Latest News
City to hold seed dispersal event at Dog Park on Feb. 21
The public is invited to participate in a native seed dispersal event to be led by Students 4 Sustainability at Central Community College-Hastings at a city park on on Friday.
The seed dispersal event is scheduled to take place 2 p.m., Friday Feb. 21 in the Hastings Dog Park on Elm Avenue just south of the Good Samaritan Society – Hastings Village.
The Hastings Dog Park has been established on the site of a former City of Hastings landfill.
Marty Stange, Environmental Director for the City of Hastings, said the diversity of plant species helps establish a healthy vegetative cover.
The growth of plants on site helps control the amount of water going into the landfill and allows carbon to enter the landfill. Carbon helps break down contaminants.
“They are necessary functions of what a phytocap does,” Stange said.
Phytocapping is a landfill capping technique that utilizes vegetation.
Students 4 Sustainability approached Stange about the event. Stange said this is a good partnership between Central Community College and the City of Hastings.
“This is also an opportunity for those students to see the impact of what they do because it’s a public space,” he said.
Seed species to be dispersed include the following:
- Pale Purple Coneflower- Echinacea pallidia
- Grey Headed Coneflower- Ratibida pinnata
- Showy Milkweed- Asclepias speciosa
- Sweet Coneflower- Rudbeckia subtomentosa
- Pitcher Sage- Salvia azurea
- Wild Senna- Senna hebecarpa
- Penstemon- Penstemon digitalis
- Goldenrod- Solidago canadensis
- Yarrow- Achillea millefolium
- Aromatic Aster- Symphyotrichum oblongifolium
- Sweet Coneflower- Rhudbeckia subtomentosa
- Big Bluestem- Andropogon gerardii
- Little Bluestem- Schizachyrium scoparium
- Poppy Mallow- Callirhoe involucrata
- New Jersey Tea- Ceanothus americanus
- Sunflower- Helianthus annuus
Published Date: 02/19/2025