An Ecotour with Professor Margaret Carreiro:

Restoring Woodlands in Louisville's Olmsted Parks 

Our large urban parks conserve much of the native biodiversity and habitat types that once existed in cities like Louisville.  However, the continued existence of native species in urban park systems is challenged by many threats originating from outside their boundaries.  These include the urban heat island, flooding, and air and water pollution.  However, chief among the threats to our native ecological communities are invasions of exotic plant, animal and microbial species.  Over the last seven years Louisville Olmsted Park Conservancy (LOPC) has been successfully eradicating invasive shrubs, vines and trees from woodlands in Olmsted Parks and restoring native communities to a healthier state.  Come join Major Waltman (Woodland Manager for the LOPC) and Professor Margaret Carreiro (UofL Biology Department) on a tour of restored and unrestored sites in Cherokee and Seneca Parks to learn more about these efforts and how LOPC practitioners and UofL professors and students have teamed up to conduct research in these sites. You will also learn more about the ecology and history of our special Olmsted Parks, and how you can help the LOPC in their mission to steward the biotic and cultural legacy we will pass on to future generations. 

The tour will meet at the parking lot across from Hogan Fountain at the Tepee and is expected to last 2.5 to 3 hours.  Please bring a bottle of drinking water and wear comfortable clothing and shoes appropriate for walking in woods and meadows.