What do you most enjoy about Black Mountain Open Space Park? I have enjoyed imagining the potential of this park and how it relates to the surrounding area. Connectivity not just for people but also for wildlife and how we can best support the requirements for survival of many animals and plant species is a tough balance. The concept of having an interconnected web of habitat areas is something that has been given a lot of thought over the years and still does. I’ve enjoyed being a part of the overall process of managing and planning for Black Mountain and other Open Space areas. What is the biggest challenge facing Black Mountain Open Space Park? In one word: weeds. Non-native plant infestation is a huge problem. It degrades the quality of the habitat and often times native animals have no use for the invading species, so it effectively destroys the environment they depend on similar to development or any other habitat fragmentation. Full scale eradication of many of these invasive species and restoration of an area back to a native plant pallet is extremely time
consuming and expensive. It’s not impossible; it just requires a lot of resources to focus on the problem and a skilled manager to plan out the work in a logical and efficient way. Every invader has a life cycle for growing and seeding so the technique to battle each one is different. We tend to focus on small areas at a time to make it manageable and try to keep the healthy areas from degrading with spot herbicide work or mechanical removal. For the time being our motto could be “Keep the good stuff good”. Please tell us your most memorable moment as senior park ranger of Black Mountain Open Space Park. Generally speaking the most memorable event was probably the 2007 fires. Although Black Mountain was mainly spared,
another of my Open Space areas was completely burned over. Clevenger Canyon North and South were torched. Following the fire, some grant money was identified to help restore the area. We worked for 2 months straight with crews and were able to rebuild all the bridges, repair and maintain trail tread that started eroding, construct some new rock steps and retaining walls and generally get the trail system back in good condition. There have probably been lots of little incidents, but the fires were the main thing in my time. Please provide us with lesser known facts about the Black Mountain Open Space Park area. A paraglider who launched from Black Mountain Glider Port (a.k.a. Little Black) recently set a distance flight record for that site landing east of Lake Henshaw in the Warner Plain! What activities can visitors participate in when visiting Black Mountain Open Space Park? Hiking, biking, bird watching, attend a nature hike, watch paragliders flying at the Glider Port, compete in one of the permitted athletic events throughout the year. Generally just enjoy being in an outdoor setting while still close to home. Currently, what is Black Mountain Open Space Park’s biggest need? Something the readers may not know is that
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