Ronald Bog gets a face lift

Shoreline

Approximately 300 feet of shoreline was cleared of blackberry bushes along the south side of Ronald Bog Friday, Aug. 29.

“They looked like bees around here,” Bob Plaag, assistant Boy Scout master of troop 325 said during the work party. “This is only phase one.”

Phase one consisted of clearing large blackberry bushes from the site, according to Mark Tomboulian, owner of Tomboulian Landscaping. He and nine of his employees used power tools to clear the area.

“You can see the lake,” Tomboulian said. “It’s so much more aesthetically pleasing and hopefully it’ll cut down on people throwing trash in here.”

The work party was possible due to a $5,000 Meridian Park Neighborhood Mini Grant, master gardener and member of the Meridian Park Association Dick Decker said. Decker has led a couple of tours through the Ronald Bog park area for local residents. The goal, he said, is to replace the blackberry bushes with native plant species.

“Our intent is to not plant everything right away,” Decker said. “We’ll do little pockets to soften the image of that shoreline.”

Decker is leading a second work party on Sept. 13 from 9 a.m. until noon for anyone who wants to help continue the work. Although the bushes have been taken down, blackberry roots still need to be pulled from the ground and bark needs to be put down to keep the blackberry bushes from growing back.

As a part of the process, straw wattles were placed along the edge of the shoreline to prevent sedimentation.

“In the event we have a downpour where we have exposed soil we won’t be getting any sedimentation into the water,” Tomboulian said. “Everyone is worried about the siltation so we’re doing this.”

The native plants that are planted later this fall will need to be cared for by hand for the first year, Decker said. The chore will involve watering the plants through the spring and summer.

Tomboulian is hopeful residents will attend the Meridian Park Neighborhood Association meeting on Sept. 11 at Meridian Park Elementary and learn more about the cleanup effort at Ronald Bog.

“The idea is to try and get everybody involved,” he said. “We think (Ronald Bog) is a gateway. We’ve got a church, we’ve got a school … it’s a great visibility area for everybody to see what happens if all the different groups get together and make things happen.”