Around two dozen volunteers spent Earth Day with shovels in hand planting trees to restore a deteriorating forest preserve on the east side of Des Moines.
After being left to grow unchecked for years, Polk County Conservation officials are working to transform a portion of the 40-acre Strasser Woods State Preserve this spring by removing invasive species and replacing them with hundreds of native trees.
The planting, which includes funding from the Iowa Woodland Owners Association, a nonprofit that advances the interest of woodland owners, is a tribute to a former member Tom Brady. It's also part of a larger project to improve the site's ecology and build up resistance in an area historically prone to devastating floods.
Here's what to know about Strasser Woods and the tree-planting efforts:
What is Strasser Woods?
The 40-acre Strasser Woods State Preserve, located at 1552 E. 36th St. in Des Moines, is made up of bottomland forest habitat that's part of the Fourmile Creek Greenway and next to the Gay Lea Wilson Trail.
The preserve features a half-mile hiking trail where users can see a display of wildflowers in early spring.
Joseph and Elizabeth Strasser had owned the property since 1965 before they donated it to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation in 1981, according to a news release from Bankers Trust, one of the volunteer companies planting trees. The woodland now is owned by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and managed by the Polk County Conservation.
What is the planting event?
After years of leaving the forest to grow unchecked, Polk County Conservation, Iowa Woodland Owners Association and volunteers from around the community are working to restore 13 acres of deteriorated bottomland forest at the preserve through forestry mowing and planting, according to conservation officials.
Last winter, the county hired a contractor to remove invasive and poorly formed trees to make room for healthy tree growth.
The next phase, being accomplished by dozens of volunteers, is planting 750 high-quality native trees, which officials say will increase the diversity of the tree species and, in turn, benefit Strasser Woods' ecology and wildlife.
Tree species being planted include sycamore, swamp white oak, Kentucky coffeetree and bur oak, according to county conservation officials.
Volunteers — primarily from a team at the Iowa Woodland Owners Association and Bankers Trust, Iowa’s largest privately owned bank — began the tree planting last week. The work continued on Earth Day with volunteers from biofuel companies and organizations including Growth Energy and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Other volunteers included the Boy Scouts of America.
Also in attendance was Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Secretary Mike Naig, who touted Iowa breaking a record for E15 gasoline usage in 2023, as well as the state's conservation practices.
Who was Tom Brady?
Brady, who was known as "the man of many trees," was a longtime Polk County resident and former president of Toad Valley Golf Course in Pleasant Hill, according to county conservation officials.
Brady also was the writer of a column in Timber Talk, a quarterly publication by Iowa Woodland Owners Association geared toward woodland owners.
"Tom Brady ... planted literally thousands and thousands of native trees," Iowa Woodland Owners Association board member Steve Meyer said at the event on Monday. "What they're doing here with restoring this parcel, 700 acres of land, to what it originally was ... it's very near and dear to me."
How does the restoration help with flood resistance?
The Strasser Woods efforts are part of a larger project along the Fourmile Creek Greenway, about 800 acres of once-residential flood-prone land slated to be restored to native habitat, according to the county conservation.
Des Moines' Fourmile Creek neighborhood was devastated by a 2018 flash flood. It forced emergency evacuations and caused damage to at least 1,800 homes in the city. Since then, the city of Des Moines has bought out many of the properties in the Fourmile neighborhood that sit in the 100- to 500-year floodplain that are prone to repeated damage, with much of the land now transferred to Polk County Conservation, according to county conservation ecologist Amanda Brown.
"We have somewhere around 80,000 residents in this watershed that are affected by it so this is going to benefit them drastically and hopefully reduce that flashiness that's associated with the creek," said county conservation volunteer coordinator Melissa Dempsey.
Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.
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