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SOUTHEASTWAY PARK
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Background Information
Provided by: Indy Parks and Recreation
Land Stewardship Office
Southeastway Park is located in
southeastern Marion County in Franklin Township. The park is owned
by the City of Indianapolis and managed by Indy Parks and
Recreation. The primary focuses of land stewardship in Southeastway
Park are the removal of invasive exotic plant species and the
promotion of natural plant communities and habitats.
The park consists of approximately 188 acres of varied terrain. Of
this 188 acres, approximately 95 acres are natural areas consisting
of mesic and floodplain woods, successional fields, prairie
plantings, and an excavated wetland and pond. The other 95 acres
make up the turf areas, parking lots, roads, and buildings of the
park. Buck Creek runs through the woods in the western section of
the park. The park has amenities such as picnic shelters and
playgrounds that are heavily used. However, the park has a stronger
emphasis on passive rather than active recreation.
Southeastway Park, like all of Marion County, is located in the
Tipton Till Plain Section of the Central Till Plain Natural Region
of Indiana. This is the largest natural region of Indiana. Before
European settlement, about 99 percent of Marion County was covered
with closed canopy forest (Barr 1999). This forest was composed of
flatwoods, mesic forest, upland forest and ephemeral swamps (Hedge
1997). The rest of the county was composed of wetland plant
communities included fens, bogs, sedge meadows, wet prairies, swamps
and marshes (Hedge 1997). After settlement, most of these forest and
plant communities were cleared and converted for agricultural use or
developed for other purposes. Fragments of the original forest were
allowed to grow back for timber harvesting or because the soils were
unsuitable for farming or other development. These fragments make up
most of the remaining hardwood forests of Marion County.
Woodlands
The woodlands of Southeastway Park
each differ from the other in terms of age, level of disturbance,
soil, topography, and use. These differences dictate that different
stewardship methods must be used for successful restoration to
occur. Collectively, these areas make up a riparian forest buffer
that helps protect Buck Creek. The National Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) specifically lists several things that riparian
buffers do. These include:
- Creating shade, which lowers
water temperatures. Water discharged from wooded riparian
corridors is also cooler than surface runoff from cleared areas.
Lower temperatures improve conditions for fish and other aquatic
life.
- Providing tree shade that helps
reduce excessive algae growth.
- Providing a corridor for
wildlife.
- Reducing excess amounts of
sediment, nutrients, organic material, and other pollutants in
surface runoff.
- Nutrients and other chemicals
in shallow groundwater flow are also reduced.
- Providing trees and their
roots, which armor stream banks and reduce erosion rates.
- Trees also absorb stream energy
during out of bank flooding which helps reduce erosion
potential.
Successional Field
Succession has traditionally been defined as the slow, regular
changes that a natural community undergoes after a disturbance
(Pickett 1995). These disturbances can be natural (such as wind
damage) or induced by human activity (such as deforestation).
Succession, if allowed to proceed without further disturbance,
continues until the natural community recovers to its highest level
of succession (climax). Conventional wisdom once suggested that
succession was somewhat deterministic and that over time a natural
community would eventually look like it did before it was disturbed.
Contemporary thinking suggests that natural areas are in a more
constant flux and succession does not always lead to an expected
outcome. Changing seed sources, climate fluctuations, population
fluctuations of herbivores and their predators, and disease all
affect succession (Pickett 1995). Many of these fluctuations are the
direct result of human activity and should be noted when a
successional area is being managed for a specific outcome.
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Prairie
Prairies are part of the natural
landscape of Indiana. The Grand Prairie Natural Region covers much
of the northwest corner of the state. Other smaller, isolated
prairie fragments occurred naturally throughout the state, including
the Tipton Till Plain Natural Region. However, like the forests,
European settlers cleared most of the prairie for agricultural
purposes.
Although tall grass prairies are not native to Marion County, many
of the plants that make up prairies are. These plants naturally
occurred in isolated openings and niches throughout Indiana. Tall
grass prairie plantings provide many benefits such as educational
opportunities, wildlife habitat and food, minimal maintenance,
erosion control, and aesthetics.
Wetland & Pond
Land stewardship management
concerning the wetland and pond include monitoring the survival of
installed wetland plants and controlling invasive plants. Also the
wetland and pond each have an island that will be planted with
native species.
Aquatic Project Wild, an education and conservation program for
educators, lists several functions that wetlands accomplish. These
include:
- Storage of excess water caused
by runoff
- Resting places for birds during
migration
- Providing food and shelter for
a diverse group of wildlife
- Mixing water with nutrients and
oxygen
- Filtering impurities from water
and neutralizing toxic substances
References
Barr, R. C., Hall, B.
E., Bacone, J. A., Campbell, R. K., Johnson, D. P. & Wilson, J. S.
(1999). Changes in Marion County's Natural Environment Between
the Time of European Settlement, ca. 1820, and the Present, 1997.
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Center for
Earth and Environmental Science (CEES)
Hedge, R. L. (1997).
Forested swell and swale: The Central Till Plain Natural Region.
In M.T. Jackson (Ed.), The natural heritage of Indiana (pp.
195-199). Indiana University Press.
Natural Resources
Conservation Service ( November 26, 1996). Natural Resources
Conservation Service conservation practice standard: riparian forest
buffer.
Pickett, S.T.A. &
Ostfeld, R.S. (1995). The shifting paradigm in ecology. In
R.L. Knight & S.F. Bates (Eds.), A new century for natural resources
management (pp. 261-278). Washington, DC: Island Press.
USDA, NRCS (1999).
The PLANTS database (http://plants.usda.gov/plants)
. National Plant Data Center. Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
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