The effort to remediate the Auld-Brokaw Trail and fix damage caused by the 2019 bomb cyclone is well under way.
As part of this project, the city will take a more active role in landscaping the remediated portions of the trail both to add to the aesthetics of the system as well as to strengthen the project’s erosion control abilities in the future.
Yankton Parks & Recreation Director Todd Larson told the Press & Dakotan the landscaping is a part of the approved FEMA project to rebuild the damaged sections of the trail system.
“There are five stretches that they’re going to do some improvements on,” he said. “Landscaping-wise, they will put some willow tree stakes down at the bottom (close to the creek). … The willow stakings will allow the roots to get in and really hold the soil down there. As you move up the banks away from the water, there will be a ‘wet prairie’ mix (of grasses) … which has some big bluestem, some Indian grass, switchgrass involved in it. There will also be some plantings, so not only will you have the seed mixture for low ground cover, there are going to be plantings of hackberry trees, chokecherry trees, American plums and then there will be some smooth sumac and fragrant sumac as you work your way up.”
Larson said the city made some attempts at introducing limited landscaping along the trail pre-2019.
“We had identified before this flooding happened spots that did get full sun that we wanted some native flowers,” he said. “We tried, but sometimes over the last decade, we’ve been dry enough that it really got tough if we weren’t watering stuff to get it established. Of course, if we did get it established, whatever we had established got taken out with the flood of 2019.”
He said the new landscaping effort will be completely different.
“There will be some watering done to get everything established over the next two to three years,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of ground moved, reshaped and planted. … All of these plants have been chosen because they’re native. They can handle wet soil. They have deep root systems and thick root systems to hold the dirt in place really, really well.”
Larson said the plants will also be able to handle dry weather patterns, as well.
“All of these plants have great root systems to hold that dirt in place and then hopefully can survive our different types of environments in the spring and summer,” he said. “It will give (the trail) some color. Not only do you want the roots to hold, but you want plants that are going to be attractive, too.”
Additionally, pollinator plots will be hosted by various groups such as the Sierra Club and others.
Larson said there will also be a new emphasis when it comes to how the trail’s landscaping is approached and maintained that differs greatly from pre-2019 policy.
“Along Marne Creek and some of the areas that we mowed and trimmed with our weed trimmers, it was more to our park standard — the grass was kept pretty short,” he said. “After 2019, looking at the flooding plans … we the city are going to do less natural turf maintenance. We’re going to mow less. We’re going to weed-trim less. We’re going to make sure we have riparian zone buffers from the edge of the water up 10-20 feet (toward the trail), if we can.”
He said, depending on weather this spring, remediation efforts along the trail should be complete by the end of summer or early fall.
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