The Metro's New Necklace and Jewels Will Promote Healthy Lifestyles

By Daniel Jones, PhD, MF

If you have ever walked or biked through Cherokee or Seneca Park , run the mini-marathon through Iroquois Park , or played baseball at Shawnee Park , then you know firsthand the great legacy of Louisville 's park system. Over one hundred years ago, the leaders of our city determined to build these parks, under the visionary guidance of the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, in order to create public spaces for recreation, relaxation, conservation, and contemplation. These parks not only reflected the public's desire for parkland and recreation facilities, but they also provided a kind of “green infrastructure” that shaped the city's growth as new neighborhoods developed around them. Iroquois Park, once known as “Jacob's folly” (after Mayor Jacobs, who purchased the land for the park) because it lay so far to the south of the city's edge, now stands as an oasis of green space surrounded by urban development. In combination with a series of parkways, the parks also helped to knit the city together around a vision of a unified community. Finally, because our parks were the creation of one of history's greatest landscape architects, they remain one of the most significant works of art within our city.

The goal of our organization, 21 st Century Parks, Inc. is to help create a similar process for a new ring of parks in the southeastern part of Jefferson County , along Floyd's Fork. Established as a non-profit corporation, 21 st Century Parks, Inc. combines its management team with the talent and resources of Future Fund, Inc., founded by former Lt. Governor Steve Henry, Louisville 's Metro government led by Mayor Jerry Abramson, and Metro Parks , led by Cabinet Secretary Mary Lou Northern and Parks Director Mike Heitz. Our purpose is to combine lands already owned by Future Fund, Inc. and Metro Parks , with new lands purchased recently, to create a 27 mile long “necklace” of parklands and recreational trails. The project's scope includes over 5000 acres of land for trails, parks, and viewshed preservation. The diversity and beauty of the landscape along Floyd's Fork mean that this park, like the Olmsted parks before it, will meld a variety of interests and uses, that range from active recreation to natural preservation.

The chain of the “necklace” will be formed by the trail system, envisioned as a linear pathway that will host a variety of users from walkers and joggers to bikers and perhaps even horses. The “jewels” adorning this necklace will be a series of 3-4 larger parks, some of which will be for passive uses such as natural areas or woodland hiking trails, and some will serve more active recreation such as ballfields or picnic areas. The first stage in the development of this parkland will be to develop a Master Plan that combines community input with professional design expertise to integrate the many different priorities the community assigns to the project. This process will include a great deal of public input from individuals and organizations from around the city.

Because the process of public input will help to determine the uses of the park, no specific list of activities currently exists. A walk across the landscape, however, presents many possibilities. Floyd's Fork itself has already cut a trail across the landscape. In combination with a series of canoe launches planned by Metro Parks, and financed with help from the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Department, as well as private individuals, a canoe trail will eventually allow individuals and families to traverse the park system from a number of entry points.

The main trail system on land, as yet undeveloped, will pass through a number of unique landscapes within the project area, and will cover approximately 27 miles and fill in almost a third of the planned county loop system that is the heart of Mayor Jerry Abramson's “City of Parks ” Initiative. This trail could accommodate many uses, from walking and jogging to biking and perhaps even horseback riding. As the trail weaves in and out of the landscape, it will occasionally intersect areas of more active use. Some of these areas would include playgrounds and picnic areas, others would host large complexes of ballfields. These field areas might include soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, football, or any number of other possible layouts, depending on public interest and the community-wide needs of our recreational organizations.

Other areas will remain largely undeveloped. These passive use areas might include some woodland trails that would provide access to the diversity of landscapes that exist along Floyd's Fork. Birders and woodland hikers could cross landscapes that range from the riparian corridors along the stream (with their unique flora and fauna) to upland areas of caves and mature forest. Environmental educators could teach their students about the ecology of the stream and its surrounding forests, as well as the changes that such a system faces, both from natural events, and because of its proximity to an urban area.

Some of the farms that remain on the landscape might serve as demonstrations for the agriculture of Kentucky . Other fields might host community gardens. Some of the older buildings will be preserved as interpretive sites for the early history of Kentucky . Following environmental and cultural inventories, great care will be taken to work around areas of unique historical (including Native American prehistory) and ecological value as different sites are chosen for the various uses that the Master Plan process identifies as having high priority. Finally, the park system will be designed to allow access for our entire community. Whether arriving by car, bike, or on foot, the plan will work to link the trail and road systems of the park smoothly into those of the surrounding areas and neighborhoods.

All great cities have great park systems. One of the legacies of the first two centuries of our city's existence are our wonderful parks. The Olmsted firm, in partnership with our city's civic leadership, set the bar high. By building parks that provided green infrastructure, recreation facilities, community links, and high aesthetic standards, they challenge us to integrate the community's needs into a similar vision that will create the next generation of parks for our city. By preserving the landscape along Floyd's Fork and making it available for public recreation and relaxation, as well as natural conservation, our generation will expand upon this wonderful legacy and pass along a new generation of parks to our descendants.

Daniel H. Jones is the founder and CEO of 21 st Century Parks, Inc. He holds a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Ph.D. in the history of American conservation from Indiana University . In previous lives, he worked in business management and taught history. For exercise he hikes, plays soccer, and sometimes goes running.