Oxford Conservation Park, the county park at the entrance edge to Oxford, is gaining traction in a fight against an alarming incursion of callery pear trees armed with wicked thorns plus thousands if not millions of seed bearing fruits, as well as other miscreants like miscanthus and non-native phragmites. Left to their own devices in unmown areas, the invaders have rapidly adapted to their new territory and proliferated. In March, dressed in snowy blooms, they are deceptively lovey heralds of Spring.
A newly formed advocacy group, Friends of the Oxford Conservation Park (FOCP) and our county director of Parks and Rec, Preston Peper, are on the case for, as with any garden, maintenance is key. Our county has sixteen parks, varying in size from less than two acres to over one hundred in the case of the new Frederick Douglass park, as well as an ice rink, ball fields, tennis courts, and twenty four public landings. Each has different attributes and possibilities well worth exploring. And, each needs our support.
As some of us remember, the eighty-six acres of the Oxford park was originally farmland: half of it still is. Over ten years ago The Conservation Fund, then under the directorship of its founder Blaine Phillips, rescued the land from development and offered it to the county, stipulating that it be designed as a “passive park” – in essence, an oasis, an escape hatch into nature and native plants, a free and rare place to wander without sports fields, playgrounds and artificial lighting.
With the help of county funding and grants from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and Maryland’s Open Space Program, A Morton Thompson and Associates was hired for design and half the property was transformed into a sea of meadow laced with wildflowers and walking paths. Two ponds carved for drainage in low lying areas issued immediate invitation to water birds and osprey lookouts. The exterior edge of newly planted islands of shrubs and trees. Baccharis, beautyberry, possumhaw, loblolly, willow oak, sycamore, a wonderful mélange of native plants – brought in more and more birds. But, after three or four years with no mowing, callery pear bears fruit and began to take a stranglehold on meadow. In addition, phragmites and began to infiltrate and suffocate pond edges.
Advocates and the parks department are now working together with outside advisors including Mark Burchick of Environmental Systems Analysis to time yearly mowings of the property, one third by one third, with a plan based on plant growth, mowing height, seed production, wildlife habitat concerns and weather. Burchick has reseeded one mown section with wildflowers. One half of the original eighty plus is still in farm field and long-term plans to develop the rest of the park are being discussed. Additional possibilities in the works include a bicycle path from town connecting with paths through the park as well as a front entrance garden in which one can examine at close range a variety of native plants.
Come visit and give our county Parks and Rec your support.
Posey Boicourt
Talbot County
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