Connection Quarterly - Winter 2020

QUARTERLY WINTER 2020

ON THE FRONT LINES FOR HABITAT

ISAAC OGLE CLEARS THE WAY FOR WILDLIFE

NEW FLOWER SHOP

EDEN’S BOTANICALS BLOOMS AT UPTOWN FAYETTEVILLE

WE’RE SILVER!

SREG WINS BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS DESIGNATION

A NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS OF SPECIALIZED REAL ESTATE GROUP COMMUNITIES

SEEING THE FOREST BEYOND THE TREES WE’RE EAGER FOR SIGNS OF SPRING, BUT GREEN ISN'T ALWAYS A GOOD THING.

Hillsides in the Ozarks are turning green. Flowers are blooming. But sometimes, the green isn't all it seems. Invasive plants have a strong foothold in Northwest Arkansas, and they are causing problems for native plants and all the creatures that rely on them.

In this issue, we explore a Fayetteville woodland with Isaac Ogle, who uses best management practices to revive Ozark native plant communities. Through Isaac’s eyes, we can see the toll of invasive plants and years of neglect on urban forests. The forest isn’t always what it appears, and Isaac shows us a hopeful path forward, both for native plant communities and the wildlife that depends on them.

We also celebrate our designation as a Bicycle Friendly Business and introduce the newest member of the Uptown Fayetteville community, Eden’s Botanicals. As usual, we’ve got you covered with a selection of our favorite local events to help you make the most of the early spring.

See you out and about in this busy season!

— Specialized Real Estate Group

2 • SPECIALIZED REAL ESTATE GROUP

ON THE COVER: Isaac Ogle, founder of Comprehensive Botanical Services.

DID YOU KNOW? We’re all eager for signs of spring, but seeing green isn’t always a good thing. Urban woodlands in Northwest Arkansas turn green weeks earlier than the surrounding countryside, and it’s not cause for celebration. Bush honeysuckle and other invasive plants leaf out earlier than native plants, robbing woodland wildflowers and tree seedlings of the sunlight they need to grow. Read on for ways we are tackling this problem.

Bush honeynsuucrkselrei, es, once sold in spreads into aggressively as natural are Courtesy University of Arkansas Herbarium

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O ON N TTHHEE FF RRO ONNTT LLI INNEES S FF O O RR HHAABBI IT TAAT T ISAAC OGLE CLEARS THE WAY FOR WILDLIFE

Story by Sarah King • Photos by Zac Trout

It started innocently enough.

Nurseries had a beautiful new plant, perfect for Northwest Arkansas. Quick growing. Beautiful green leaves for most of the year. Little white flowers in the spring and shiny red berries in the winter. Growing easily in sun or shade with minimum care.

Gardeners couldn’t resist. Amur honeysuckle, also known as bush honeysuckle, was a perfect garden plant. Too perfect.

Fast forward a few decades, and bush honeysuckle and other ornamental landscape plants have escaped gardens and are displacing native plants and the animals that depend on them.

Invasive plants aren’t the only challenge facing the woodlands of NWA. Historical photos of Fayetteville, including downtown and the university, show a city that was virtually cleared of trees. According to Isaac, the second-growth forests that followed grew in absence of thinning or fire, resulting in an unnaturally crowded woodland.

I“ f nobody does anything, it will become unrecognizable to the nature that knows it.”

When these invasive plants get into wild spaces, “there’s nothing to check them - no fire, no mowing,” says Isaac Ogle, founder of Comprehensive Botanical Services.

“They completely displace your forest. No regeneration of the forest happens when you get a complete understory of Amur honeysuckle.”

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Isaac is on the front lines for native habitat in Northwest Arkansas.

His company works to remove invasive species and maintain forests so that native species can survive and thrive.

“They are forests, but they are really a thicket - there are way too many trees per acre,” he says. “In order to have a healthy, sustainable forest, the carrying capacity is about 60 trees per acre.”

In a typical acre of unmaintained urban woodland, Isaac may see 300 to 600 trees - up to ten times the ideal density. The result of this overcrowding is trees that grow tall and at angles as they grow toward limited available light. These trees tend to have small canopies due to crowded conditions. Isaac’s team

FIND HEALTHY HABITAT AT THESE LOCAL SPOTS These local destinations use best management practices like the ones Isaac employs to maintain healthy habitat for wildlife. And they are great places for people to explore, too!

Hobbs State Park

Unlike most urban forests, Hobbs is selectively logged and invasive plants are managed through mechanical removal or fire. Isaac says: “You can see through the forest. That’s how you know that it’s a healthy forest.”

Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary

On the west side of Fayetteville adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant, Woolsey is one of the most diverse places in the state with over 500 species representing threatened and vanishing North American habitat: wetland prairie.

Wilson Springs Preserve

recently began work in a city park near the Fayetteville Public Library with a crowded second-growth forest and dense colony of invasive plants.

