Partners in the Lower Olentangy Watershed
Based in Columbus, Ohio, the Friends of the
Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW) have two
exciting projects at the intersection of urban for-
estry and watersheds. We are lucky enough to
have great partners in our watershed like the Cities
of Upper Arlington and Worthington, Ohio.
FLOW started working with Worthington in 2018,
offering to clear invasive bush honeysuckle in parks.
Our partnership has resulted in clearing both the east
and west banks of Potter's Creek in Perry/Snouffer Road
Parks and replanting native seedling and containerized
trees and shrubs along the cleared riparian corridor.
We also seeded and planted two pollinator gardens in
the vicinity. The project benefitted the municipality by
getting rid of the monoculture of understory honey-
suckle to increase safety, visibility, and heterogeneity of
vegetation for park users. The advantage to the water-
shed was in increasing the habitat along the stream
corridor, which will eventually improve the stream biota.
Worthington also gave us a great piece of land
to create an urban tree nursery. FLOW is growing
more than 750 trees to give away to residents to
increase the canopy on their property or for us to
use in stream restoration projects. We'll be back in
Worthington in 2020 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary
of Earth Day by planting more native trees.
Another great example of opportunity at the urban
forest-watershed intersection is in Upper Arlington
(UA) along Slyh Run. The Friends of UA Parks has been
clearing invasive bush honeysuckle and replanting in the
headwaters in Smith Nature Park, while FLOW has been
working 1,500 feet (0.45 km) downstream removing inva-
sive bush honeysuckle at Cranbrook Elementary School.
After replanting the cleared corridor with native trees,
FLOW also created a 0.1 acre (.04 ha) seeded pollinator
habitat to provide a land lab opportunity for students
and neighbors. FLOW has been monitoring the mac-
roinvertebrates in Slyh Run since 2015 and although
it has one of the lowest tributary diversities in the
watershed, we are continuing to monitor the stream
to document its improvement. FLOW also sent out
stream report cards to landowners to tell them how
they could help improve the stream water quality.
FLOW suggests that all municipalities reach out to their
local watershed groups for help in keeping the urban
canopy healthy. Watershed volunteers love removing
invasive plants and planting everything from seedling
trees to B&B stock. It could be a great partnership, espe-
cially if the watershed group has funding to pay for trees.
—Laura Fay, Science Committee Chair, Friends
of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW)
Three generations of tree planters at FLOW's
Earth Day 2019 event. Photo Courtesy FLOW
FLOW volunteers get instructions before Earth
Day 2019 planting. Photo Courtesy FLOW
www.urban-forestry.com 21
