Council recently agreed to a pitch from Smalls, in consultation with city staff, to improve a low-lying area in Mike Weir Park.
Education and communication are key as Sarnia moves forward with naturalization projects, says a city man helping to lead the projects.
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“Because if you just go into a public park and just, without any consultation with the neighborhood, just start changing it, there’s going to be pushback,” said Mike Smalls, a retired landscape designer.
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Council recently agreed to a pitch from Smallsin consultation with city staff, to improve a low-lying area in Mike Weir Park with educational boards identifying plantings, and adding more trees, perennials and shrubs, bird boxes, nesting poles and observation areas.
Plans are for Smalls and city staff to work on improving the area next spring, after recent complaints about the site being unkemptand calls for change.
“I know I can turn Mike Weir Park, that area, into something really cool,” Smalls said, calling for public patience.
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“Tarzanland didn’t just happen in two or three years,” he said, referring to a popular area in Canatara Park.
“It’s years and years.”
If it’s done right “the payoff is huge,” he said.
It’s also important to recognize that naturalization means work, not just leaving areas “willy nilly” and nature to take it’s course, he said.
Plans are also to hire a consultant to craft a plan, along with city staff and Smalls, for a naturalized area along Berger Road that’s drawn similar scorn.
There needs to be public input on that concept, Smalls said.
“The dialogue needs to be open between the public and the designing process, and bearing in mind that people don’t really know ecology,” he said.
People “have to be shown and told ‘This is what we’re thinking of doing and this is why,’” he said, adding the area could be “a gem in that neighborhood.”
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More naturalization projects for underused grassy spaces in the city’s more than 100 parks could be part of the future if city council opts to hire an ecologist. That $162,000-per-year, budget-deliberation decision could save the city time and money when it comes to looking into ecological impacts for things such as development proposals and naturalization projects, advocates have argued.
More naturalized areas also add value and cut down on empty space that requires mowing, city staff have said.
No other specific areas are being eyed for naturalization now, said parks and recreation manager Krissy Glavin.
Strategies in the city’s climate, waterfront and urban forestry master plans though “offer the chance to transition over time the way in which public lands are managed,” community services general manager Stacey Forfar said in a report.
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“Moving away from a day-to-day maintenance lens to looking at these lands (including right-of-ways as well as parks and other areas) through an ecological lens to support habitat creation and ecological diversity.”
Naturalization in Centennial Park is also part of the waterfront master planthough when that might happen isn’t clear, Glavin said.
The cost for the Mike Weir Park project isn’t expected to be extensive, she said, noting a request for proposal process for “hopefully a landscape architect” will be part of the Berger Road project.
Staff look forward to working with Smalls, she said.
“I think he’s brought some great ideas.”
Asked why he wanted to be involved, Smalls said it just happened to work out that way.
“I have a bit of knowledge, just due to my 35 years of horticulture training,” he said.
“It appears to me to be the opportune time and I don’t want this momentum to be lost.”
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