[0:00] [Music] [0:19] [Music] [0:21] so i over see all of the city's natural [0:24] areas responsible for maintaining [0:26] approximately 250 [0:28] acres of and actively each year i [0:31] oversee two full-time staff and four [0:34] seasonals bloomington's got a very wide [0:36] variety of natural areas and i get to [0:38] take care of them we got nice woodlands [0:41] we've got nice oak savanas and prairies [0:44] and all kinds of good things and i'm [0:46] fortunate enough that i get to be a part [0:48] in restoring them and maintaining them [0:50] [Music] [0:52] so since i was put in the position of [0:54] natural resources specialist i've been [0:56] able to begin looking at all of our [0:58] natural areas in the city and work on [1:00] planning out restorations in our work [1:03] and i have guidance from river bottoms [1:05] cultural and systems plan and the [1:08] bloomington natural resources [1:09] prioritization plan for parks i've also [1:12] been working on converting a lot of our [1:14] low turf areas into prairies throughout [1:17] our parks looking at areas that the [1:19] public doesn't use much that would [1:21] benefit more from being native plants a [1:23] lot of the job is finding the invasive [1:25] plants and removing them from the areas [1:27] and getting the native plants [1:28] established uh we do a lot of work [1:30] removing buckthornne and managing [1:32] buckthornne garlic mustard and [1:33] buckthornne are kind of the two main [1:35] culprits for invasion and destruction of [1:37] our native habitats so there's a lot of [1:39] other inputs as well but our goal is to [1:41] reestablish native plants get some [1:43] native processes back that will help [1:45] these systems long term to be self- [1:47] sustaining but even as such it still [1:50] takes input and maintenance to keep them [1:52] i really enjoy seeing the restoration [1:54] process through from the planning point [1:56] of it designing the project implementing [1:58] the project through establishment it [2:01] really teaches you a lot of things with [2:03] buckthornne work you get instant [2:04] gratification of removing a large area [2:07] of just thick trees that just crowd out [2:10] everything after that the patience pays [2:12] off as some of these areas take a while [2:14] before you get the results you want to [2:16] see where we're at today at east marsh [2:18] lake park used to be wall to-all [2:20] buckthornne now it's an open oak [2:22] savannah with a lot of natives coming up [2:24] the progress we've seen on this project [2:25] so far has been incredible i never [2:27] expected for a city this large in such [2:29] an urban area for there to be this much [2:31] open natural space and to be able to [2:34] have a part in restoring that and making [2:36] this stuff back into quality natural [2:38] areas is really sweet there's a lot of [2:41] support from the residents themselves [2:42] from city council for natural resources [2:44] over the past few years so that's been [2:46] huge and allowing me to do what i do and [2:48] to continue to improve all these natural [2:50] areas hopefully i'll be able to continue [2:52] that for a long time [2:55] [Music]