focused event where one can learn about our local flora, do scavenger hunts for specific plants and learn about how to care for plants.  Bottom line, we want to grow the Keep Wells Branch Beautiful events in ways that our residents will truly enjoy.  We would really like to hear what kind of events would be interesting to you.  Would you and your children be interested in hikes where our arborist teaches us about trees or have a visit to the butterfly garden where you’re told about which plants benefit which butterflies?  Send me an email with your interest and ideas. Spalmer@wellsbranchmud.com.

Find out what is coming up on the KWBB calendar: http://wellsbranchmud.com/parks-a-recreation/keep-wb-beautiful