If I need a place to go to watch a sunset or connect with nature or try to come to terms with the wretched excesses of life each day seems to bring, the trail through Park Forest’s Central Park Wetlands is my choice.
From its trailhead at the Aqua Center parking lot west to an exit in Central Park, the path for me is a quiet refuge from the tattered remains of the day. This is especially so in a small portion of the walk where, surrounded by tall plants and overarching leaves of shade trees which muffle the noise of the day, I become a quiet traveler in a distant island of peace.
More than 70 years ago, American Community Builders, the developers of the village of Park Forest, seemed to have an answer for almost everything when it came to constructing homes, creating streets and developing businesses. No one ever had a good plan for the boggy northern half of a 90-acre parcel of land in the center of the new community.
It was swampland with peat soil as deep as 36 feet below ground in some places along with patches of open water and populated by numerous birds, ducks and other wildlife. The southern portion was turned into a park site, complete with baseball and softball diamonds, a tennis court and later a large playground.
You can’t do much with peat. It is decaying plant material in a waterlogged area. Build a house on peat soil one month, watch it sink below ground the next month.
During the 1960s, the village installed more than 26,000 feet of drain tile to dry the site, then graded and seeded the expanse with turf grass. The area was repeatedly mowed on a monthly basis for more than 20 years. Although the surface seemed to dry, the peat remained. There was talk about a soccer field and creating a lake in the area, but nothing was done. A villagewide referendum to turn the area into a golf course was defeated by voters.
Nothing worked. Half of Central Park was still unstable swampland, and it seemed it would remain unusable and untended.
Fast forward another 20 years. Rising maintenance costs led to a sharp decrease in mowing the area and, although the drain tile system was in place, unwanted plants crept in the now dry, grassy space. The area was not yet an eyesore, but village officials looked for ways to improve the site. Finally in 1999 as part of the village’s 50th anniversary celebration, the Central Park site was selected as a Watershed Demonstration site by the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association.
Under the guidance of former village park director John Joyce and his successor, Rob Gunther, the area was reseeded with native species. A walking path along with an observation deck was built and it became part of the village’s three projects when it went to the 2001 All-America City competition.
The area needed constant maintenance, a task that included the elimination of tall reeds and cattails that soaked much of the shallow water.
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“When these reeds are there, nothing else can grow,” said Gunther.
In 2012, someone numbskull set fire to the deck. Flames rose 40 feet before being brought under control but the blaze also destroyed many of those invasive plants but paved the way another of those community outpourings for which the village is noted. It would cost nearly $10,000 to rebuild, restore and upgrade the site. Half the money came from village coffers and half from donations by residents and the Rotary Club. The result was a platform on steroids, longer, higher and with ramps to allow for wheelchairs.
For some years, a seven-person team from the federally funded AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps helps maintain the area by trimming, planting, plucking the vegetation as well as replacing planks on the trail.
Who knows who you will meet on the trail? It could be me.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.