Wednesday, March 23, 2005

THE OLD BALLFIELD - TIME FOR A NEW USE?

Located just south of the Park's Visitors Center, an open field with a very old baseball backstop sits empty. I've been passing through this area for most of the past 10 years and have never seen an actual baseball game happening. Most of the time it's empty with the occasional dog owner playing fetch with her or his pet.

It strikes me this is an opportunity for the community to consider a new use for this open and relatively unused space. I think we should confront the reality that baseball in Discovery Park is not realistic. The lack of lights, maintenance and outstanding facilities in the nearby Magnolia Playfield next to the Catherine Blaine school, all suggest that to refer to it as the "ballfield" is a stretch.

What to do with it? First, we could do nothing - leaving it as is. It provides open space - but little else. It has no views like the parade ground. A nice place to play catch or throw frisbee. Second, we could plant it over with native vegetation. A combination of ground cover, native shrubs and trees. This could be done slowly, allowing the site to evolve over many years time. Enhancing the diversity of the Parks habitat and adding to it's overall wildlife carrying capability would certainly result in a better Park.

Lastly, a more creative approach would be to use it as a sort of volunteer native plant nursery. Currently, the City Parks nursery supplies plants to the Parks for native restoration. Unfortunately, the number and quality of stock received from the central Parks nursery is limited. We can do better. Given the nearby location of the Visitors Center (restrooms, watering supply), the maintenance yard and access roads, a cooperative volunteer-run native plant nursery would be an ideal use for this parcel.

No comments: