Waterways: Forest Park Forever Team Plants Over 3,400 Plants in One Morning

The entire Forest Park Forever team grabbed shovels, gloves and safety glasses on the morning of March 27 to enjoy some team building while bringing the East Waterways project closer to completion.

It was an all-hands-on-deck day involving over 70 staff members who planted over 3,400 shrubs and other plants that will beautify the new features around Jefferson Lake and the Taylor Kindle River in eastern Forest Park. For team members whose normal work day is behind a keyboard in the office, or greeting visitors at the Visitor and Education Center, or working outside but in other sections of the Park, this was an opportunity to lend a helping hand to a major capital project that is already delighting visitors with new views and perspectives.

Led by the team members who work in this zone every day — and who prepared the soil and dug holes ahead of time — the rest of the staff broke into teams to plant 3,200 plugs and 212 shrubs — part of over 20,000 plantings that are part of this project.

An unusually wet winter posed some challenges to the planting plan, so this all-staff activity was perfectly timed to boost this project. Overall, the site’s planting plan around Jefferson Lake, expected to be completed in May, includes:

• 558 trees

• 62 “Grey Owl” Junipers

• 223 Winterberry Holly

• 214 Oakleaf Hydrangea

• 2,000 Perennials at Wise Falls, the new cascade at the overlook on Clayton Avenue

• 1,100 Perennials at the donor plaza on Clayton overlooking the falls and Jefferson Lake

• 17,000 perennials planted along the “oxbow,” the curving waterway extension that now connects the Taylor Kindle River to Jefferson Lake.

Upon its opening in early 2025 visitors immediately began enjoying Bayer Boardwalk, a new feature of the East Waterways project that curves out over the surface of Jefferson Lake.

This is in addition to previous plantings for other improvements that are part of the East Waterways project, including 5,300 perennials and 25 shrubs planted along the east side of Bowl Lake last year, and a multi-year preparation of soil around Jefferson Lake for its transition from turf to a meadow ecoscape. Teams started preparing the meadow transition in 2022, as it’s a process that can take up to five years, dependent on invasive plant pressure, soil moisture and climate conditions.

But as this all-staff morning proved, one day can make a big difference — pulling our nonprofit conservancy’s team together to physically improve this great urban treasure.

“What a great morning of planting to enhance the East Waterways project,” said Shawnell Faber, Director of Land Management. “Kudos to the entire team — for coordinating the event, purchasing the plant material, laying out the design, and preparing the site so our entire Forest Park Forever staff could join in.”