The recent history of the preserve starts in 2005, when The Trust for Public Land, partnering with the City of Arlington, purchased the land from a housing developer. The trust held the land until Arlington voters passed a bond package. It took years of restoration and improvements before the facility opened to the public in 2013. We marked the 8th Anniversary of the park’s grand opening with a program at the preserve on Saturday, November 6th.
Laura Capik welcomed the group with some history of how the preserve came to be, plus a run-down of the projects that the Friends group has undertaken in the last few years.
Jim Frisinger led a walk to the north edge of the preserve, explaining the project to restore the prairie in that area, describing the decisions we’re making on what should be encouraged and protected and what steps we are taking to help this prairie area thrive. Click here for the video of the walk
After the walk, we served refreshments and visited the Audubon Birding area off the Pollinator Meadow.