While enjoying a walk in the river valley last weekend, Ben Sugars was disappointed with what he found at Louise McKinney Park.
The riverfront park just east of the funicular was overgrown with weeds. He found garbage discarded around pathways and staircases, and flowers curled up dead in dry planters.
In some areas, grass was worn away by vehicle traffic and paving stones were crumbling.
“The park itself was quite run down,” Sugars said.
“There was no one here. I think that’s a testament to just how poorly maintained and how unappealing the place is.”
Sugars says he’s worried tourists will be left with a poor impression of the city after visiting the park.
Construction of the Valley Line LRT has disturbed the park, closing down some trails and increasing vehicle traffic through the park.
Sugars says that’s no excuse for the weeds — some of which towered above the handrails on staircases.
But according to the city of Edmonton, it’s supposed to look like that. For now, anyway.
The city says it can take a few years for the natural grasses and flowers to overtake weeds in a naturalized park. This photo was taken in Louise McKinney Park on July 29. (Ben Sugars)
‘Reclaiming the land’
Valerie Dacyk, supervisor of integrated pest management for the city, says for the past year or so, the park has been in the process of converting back to a naturalized state.
This means the city is transforming maintained land to a more natural state. It has stopped mowing the grass and is letting native grasses and plants grow, weeding only when necessary.
“It’s kind of reclaiming the land back to what it was before people [came],” she said.
Catherine Falk, a community greening coordinator for the city’s Root for Trees initiative, says Edmonton has been doing naturalization in some areas since the 1950s and 60s, and tries to incorporate elements of naturalization in every park.
It can take two to three years for grasslands to finally overtake the weeds, she said.
Louise McKinney Park is in those first few years of the somewhat awkward stage of naturalization, Dacyk said.
The city goes into naturalized areas two to three times a year to manually remove excessive weeds, but it’s been tough for crews to get in lately because of LRT construction, Dacyk says.
The city will be removing some of the taller weeds in the park within the next two weeks, she says.
The areas most overgrown with weeds are around the funicular and in areas where previous landscaping methods proved unsuccessful.
“I’m working with the city gardeners to select some species to plant in those areas to hopefully, naturally, stop the weed spread and give it a more manicured, naturalized look,” Dacyk said.
“The naturalization within the city is an ongoing project and we appreciate everyone’s patience in waiting to get to the final state of the pristine natural grasslands that we are aiming for.”
The naturalization within the city is an ongoing project and we appreciate everyone’s patience.– Valerie Dacyk
Sugars said he was surprised to hear the park is undergoing naturalization, a concept he feels contradicts the city’s future plans to build restaurant space in the park.
In the meanwhile, he thinks more regular maintenance and weeding would do wonders for the public’s perception of a naturalized park.
At the very least, a sign notifying visitors that the naturalization process is underway would help, Sugars said.
“There’s certainly no … easy-to-find signage there that would indicate that that’s a natural regeneration area in process,” he said.
“Maybe it’s hidden in the overgrowth.”
Sugars is concerned about the impression tourists might be left with of the city, based on the current condition of the downtown park. (Ben Sugars)