Neighborhood-based restoration

Neighborhood-based (or community) restoration projects are commonly sponsored, organized, and managed by neighborhood associations, or friends groups, often in partnership with local and state agencies, area businesses, and  public or private endowments.  The neighborhood group can either take the overall project lead, play a supporting role in a government agency-sponsored restoration project, or some combination of roles.

Restoration projects are more likely to have long-term success, or to meet the desired outcomes, if they have the backing and support of such neighborhood groups.  There are many examples in this country and elsewhere in the world that we will profile in these pages.

An exemplary set of neighborhood restoration initiatives that I am proud to work with is the cluster of prairie plantings along the SW Bike Path sponsored by the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association at three sites–the Glenwood Childrens’ Park, and the prairie plantings Glenway and the SW bike path and at Odana Road and the SW bike path.  The Westmorland Neighborhood Association also has a newer prairie planting on the west side of Glenway and the SW bike path.

The Friends of Lake Wingra (FOLW) deserves a good bit of credit for getting the community restoration ball rolling when it recommended in 2003 a plan for SW Bike Path Stewardship.  

This pilot project is detailed in its 2003 plan for Invasive Species Management Plan.