Work Days At The Park, 2007. . . .

Dec. 9th - the Trail Crew got out there and sprayed that pesky privet that is trying to take over the Park. While it will stay green this winter once the heat of summer is back it will start to die. Yipee! By spraying now we can really go after it without killing the other plants since they have lost their leaves unlike privet that stays green all year.

Nov. 18th: Plans had to be changed as we were scheduled to work on the new trail between levee one and two on the south side of the Park but the sewer people have not finished what they are suppose to do on the trail. Instead the Trail Crew began surveying the north side of the Park for a new trail that will utilize the new greenway as well as some old levees and tree lines. Ultimately you will be able to go under the Walnut Grove bridge and ride the gravel road to the greenway then turn north and either continue on the greenway to the Senior Citizens Garden area or take advantage of several short loops through the woods where it will be shady.

October Rained us out and we were unable to work on the low-water crossing due to the wet ground so we surveyed and started laying out the new trail on the north side of Walnut Grove that will hug the Lusicious Burch Natural Area and utilize the greenway left by the sewer line. This will probably be a summer project now that the rains have come but we shall see.

Anyone notice that the cross country jumps at Shelby Farms Park have been in need of a little tender loving care. Well, that is just what they got these past few months when members of the Alliance spent several days repairing them. Brynda and Ron Read, Shef Warboys, Rick Richardson and Peggy Hart shifted, whacked, hammered, sprayed and sweated for two days to get the easiest stuff done. Special thanks goes out to Shef for the use of her generator and to Steve Satterfield for use of the Park Kubota without which we could not have gotten so much done. As of today they have one more day of heavy work with a tractor and auger to reset some of the posts that have rotted out.

The Shelby Farms Park Trail Crew is going and going and going. On June 23 they met at gate 13 and cleared and opened up the trail behind Willow Lake. This is the lake the furthest east on the north side. Steve Kuhar took his DR Mower down the sides of the tail while volunteers on foot cleared foliage from the sides and opened up sight lines. An all day work day turned into a lot of fun as we whacked our way through the woods. Compliments flew from the many people using the trail as they biked, walked or jogged by. Sorry no horseback riders that day. The DR Mower crew managed to get to some of the trails behind Boy Scout Lake before they ran out of steam.

July 21 the crew cleared the east loop of the Yellow and Blue trails along the river. We had 6 people out this day. The weather could not have been better. That front came through and the lower humidity and north breeze made the day perfect for trail work. I did wish we had gotten some of that predicted rain, it would have kept the dust down.

Steve K. did his magic with the DR. I had him double cut the pipeline corridor next to levee 2 so it is cleared 4 feet on each side of the trail. We cleaned up 5 or 6 locations with fallen trees. The last one was on the blue trail. It was a leaning split trunk job with the top hung in the canopy of other trees. I think we spent 1/2 hour on that one.

Most people had to leave by noon. Steve and I had some energy left, so we moved to levee 1 and cleaned up that levee and the white trail to the west. In all, a very productive day.

If you use the trails at Shelby Farms Park make the effort to come out for a trail work day. They are fun and you meet some great people while helping out the Park. Contact Peggy Hart 662-851-7122.

Look for the new signs on the North side of the Park. Members of the Alliance, the Mid-South Trails Association and a friendly runner spent April 28th setting up 14 directional signs on the North side of the Park. These signs use the international decals also used on the signs along the river trails. Please note that there are areas where horses are not allowed and the decal will show a red slash through it. But hey there are only two of those - one going into the Patriot Lake area along the gravel road and one heading toward Beaver Lake behind Boy Scout lake. Bet you didn't know you could ride behind Boy Scout Lake. Tell us how you like the new signs.

The second weekend in February the Trail Crew of Shelby Farms Park spent two days installing new trail signs on the Blue, Yellow and White trails on the south side of Shelby Farms Park. These signs are color coded to the trails they are on and include international decals for the multi-use trails. Thanks go out to the Mid-South Trails Association, the Shelby Farms Park Alliance and the members of the Shelby Farms Equestrian Alliance for their hard work. We have gotten a lot of great comments about the signs. New kiosks will be installed at all trail heads once construction in the area is completed.