Wintergarden Nature Preserve and St. John’s Woods is a unique park in Bowling Green. Comprised of 107 acres of original growth forest, prairie grasses and wetlands, it is about as close as you can get to experiencing the natural landscape that existed in Wood County 200 years ago.

A BRIEF HISTORY
Stephen W. St. John, a lawyer and farmer who moved from New York to Bowling Green in 1843, originally owned the Bordner Meadow property in Wintergarden.

The city water works bought the property in the mid-1940s and used it to drill wells for the city’s water supply. When the city stopped using the wells, the B.G. Rotary Club began to host a day camp on the property for local children. In 1969, Wintergarden Lodge was built for use by the local Boy Scouts and the Rotary Club; in addition, American Youth Hostels used the lodge as an overnight facility.

In 1995, the B.G. Parks and Recreation Department bought the lodge and surrounding Wintergarden Woods and in 1999 the Department became the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Foundation. The lodge was renovated and turned into a Nature Center and the Bordner Meadow was purchased as the first addition to the Preserve.

RESTORATION
Since 1999, the Parks and Rec Foundation has been working to restore the Preserve’s environs to the state they would have been in when settlers first came to Bowling Green. The Nature Preserve contains 8 different, identifiable ecologies. Each one has it’s own dominant plant species and dependent animal populations. And each one presents a different rehabilitation challenge. The process by which the restoration of these habitats is accomplished is a rather new science known as Restoration Ecology.

In order to restore a particular habitat, it is important first to understand, to the smallest detail, what kinds of flora and fauna inhabited the region. Fortunately for park naturalists Cinda Davis-Stutzman and Chris Gajewicz, many of the native plants have already grown back naturally over the years since the property was last farmed in the early 20th century. However, there are also non-native plants, and these must be carefully removed in order to continue with restoration.

Controlled burning is one method used to facilitate the restoration process. Hundreds of years ago, natural fires would have purged the piles of dead leaves and underbrush from the forests and prairies and cleared the way for new vegetation to grow. When natives settled in the area, they too used fire to improve hunting conditions in the winter and allow for easier passage through woodlands.

Today in the Preserve, fire is used in a very specially controlled way. Burns are usually conducted in the early spring or late fall, when the conditions are most ideal. Burns are primarily located in the Bordner Meadow, which has undergone the most extensive restoration work.

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RESTORATION CONT.
GETTING INVOLVED