Reclaiming Red Oak Park, Fayetteville

When I first moved into this neighborhood this stream did not exist in Red Oak Park. Storm water from the surrounding developments has eroded this little valley and when it rains water gushes through this bed. In some spots it has carved deeply to the bed rock and other places is eating away at the banks. A number of trees have had their roots undercut and other trees are threatened.

The AR Game and Fish Commission Stream Team has worked together with the Parks and Recreation staff to solve the problem. The solution involves recreating the bed, stabilizing the banks and placing blocks of stones along the stream in an effort to slow the water down. In the process of creating the new bed some trees will have to be cut. This disturbs some people, like Mayor Coody.

"If we try to fix the problem on the upstream side of the street, they’ll be taking out huge swaths of huge trees that you’ll need to decide if you want to lose or not because it will change the character of that piece of land dramatically," he told the council. "You all need to just go take a look with your two eyeballs before approving this out of hand."

The Parks and Recreation staff aren't happy about cutting down some trees but they realize that in order to save the whole park, some healthier trees will have to be removed. They do plan to plant more shrubs and trees in the park to replace anything that is taken down. If this plan works, the park will have more vegetation in it before the erosion. Frankly, I don't understand why the Mayor seems resistant to removing some trees. He and the City Council have approved of the removal of thousands of trees when they approve housing developments, banks, grocery and department stores. Why suddenly balk at the prospect of repairing a park?

A majority of the residents meeting Monday night with the Parks and Recreation staff approved the plan, although mourning the loss of some trees. One resident suggested that some of the removed trees be re-used as perhaps some sort of a memorial. One small group of residents wanted the problem dealt with at the southern most tip of the park in the form of a detention pond. The problem with that is they would have to remove a number of houses at that end and convince the remaining home-owners that they would want to live next to it. I look at this problem as we would in the medical field. We have to remove a diseased part and to ensure healing we'll have to not only removed the diseased portion but some of the healthy parts to ensure a complete healing. Removing some trees to ensure a healthy and enjoyable park is the right thing to do.