outside event 2

I attended an outside event on February 28, 2010 at Overton Park for a free guided hike through Old Forest Trail the nature hike guide’s name was Naomi Van Tol. Naomi is on the board of Citizens to Preserve Overton Park. Naomi only volunteers her time for the park and helps to preserve what is left of Overton Park.
Before we began the hike Naomi told us what she does and how important it is that we preserve the forest as much as possible. She told us that the Memphis Zoo has 17 acres of the forest that they don’t really need because the can expand the other direction. She also told us some other things, but I was busy taking in scenery because even though the leaves are bare it was still pretty to look at. As I was looking at the crumpled leaves and bare barky tree trunks, she announced she was going to start the hike.
When Naomi started the hike, she started pointing things out and telling us about things like the trails were used for horse carriages and the stone bridges were made in the 1930’s. She also pointed out English ivy and it looked like the trees were wearing it like clothes. She had said that English Ivy sucks the nutrients from the trees and if it grows over the trees it could kill the tree eventually. Naomi pointed out poison ivy which I never knew could grow on trees like vines and the leaves look like whiskers.
There were other things she pointed out that fascinated me like the different fungus that grows on the trees and the nonnative plants that are not harmful and some that were harmful to the other plants that lived there. I didn’t know I could learn so much just walking on a dirt path through the forests.