Nature Walk at Sheridan Oak Forest November 18, 2007

Students from Hollywood Hills High School Key Club joined me on Sunday, November 18, 2007 for a delightful walk in the natural hammock called Sheridan Oak Hammock. We traced the path that the City of Hollywood’s Assistant Director, Jack Mathison, the engineer, park manager and I mapped out a few weeks ago, and then meandered through the back acreage into truly wild lands. It was a great adventure and we saw how much MORE work there is to do in the hammock!

This picture is a beautiful pink wildflower aptly named “Meadow Beauty” (Rhexia virginica).

And we found an intriguing pile of opossum bones….mysteries: What ate him? Or did he get hit by a car and come here to die? Or did he die of old age? We’ll never know the answer, but Nature is decomposing the bones into the substrate, adding the nutrients to the soil of the hammock for the growth of new life.

We will be working for the next program, removing more exotic invasives from the park. It is a free event, of course, and help is highly appreciated! You’ll learn about the native and non-native plants in the park, and get to spend a morning with like-minded “Nature Nerds” (as my friends often refer to ourselves)!

Hope to see you on Saturday, December 1, at 9 AM to noon. Bring gloves, any gardening tools you have and water to drink. Sunscreen is recommended, and please wear LONG SLEEVES and pants, and tennis shoes for your own safety (covered with poison ivy and mosquito bites are not how we want to send you home!) :-(