Events

Guide: Brooks Curtis

Join Brooks Curtis for a walk in the Bird Hills Nature Area. We will learn how to identify and eradicate many invasive species (spring and woody invasive). We will discuss the restoration successes and the challenges. We will also discuss the history and explore some of the features of the Bird Hills Nature Area. Most of the walk will be on the trails, but there might be an opportunity to go off trail in a few areas. 

Brooks has been a park steward at Bird Hills Nature Area, Ann Arbor’s largest at 146 acres, for about nine years. During that time, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of invasive species due to the involvement of many volunteers and City of Ann Arbor staff support (Nature Area Preservation).

About Our Guide

Brooks Curtis began doing ecological restoration work around 2005 by volunteering at the University of Michigan Arboretum and Matthaei Botanical Gardens. After a few years, he found out about the City of Ann Arbor's NAP Stewardship Workday program, and realizing that they were in worse shape and had the fewest resources, he started focusing primarily on the Ann Arbor nature areas. 

In 2013 Brooks became the Ann Arbor Park Steward for Sunset Brooks Nature Area, which he selected because it is small (7.5 acres) and in very bad shape; he figured that whatever work he did he couldn’t make the nature area any worse. Sunset Brooks Nature Area receives a tremendous amount of stormwater from four different streets and now, after a decade of restoration work, it absorbs most of the stormwater, due to the clearing of woody invasives and the introduction of native wet area plants.

PARKING OPTIONS

Bird Hills Nature Area Parking on Bird Road - Google Map

Barton Nature Area Parking on West Huron River Drive - Google Map

Please note - Construction on Miller Road may impact your route.

On Friday, June 20th, at 9:00 AM Wild Ones chapters from North Oakland and Ann Arbor, will join our Wayne County chapter for a tour of the Ouldolf Garden - Detroit located on Belle Isle. Meredith Simpson, a volunteer with Oudolf Garden Detroit has very graciously agreed to lead the three Wild Ones chapters on a tour of this garden!

Piet Ouldolf is a Dutch garden designer who has, to date, designed 20 "natural" gardens throughout Europe and the US. Five of the US gardens, including Oudolf Garden - Detroit, are listed below. 

·         Oudolf Garden Detroit at Belle Isle Park (Michigan, USA, 2020)

·         Meadow garden, Delaware Botanic Gardens (Dagsboro, Delaware, USA, 2019)

·         High Line (New York City, 2006)

·         Battery Park (New York City, 2003)

·         Lurie Garden, Millennium Park (Chicago, 2003 with Kathryn Gustafson and Shannon Nichol)

While the Ouldolf Garden - Detroit would not be considered a native garden, or necessarily even a sustainable garden, our takeaway from this event could be how to incorporate world-class garden designs and plant groupings into our own native garden projects at home and in our community! 

I'm looking forward to seeing you there! Reach out if you have any questions.

NOTE: Exact start and end time, meeting point, registration information, and program description will be provided by July 1, 2025.

Registration will be required for this event.

Presenters: Ron Gamble and Faye Stoner

NOTE: Exact start and end time, meeting point,  and program description will be provided by July 15, 2025.

River Bend Gardens was established in July 2017, and formally founded by my wife and I in January 2019 as a private botanical garden, aviary, and retreat for our family of five children.

The property was selected for its unique combination of natural features, and is located in Washtenaw County, 15 miles Southwest of Ann Arbor, in the Village of Manchester.  The gardens are situated on 65 acres with a half mile of frontage on the River Raisin, and adjacent to the South and West with the Leonard Preserve, a 259-acre property owned by Washtenaw County’s Natural Areas Preservation, and The Nature Conservancy.

There are twelve gardens that make-up River Bend, with nine natural plant communities, and several glacial features in the landscape from kames, an out-wash plain, to a floodplain that includes a Buttonbush depression.  In addition to the River Raisin, the property includes a 4 acre pond, two brooks, and over 30 natural springs.

Hiking River Bend Gardens offers our guest an opportunity to view a gardener's pragmatic effort at native plant preservation and restoration.  Wayne is happy to share the mechanics of the preservation work and prairie restoration with considerations to methods, successes, and failures.  

River Bend Gardens offers our guests a short walk (1/4 mile) to the prairie and meeting location, or guests may elect a longer hike (3 miles) through the garden on the trails to the meeting location.  While the trails are established, they are not completely groomed, the garden is not ADA compliant, nor is there a restroom present on the property.

Guests who chose the three mile hike on the Garden Trail, presented in yellow on the attached trail map, should arrive at 9:00am at the East Entrance Garden.  You can use 115 Mound Street Manchester, MI 48158 as the GPS address.  There is a horseshoe drive where you can pull-in for parking, or on the shoulder of Mound Street on the north side of the street facing west.

Guests who prefer a short walk to the prairie should arrive at 10:30am at the West Entrance Garden.  You can use 328 River Bend Manchester, MI 48158 as the GPS address.  There is adequate parking off the street on garden property.

In either case there will be someone from the River Bend family there to guide you to the meeting location.  After a discussion and Q&A, the guests will be free to walk the trails and experience the gardens at their own pace.

NOTE: Exact start and end time and program description will be provided by September 1, 2025.

Presenter: Calla Butler

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Exact start and end time and program description will be provided by October 1, 2025.

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Program description will be provided by November 1, 2025.

Presenter: Caylen Cole-Hazel

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Program description will be provided by December 1, 2025.