Shrubby thickets: formerly concentrated along larger animal trails and campsites of Native Americans. This can be developed in the park along some woodland edges, with new plantings along selected margins.
Rather than large animals, mowing and selective cutting can be used to maintain. Above all, the alien bush-honeysuckle needs to be excluded.
Typical soils: nutrient-rich, especially on gentler slopes with deeper ancient soils (paleudalfs), and perhaps locally on damper swales with more organic soils (argiudolls).
Typical shrubby species: pawpaw, plums, blackhaws, wahoo, roughleaf dogwood, coralberry, cane. It is likely that some of these native species will reduce reinvasion of the alien bush honeysuckle, especially those that spread with root-suckers. In a few areas of the park (at least on adjacent private land), the native cane could be established; but the park already has two patches of East Asian bamboos with which to contend.
For more details: at bluegrasswoodland.com, section E in “Central Bluegrass Plants”; also “Bluegrass Woodland and its Eutrophic Nature”. In Nature Preserves system, see “Bluegrass Mesophytic Cane Forest”.
