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Friends of Blue Mounds State Park introduce 'nature play area'

By
Lori Sorenson

The Friends of the Blue Mounds State Park will soon have a nature play area ready for park visitors, especially for families with small children.
It will be located in the picnic area of the park, replacing the aging metal swing set, designed to “spark curiosity, invite discovery, and foster learning.”
According to Amy Nelson with Friends of the Blue Mounds State Park, the nature play area has been a goal since the group was first organized in 2018.
“Given the number of families that use the park, this gives them another opportunity to experience nature,” Nelson said.
“Also, it can be a draw to the park. … There are so many people in town who don’t see it as a destination.”
She and Carol Morgan, also a Friends member, said the project gets at the heart of why outdoor nature areas are preserved for the public.
“That’s why state parks exist,” Morgan said. “I’m thinking of my own grandchildren who come down from the city where they live on asphalt and concrete and short grass, and they can go out and get dirty and experience nature,”
She said the play areas create a safe environment for younger children to do that.
“This in my mind is a little more compact and controlled,” Morgan said.
“If you’re out there with the kids, it’s a little easier to keep track of them than having them go sprinting out into the prairie.”
The draft plan shows four activity areas:
•Jumping and sitting: A series of boulders, rocks, logs and stumps arranged randomly to promote climbing, clambering, balancing and jumping. Some features could double as benches.
•Building and constructing: A collection of small trees and branches downed by beavers for building structures like tepees, cabins or forts — with a larger, permanently placed log for building against.
•Balancing: Vertical logs placed about a foot apart at various heights in a spider web shape. This activity provides opportunity for balancing, hopping and changes in altitude.
•Sensory and digging boxes: Rectangle boxes filled with various loose materials, such as pea gravel with various bones and artifacts to excavate, stones with different edges and sizes, and small branches and twigs for building. This component will be wheelchair height for accessibility.
•Pollinator sensory garden: Native prairie plants with interpretive information about how they support pollinators and encouragement to touch and smell the plants.
Nelson said locating the nature play setup in the picnic area avoids disturbing other parts of the park that are meant to be native.
Also, the DNR has plans to build a wheel-chair accessible trail from the parking lot to the play area and set up another picnic table there that is ADA compliant.
Nelson said the initial compact area will serve as a pilot project to inform what may be future developments of nature play areas throughout the park.
The Friends of Blue Mounds is a fiscal client of Parts and Trails Council of Minnesota, which provided a grant to help with planning and some materials.
However, most of the natural materials for the play area will be sourced within the park.
Those interested in helping with the project can call Nelson at 507-370-0662, follow the group on Facebook, or contact them by email at friendsofbluemounds@gmail.com.
Donations for the project can be made to Friends of the Blue Mounds State Park through the park office.
Nelson and Morgan encourage the public to utilize the free park access program through the Rock County Library.
They can check out a backpack, which includes a park pass.

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