The Park’s Beginning’s

Park layout

The Klickitat Prairie Park Project started in the summer of 2009 as a city and community effort to build a recreation area for the children and families of the Mossyrock Area. This project was headed by the Mossyrock Area Recreation Committee (M.A.R.C.), a collection volunteer community members, sponsored by the City of Mossyrock, and dedicated to improving the local recreation facilities. So they hit the pavement and went door to door blanketing town and local area with surveys to see what exactly the people wanted. Trails, swimming pool, playground and fields they said. Well that’s a start what more do we need? So they invited the community to dinner. Over plates of spaghetti the small group of 200 people and came up with ideas and a plan. Grant and community fundraisers, they thought that is the ticket! How else can we build a park without raising taxes or charging high fees?

On a mission they went and found the answer with a State agncy known as the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO). The Grant Managers at RCO pointed them in the right direction and helped them through the new and scary process. Through the trials and tribulations they were successful in receiving #1 ranking in both Washington Wildlife Recreation Program (WWRP), Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and private sector grants. What did this mean? Well simply put, SUCCESS!

Using the funds raised from community dances, dinners and tree auctions as matching funds M.A.R.C. and the City of Mossyrock went for it all we were never ones for thinking small. The City of Mossyrock purchuses 30+ acres of land adjacent to the Mossyrock Community Center as the chosen place for our first ever new City Park. The project went from plans and dream to reality in the summer of 2012, using grants and community donations the Klickitat Prairie Park started to take shape. The community gardens went in providing fresh produce to over 50 families, playgrounds were installed, the public bathrooms were complete and the City of Mossyrock’s first community park was being transformed from a hay field to a full fledged recreation area.

How is MOSSYROCK AREA RECREATION COMMITTEE (M.A.R.C.) and the City of Mossyrock building a park?

Well how else, but way outside the box of course! Why just build a playground, skate park or place to hang out when your can introduce new and exciting ideas and challenge the community to try something new? So the search began for new and innovative ideas. Oh boy did we find it right hear in Washington State not to far north in Maple Valley Washington. Pacific Outdoor products gave us a boost when they introduced playground equipment made from all recycled materials. Yes that’s right this long time timber area was using “fake wood”. Recycled plastic products were used to build the play structure and recycled tires were turned into mats for the playground base. I will tell you what a softer squishier surface you will never meet and best of all no slivers in your feet!

PLAYGROUND

The kids and adults love it that’s for sure. With lots of room for the kids to run and play.

swings

How about a grass parking lot? What in the world are we thinking? Well I guess we are thinking grass is sure prettier than blacktop and its way cheaper and easier to maintain too. Permaturf is a product again made right here in the USA that allows for 100% infiltration of storm water. Why is this important? Well in traditional parking facilities storm run off goes on of two places, into the city storm water system where it is processed and cleaned and runs back into the local streams, rivers or water ways or it is run to a holding facility or pond where it is slowly released through a filtering process again back to the local water ways. Permaturf allows for the best of both worlds by allowing storm water to run right through the honeycomb structure into a holding and filtering system under the parking lot itself then draining naturally back into the local water ways. Permaturf not only reduces the requirement for an elaborate storm water system but by not using blacktop it reduces the greenhouse effect created by large sections of blacktop and heat reflecting roofs also known as the barbecue effect.

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