Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
A GROUP of Range Master Gardeners and members of Boy Scout Troop 323 spread seed balls, such as those seen here, around the strip of land between U.S. 51 and the Montreal River in Hurley Saturday. The balls are a mixture of seeds, clay and other materials that are designed to break apart and spread the native flower seeds in the rain.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley - The strip of land between U.S. 51 and the Montreal River in Hurley will hopefully look more colorful this summer after the local Boy Scouts and master gardeners planted seed balls on the land Saturday.
Saturday's work was the culmination of a project that started last fall when the Range Master Gardeners helped the members of Boy Scout Troop 323 out of Hurley and Ironwood actually make the seed balls.
The balls are a mixture of mud and other materials that hold the native flower seeds.
"It's all sorts of natural things that will grow here," said Eileen Yaeger, a master gardener who is also involved with the scout troop. "It's clay, peat and then natural seeds."
The balls are designed to break apart in the rain, spreading the seeds.
The troop had hoped to spread the seed balls sooner, but the late snow melt made that difficult.
"This is supposed to be like, 'Oh, we'll do it in the spring.' And you see it's the end of April," Yaeger said laughing.
Along with making the area along the highway look nicer, Yaeger said the project also helps the troop work toward its requirements for certain awards.
"They're doing it as a service project," she explained. "We have what's called a Journey to Excellence, which is a thing we fill out every year - so what have you done for the whole year that makes your troop an excellent troop. Having service projects, especially when they're environmental, it's extra points."
The seeds came from plants in the Ottawa Forest in Gogebic County, according to master gardener Lynn Adams.
While the flowers may improve over the next several years, Adams said the removal of the grass and weeds on the land during the recent sewer project increases the chances of the seeds germinating.