Restoration work is in full swing at this newly opened natural area.

In addition to wildflowers and lily ponds, locally made sculpture is integrated into the two miles of trail. Access from the south side of the parking lot at Fayetteville Sam’s Club.

“The arts corridor is a woodland that was highly degraded. It’s a hiding place for critters, but it’s not sustaining anything,” he says. “And it’s actually in the process of dying. If nobody does anything, it will become unrecognizable to the nature that knows it.”

Faced with decades of neglect and an onslaught of invasive plants, woodlands may need drastic intervention to give native plants and animals a chance. When we’ve become accustomed to the look of degraded forests, the best management practices might appear to be destructive at first glance.

“We use whatever is in the toolbox,” Isaac says. “If it’s a chainsaw, a track machine with a mulcher head on it, if it’s a backpack sprayer with selective herbicide - we use whatever we need to get rid of plants that don’t belong.”

When invasive plants are removed, native plants often spring up from seeds that have waited for years for the right conditions. Isaac assisted the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust with one such area, the newly opened Wilson Springs Preserve. Before restoration began, a dense understory of honeysuckle was so thick that under

it was only mud - no grasses or flowers or young trees. After the honeysuckle was removed, the earth exploded with new life.

Isaac doesn’t call his work in city parks or new development “restoration” - that’s a term he reserves for landscapes like Wilson Springs, which are carefully curated to recreate conditions before human settlement. But it’s not an all-ornothing situation.

“Really what you are trying to do is to build a balance you can have it both ways,” he says. “There are plenty of good examples of biodiversity being supported by smart development. These can be decades-long processes, depending on how degraded the site is. You can get in there and clean it up in one to three years, but really it’s year seven, eight, nine, and ten when you see the efforts paying off. It’s a big-time long term commitment.”

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COMMUNITY EVENTS ORCHID SHOW & SALE March 6th–8th Step out of the late winter gloom into a wonderland of tropical blooms. Surround yourself with hundreds of plants in bloom, and take one home with you! Presented by the Orchid Society at Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Details at bgozarks.org

NUTTY RUNNER 5K March 14th If you enjoy craft beer and exercising outdoors for a good cause, the Nutty Runner 5K is for you! At every mile, runners can enjoy a pint of Nutty Runner nut-brown ale courtesy of Columbus House Brewery. The route winds through Fayetteville’s historic downtown. Details at nuttyrunner5k.com

EDEN’S BOTANICALS BLOOMS AT UPTOWN FAYETTEVILLE WILDLIFE WALK March 14th Join Dr. J.D. Willson, wildlife ecologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Arkansas for a walk in the Markham Hill woodland. He will introduce participants to the study he and his students are conducting on the hill - using radio telemetry to track box turtles. The walk will proceed through the nature preserve, observing and identifying wildlife, especially reptiles and amphibians. Details and registration at markhamhill.com

More than a typical flower shop, Eden’s Flower Truck is a mobile workshop where you can try your hand at making a flower crown or design your own one-of-a-kind bouquet.

Stop by the shop or follow @edensflowertruck to sign up for events!

MOVING TOGETHER CHALLENGE GRAB A TRAINING BUDDY & WE WILL PAY YOUR REGISTRATION FEES! Any two (or more) SREG tenants or employees: Train for a race or ride together, and we’ll pay you each $30 toward your registration fees. specializedreg.com/movingtogether

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WE’RE CERTIFIED BIKE FRIENDLY! By building new connections for people on bikes, incorporating bike racks and showers into our offices, participating in the National Bike Challenge, and supporting local bike advocacy efforts, we’ve joined the movement to transform the American workplace to be more welcoming to customers and employees who bike.

Our silver-level Bicycle Friendly Business certification recognizes our business’s bike friendliness in the areas of engineering, encouragement, education, and evaluation & planning. If you have feedback on how we can be even more welcoming to people who bike, please let us know!

Photo by Christian Stahl on Unsplash

Building healthy places and connecting neighbors means that we consider not just the qualities of buildings, but the connectedness of the neighborhood surrounding them. A walkable neighborhood with a unique sense of place just feels better. It’s this feeling that we aim to capture in each of our projects.

BUILDING BETTER

EMBRACING NATURE

MOVING TOGETHER

SHARING FOOD

We consider efficiency, beauty and health in every decision we make.

We build and conserve places that connect people with nature.

We create opportunities to move—through design, events and service.

We see growing and sharing food as a vital part of every community we build.

A publication of Specialized Real Estate Group, Inc.

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15 NORTH CHURCH AVENUE, SUITE 103 FAYETTEVILLE, AR 72701

ECO MODERN FLATS @blondehero80

CONSCIOUS COCO @consciouscoco

BRICK AVENUE LOFTS @anna.c.bever

HEALTHY PLACES & SMILING FACES. SHARE YOUR STORY BRICK AVENUE LOFTS @legitaveryshaw

UPTOWN @edensflowertruck

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