Come to the Roanoke Park FEST
THIS Sunday, October 6th, 5 pm to 7 pm

FREE MUSIC: Ernest James Zydeco!
ICE CREAM: Palacana cart (on us)!
BYO PICNIC!
FAMILY FUN: Face painter for the kiddos!

Location: Across from the Westport Roanoke Community Center

It's time for another park party! Let's enjoy a beautiful evening in the park together, chatting in the south meadow, listening to music, and having some delicious cold treats on us from Palacana/Tropicana. Bring your own picnic food (no food truck this year). Bring chairs or your picnic blanket and enjoy the evening. Rock on!

Sponsored by Roanoke Park Conservancy, in your People Powered Park

Share this article, or the event on Facebook to spread the word to park neighbors and fans:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1622962185282875

Free concert by Ernest James Zydeco!

Ernest James Zydeco - www.facebook.com/ejzydeco
"Smacks it Hard!" -Offbeat Magazine (New Orleans, Louisiana)
"Faithful to the genre with an unrelenting groove" -Living Blues Magazine (Mississippi)
"Ernest James, a singer and dazzler on accordion, delivers zydeco good times and harrowing blues" -Downbeat Magazine

Hope to see you there!

THIS Sunday!

2024 PIAC Submission: Nature Playground, Basketball Court, Stone Restoration

Since it was founded the Roanoke Park Conservancy has worked with the parks department to seek PIAC funding for improvements throughout the park with great success. These requests have aligned with the 2011 Master Plan, and benefited from the strong support of nearby neighborhood associations.

The focus of the past few years has been improving the "south meadow," the lobe of the park southwest of the community center. These improvements include: renewing the tennis courts, new sidewalks, additional lighting, and entry pillars and signage. The Conservancy has been working with the parks department to provide design intent drawings for the many south meadow projects which have received funding. With that in hand, they will be able to put projects out to bid with more accuracy and fidelity to the intentions of the original PIAC requests. See our 2022 PIAC article for an explanation of the South Meadow elements. 

Our 2024 PIAC request included:

Volker Spring Nature Playground. Providing natural enhancements and outdoor play experiences on the west side of the park. Currently, the area lacks activities outside of a lone swing, nature trails, and winter sledding. We proposed the addition of a boardwalk leading from Karnes to a spring overlook, then to a naturally flat area where a nature playground could be constructed. Log scrambles, boulders, net climbers, and stumps could entertain kids while surrounding hammocks and seating could accommodate caretakers and everyone else wanting to enjoy the health benefits of nature. The "naturally flat area" is above the runout of the winter sledding. This area is accessible from the Volker neighborhood via the trail entrance off Wyoming or the Park Court staircase. 

Basketball Court. The well-used court southeast of the volleyball court is in need of a refresh. We requested a slightly larger footprint for a half court and a higher strength goal for longevity's sake. The current court is apparently asphalt and cracking at the edges. Sports court surfacing matching the tennis/pickleball courts was requested. 

Stone Wall / Pillar Restoration. Stone is an integral part of Roanoke Park's charm – both its natural stone bluffs and historic masonry walls and pillars. Historic photographs of these stone walls and pillars show the appreciation of these elements decades ago. However recent decades have seen an insuffient level of maintenance and a recent instance of vehicle damage. If left to further deteriorate they will only get more costly to repair or slowly disappear over time. 

Click the images below for pdfs of the 2024 request.

FROM invasive wintercreeper monoculture TO Diversity and Ecological Restoration.

WINTERCREEPER WEDNESDAYS
Twice a month, 5:30pm - dusk

September 25, October 9 & 23. 

Wintercreeper Wednesday #10 (September 25th - Facebook event link to come.)
Meeting at the Park Ct stairs, east of Wyoming on the west side of the park:
maps.app.goo.gl/u1cZjgGL5xHEP2SC7

Why? - Because wintercreeper snuffs out native plants (and trees).

Wintercreeper on the trees will continue to spread seeds of this aggressive invasive plant throughout our park and neighborhoods unless we get it under control by cutting and treating. Read more on this site about why wintercreeper is bad.

Our Rebuild KC grant funded ecological restoration contractors did work on the park's "best 6 acres" a couple times. After a walk-through with KCMO Parks' environmental manager, they were tasked with using cut/treat methods on bush honeysuckle, spraying ground carpets of wintercreeper, and basal bark spraying buckthorn and tree of heaven. This was a dramatic frontal assault on the park's worst invaders. 

But they didn't get the wintercreeper growing up trees. That's up to us volunteers.

See the "Best 6 ac -Volunteers" map for areas and notes with a focus on what us volunteers can do. Orange markers/areas were recently done. Red markers/areas are not yet done. The Wintercreeper Wednesday work sessions will focus on getting all the wintercreeper growing up trees within these areas as noted on the map. Burroughs Audubon recently posted about the inspiring rebirth of the Shirling Sanctuary in Swope park, using the same methods we're employing: contractors spraying the wintercreeper in September and volunteers cutting/treating it from the trees year 'round: facebook.com/AudubonKC/post... Another inspiring story is the KC Parks Ambassadors group that finished cutting ALL the honeysuckle from Gillham Park last year.

Message RoanokeParkKC on Facebook or on Instagram, or email Chris DeLong at nature(at)roanokeparkkc(dot)org to join in.
Join the email from our home page and check [✔️] "Interested in Work Days" to get notice of these and other cleanups and habitat improvement events.

Are you a member of KC Parks Ambassadors? These events have been added to their calendar. If you aren't, leader Kelly Turner (Jander) is an inspiration and would love it if you joined them. 
Learn about it here: https://kcparks.org/volunteering/ 

Let’s form a community of Wintercreeper Warriors!

Session #1 Report (May 8)
Thanks to ADAM for helping Chris with the first event. We exposed a neat rock face topped by a rock wall dating to circa 1900 at the property line. Four volunteer hours logged.

Read more ...