At Oakland Township Parks and Recreation, we are privileged to work with dedicated volunteers whose contributions to our Natural Areas Stewardship program enrich our community. Today, we shine the spotlight on Lisa Muenzenberger, who has generously shared her love for nature, painting, birding, baking, and gardening to make our park natural areas more beautiful.
Lisa has been invaluable helping us expand our native seed collecting program. Join us tomorrow and Friday (October 2 and 3) from 12:30 -3:30 for our first seed collecting workdays of the fall! Check out our Volunteer Workdays page to learn more!
Volunteering to Give Back
Lisa Muenzenberger began volunteering with our Natural Areas Stewardship program in October 2022, driven by her love for the outdoors. She found that volunteering allowed her to stay active and contribute meaningfully while immersing herself in nature, experiencing its wonders, and giving back. “The people, the leadership, the parks, the information and instruction, and the opportunities to contribute and give back” make volunteering worthwhile for her. At Oakland Township Parks, Lisa values our “stewardship of the land, how we care for it, the philosophy of why we do what we do to be good caretakers.”
In addition to volunteering with us, Lisa bakes bread, loves painting, curates her home gardens, and plays clarinet with the North Oakland Concert Band. Lisa is a regular on our Wednesday morning bird walks, and helps with garlic mustard control, vernal pool monitoring, prescribed fire, and more! She finds joy observing the evolving flora, touring the park natural areas often from early spring through late fall to witness the daily growth.
Lots of Native Seed Collecting = Lots of Data!
Lisa has been particularly helpful in data management for our seed collecting, tracking where seed was collected and where it was spread. And there was a lot of data to manage when we tripled our seed collecting in 2024!
Lisa’s favorite memories from volunteering include “watching the seed collecting process from start to finish.” She loves seeing “the different ways seeds are collected, and when seeds are collected, cleaned, and redistributed. Then seeds are spread immediately in spring or are stored and spread before or after a prescribed burn.” In the future Lisa wants to continue to learn the growth cycles of native plants. This will help her know where the native plant species are located, when to collect them, and when to spread their seed.
Lisa also completed the Michigan Conservation Steward Program (CSP) through Michigan State University Extension in 2023. Her CSP capstone project helped us launch an initiative where folks grow native wildflowers with difficult-to-collect seed in their home garden. With leadership from volunteers like Lisa, we collected 171 pounds of native plant seed from 159 species in 2024, double or triple what we usually collect!
Learning About Nature with Our Stewardship Community
For those considering volunteering, Lisa says, “If you like nature, being outdoors doing some good, and learning from immensely knowledgeable people, the staff and volunteers are the best. They are well organized, and everyone’s strengths are appreciated. This is the place to be. Stewardship and land management are the strengths of the group. Plus, it’s fun with lots of great laughs.”
Check out the volunteer workdays page see the full schedule for seed collecting workdays this fall. To learn more about our natural areas stewardship program, visit the Oakland Township Parks website!
Lisa, thank you for being such a dedicated stewardship volunteer. You bring so many talents to your volunteering!Your dedication to gathering native seed and to helping the crew, your attention to detail in keeping track of the seed as it’s cleaned and stored, your laugh which is infectious and most of all your curiosity and love of learning, all of those are so important to our volunteer community. You’ve become an important part of restoring our natural areas and you’ve really made a difference.