New sign about the importance of the native plants incorporated in the Town Centre Park

The Kilmarnock Town Centre Park is a regional asset is so many ways -the Dog Park, the Half Shell Stage, the Splash Pad, the River Play kids water feature and all the events it hosts but one that is often overlooked is the sustainability merged in the park’s construction. Long term vison incorporated impervious parking to reduce stormwater runoff, onsite stormwater management, energy-efficient building systems, and landscaping that included extensive native plantings of bay friendly plants. Hats off to all the city employees with the vision and commitment to make the park an example for all long into the future. And hats off to the Kilmarnock Town Council members who in 2014 voted to carry the park forward, and forward it came three years later.

On Friday, June 23rd at 10 am, the Northen Neck Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society will be dedicating a new sign about the importance of the native plants incorporated in the Town Centre Park. Please join us for the unveiling of the sign and a brief tour of the park.

This new sign is a collaborative effort between the Native Plant Society and the Friends of the Rappahannock River in celebrating our native Flora and all of the biodiversity and ecological services they provide. It will complement the existing Friends of the Rappahannock River sign that explains the importance of managing Stormwater Runoff in protecting our rivers and the Bay and the innovative techniques used at the Kilmarnock Town Center Park. The timing is perfect as this is National Pollinator Week and our Northern Neck native plants are vitally important to supporting our pollinators from bees to butterflies to moths and other pollinators. Many of these pollinators depend on specific native plants to raise their young and successfully generate populations for future years. And the birds depend on insects especially for the feeding of their young.

The Town Centre Park is one of the demonstration gardens on the Northern Neck Chapter of Virginia’s Native Garden Trail and a wonderful place to observe a diversity of native plants and how they can shine in the landscape. Besides, Kilmarnock Town Park is full of a diversity of native plants and is one of the butterfly hot spots on our two Lancaster-Northumberland Butterfly Counts each year.