phittie1100

Originally Posted by phittie1100

Passed on from Ada Takacs....


FireWise Garden at Four Mile Road Rest Area in Crawford County

Greetings!

Volunteers installed an educational garden at the Four Mile Road Rest Area (northbound I-75) in the Fall of 2010. The Home Depot of Gaylord volunteered in 2011 to maintain the garden; however, they have had a lot of volunteers drop out recently and we are looking for additional help.

All four sides of the building have been planted with FireWise plants and materials. Interpretive signage and a poster was also installed so folks could see that there are easy ways to protect their homes from wildfires with a little bit of planning.

As you know, Crawford County has been the site of many large fires in the past few years. In fact, the Four Mile Road Rest Area was used as an Incident Command Post during the Four Mile Road fire that jumped I-75.

We are looking for groups and individual volunteers who may be interested in working during a large work day this spring to get the garden presentable as well as for long-term maintenance such as weeding, pruning bushes, and mulching. No special skills are needed because we will have people on-site who can explain what needs to be done.

If you and/or your group are interested in helping us out for the long term, we may be able to get MDOT to install an Adopt a Landscape sign on-site with your group name on it.

Feel free to pass this information on to others who may be interested. Please contact me at the number below with any questions and/or dates that you might be available.

Happy Spring!

Ada M. Takacs - Michigan Dept of Natural Resources - Forest Resources Division
8717 N Roscommon Road - Roscommon , Michigan 48653
voice: 989-275-5151 x 2049 - fax: 989-275-5167 - takacsa@michigan.gov