Daphne Kahill, 6, enjoys the swings at Fassbinder Park on Tuesday. Although Fassbinder isn’t currently one of the parks in the city’s Organically Managed Lands Program, if it’s successful the program could be expanded to other parks in the system. /Photo by Steve  Eginoire

Parks in drive

City’s organic parks program under way

by Tracy Chamberlin

First came the idea. Then came the plan. Now, the city is putting its new parks program into high gear.

“I’m excited that it’s getting started,” said Katrina Blair, founder of Turtle Lake Refuge and an advocate of organically managed parks. “… It’s an exciting new frontier for taking care of our land.”

The first application of organic products, consisting of kelp, sea minerals and molasses, hit the turf this August in nine of Durango’s parks as the first step in Phase I of the Organically Managed Lands Program.

After the Parks and Recreation Department was tasked with creating the program, Director Cathy Metz called in someone with 10 years of experience in the field – Chip Osborne, founder and president of Osborne Organics based in Marblehead, Mass. 

On his first visit to Durango, Osborne toured the city’s parks and took soil samples, which he later tested for nutrients, biomass and pH levels.

He determined which approach would work well with the area’s soil composition and how best to implement that into the city’s current management style, something he lauded.

Although Osborne isn’t scheduled to return to Durango this year, he left behind a plan to transition the city’s parks from a conventional management style that tends to feed the plant or the grass, and into an organic management style that focuses on using natural products and processes to create a healthy soil. Osborne called it a “feed-the-soil approach.”

The new organic program mirrors the conventional one the city’s been using. “We didn’t want to lower the standard,” Metz said. This makes for a smoother, but also a much slower transition.

The process for organic management is more labor intensive and time consuming than traditional methods, according to Metz, and will take time to take hold.

Once it does, however, maintenance could be cost neutral. Following the initial investment in labor, materials and equipment, it’s thought that maintaining the turf grass using organic methods would be equivalent to conventional methods.

Blair said she is excited about the next time Osborne visits Durango, calling him a wealth of information and “a great resource for all of us.”

In order to test the turf on this new program, the city selected nine parks to be a part of the first phase: Brookside, Fanto, Folsom, Iris, Needham, Pioneer, Riverfront, Riverview Sports Complex and Schneider, making up almost a third of Durango’s parks.

Before each of these received the first application of organic products, they were photographed, catalogued and in great shape. The city even rebuilt and refurbished Fanto and Needham parks, all to make sure that each of the nine participating parks entered the program in tiptop shape.

“All the parks went into the program very strong,” Metz said.

Next, the city had to procure three pieces of equipment to implement the program: a sprayer, aerator and seeding machine. City officials could borrow the aerator and seeding machines until completing purchases, so the sprayer was first on the list.

Advocates of organically managed parks, including Blair, came together on this and raised $51,000 to help the city purchase the needed equipment to initiate the program.

“They’ve helped buy the sprayer,” Metz said, calling the effort impressive.

The funding to purchase the aerator and seeding machine has already been appropriated by the city, and officials are trying out the aerator and negotiating a purchase price for the seeding machine.

Blair said she is proud of the city for taking on an organic approach to park management, and is excited to see it under way.

One concern city officials have moving forward is access. “We may have to restrict use more than we have in the past,” Metz said.

As the conversion from conventional to organic takes place, the use of the parks could be impacted and some restrictions could be necessary.

For example, during last week’s deluge, athletic games scheduled the following weekend at city parks were cancelled. With rainy skies all over the southwest and flooding in many parts of Colorado, these cancellations didn’t necessarily stand out.

After all, it was raining.

But even if the rain had stopped and the athletes could have suited up, they might not have been able to hit the field at the nine organically managed parks.

It would take longer for these parks to recover from the kind of damage that follows heavy rain and heavy use than it would take conventionally managed parks. Also, it takes time for the new organic process to take hold, and damage to the turf could have thwarted the program just after it began.

The balancing act between implementing the new program and impacting the park’s use is something the city wants to keep an eye on, Metz said.

In the months ahead, the city plans to inspect each park on a regular basis. It will, however, be years before the success of the program can be measured.

So, for city officials and advocates of the organic approach it’s all a matter of time.