Friends of Washington Grove
An old-growth forest in the city of Rochester
Washington Grove, the easternmost extremity of Cobbs Hill Park, comprises about 26 acres of relatively undisturbed old growth forest within the bounds of the City of Rochester. As part of a city park, Washington Grove is open to all visitors year-round and can be accessed from Nunda Boulevard or the meadow adjacent to Cobbs Hill Reservoir.
In 1935 the principal of Rochester’s Washington Junior High School declared that, “The Grove is a beautiful woods upon a wonderful hill. It is a haven for birds and small animal life. Its a place for ferns and flowers of the wooded dell. It speaks to you of a wonderful past, it begs you to make it a glorious future for people to enjoy. What Washington Grove will become depends on your present consideration and your thoughtful care.” The challenge he issued then is particularly valid today.
History
Washington Grove, a 26-acre old growth Oak-Hickory forest, is located in the southeastern corner of the City of Rochester. A group of citizens purchased the 26 acres to prevent it being used as a gravel pit, and in 1912 transferred the land to the City of Rochester as dedicated parkland. In 1932 the grove, on the bicentennial of his birth, was dedicated to George Washington. It now forms part of Cobbs Hill Park and is extensively used by people from Rochester and surrounding communities as a public amenity and green lung.
You can read more about the history of the Grove in this pamphlet, written in the years following the park’s dedication
Ecology
Washington Grove is dominated by 100 to 200 year-old Red, White and Black Oaks. Other common trees are American Linden, several species of Hickory, White Ash, Eastern Yellow Poplar (Tuliptree), Sugar and Norway Maples, Cherry, Butternut and Sassafras. The most dominant native shrub is Mapleleaf Viburnum. The herbaceous layer is sparse or non-existent in many areas but large patches of Mayapple and Virginia Creeper exist throughout the Grove. Other herbaceous plants usually exist in small solitary clumps. In spite of the competition from invasive plants over 110 native plant species are found in the grove.
Three events in the 20th century significantly impacted the Grove’s ecology. In 1904 Chestnut Blight was introduced in the United States from Asian nursery stock. Over the next decades the blight killed an estimated four billion American Chestnut trees, including those that were an important component of the Grove. Today American Chestnut sprouts can be found in the Grove, but these small trees never reach maturity before succumbing to the blight. In response, in the 1930’s school children from adjacent City School #1 planted hundreds of Sugar Maples in the Grove to replace the lost chestnuts; the Sugar Maples now represent a significant proportion of its large trees. Third, Norway Maples, imported from Europe and a significant part of Rochester’s street tree inventory, became established in the Grove, competing with and suppressing the regeneration of native trees; the dense shade of the Norway Maple’s canopy provides a perfect environment for the inhibition of the native understory, and for the establishment of invasive shrubs and ground covers.
The Friends, in collaboration with their public partner, the City of Rochester and the help of the community, are attempting to implement the fourth major change in the Grove by eliminating invasive plants and reintroducing native species. Since 2011 City of Rochester foresters have removed large Norway Maples from all but the North slope and the eastern boundary. The Friends continue to remove regenerating Norway Maples. The natural seed banks have, however, been inadequate to restore the herb and shrub layers and the Friends are working to introduce plants that are absent, scarce or not successfully reproducing in a typical Oak-Hickory forest community.
The original plant community can never be replicated; the success of the Sugar Maple plantings of 80 years ago is an example of how the community has been irretrievably altered. Within the decades to come climate change will push the southern limit of boreal species northward as more southerly plants on the northern edge of their range become more dominant.
The Grove is the home to the full complement of urban wildlife, including wild turkey and enough occasional visits of White Tailed Deer for deer browse to be a concern. We see evidence of porcupines, and for a time the Grove was home to a fox. During spring and fall migration the Grove is a major feeding and nesting area for birds; 142 species of birds have been observed over one 18-year period. Sightings of Pileated Woodpeckers are common.
Geology
The Grove is the eastern extremity of a line of high ground known to Rochesterians as the Pinnacle Range, which extends from here roughly in a westward direction to the Genesee river. The Pinnacle Range is part of a larger moraine deposited approximately 11,000 to 12,000 years ago by the receding ice front of an enormous glacier. Within the Grove the action of the glacier is especially evident in the two steep-sided depressions (kettles) formed by slowly melting ice chunks trapped within the deposited material. As a result of the formation of the terrain, the soil in the Grove is predominantly sand and gravel for a considerable depth. Its high permeability affects plant species composition and distribution.
Trail Management
A series of trails crisscross the Grove, providing opportunities for walkers, runners, bird watchers, dog walkers and cross country skiers. Over the last several decades the use of Washington Grove has greatly increased, resulting in the erosion and widening of many of the trails as well as the establishment of many new ones. In 2016 the City of Rochester funded a study of the trail system to recommend improvements to the trails and the Grove’s entryways, with a view to the long-term sustainability of an environmentally sensitive trail system. We are working to gradually implement its recommendations.