After Pisgah Health Proposed a Park that "No One Needs," Could Land Be Left as Habitat?

Pisgah Health Foundation's plan for Freedom Park was widely slammed, not least because its proposed site, a major draw for birds and birders, already serves as an undisturbed, low-cost recreation gem.

The site of the proposed “Freedom Park” is prime habitat known to birders as “hospital fields”

BREVARD — Micheal Plauche is a thoughtful but distracted wildlife advocate, keeping his eyes and ears open for birds and regularly interrupting himself to call out identifications.

“There’s an eastern phoebe out in the field there,” he said, pointing to the middle of a brushy meadow as he walked on the Estatoe Trail near Transylvania Regional Hospital.

He heard a “song sparrow chipping at us” and the piercing, repetitive call of a northern cardinal. He saw a brown thrasher darting through bushes to his left and, far to his right, near Lamb Creek, a nature-show-worthy scene of a raptor soaring away with its prey.

“That’s a red-shouldered hawk carrying, I think, a snake,” said Plauche, one of the most knowledgeable and avid members of the Transylvania County Bird Club.

The tree-lined open land along the trail, he said, has long been one of the most productive and popular bird-watching destinations in the county.

But though Club members still call it “hospital fields,” thanks to private  development and recreational projects such as the Brevard Dog Park, it’s now mostly just one field, singular — 11.5 acres owned by the Pisgah Health Foundation, which recently and unsuccessfully proposed it as the site of cooperative venture with the city of Brevard.

A combination of a trailhead for the regional Ecusta Trail and a playground/adult fitness park built by the Foundation would, its representatives said at Monday’s Brevard City Council meeting, further the group’s mission of promoting public health and community well-being.

But Plauche and nearby residents say it meets that goal pretty much as is.

Unlike many other natural areas in Transylvania, it’s flat and easily accessible. It teems not only with wildlife but trail users, and on sunny, cool Tuesday afternoon, Plauche was passed by dog walkers, runners and cyclists of various ages and fitness levels.

“This place is very well-trafficked, “ he said. “I think everybody appreciates a little natural space in the city.”

Avid birder Michael Plauche at the proposed Freedom Park site

“A Bad Idea”

The option of preserving the land is, at this point, just an informal suggestion for the property’s future. But that future appears to be wide open after the Foundation’s proposal for what it called “Freedom Park” was slammed at the Council meeting for a wide variety of reasons by a wide range of sources.

The park’s planned access point at the base of Allison Road was opposed by residents fearing the disruption of their quiet neighborhood. Business owners and leaders of downtown development and tourism organizations objected because a trailhead there would deposit users well east of central Brevard, the potential economic boost to which has long been one of the main arguments for building the Ecusta.

Accessing the park would also require a bridge over Allison Creek, which, like Lamb, is a state-designed trout stream. Development would be further complicated because the banks of these creeks are designated as floodways, meaning they are subject to regular inundation, while much of the rest of the property lies within the 100-year flood zone.

Given such potential impediments, $85,000 worth of work carefully described as a preliminary design and not a feasibility study would be needed to determine whether the project is, in fact, feasible.

The Council was asked to vote on a resolution that would have allowed the city to seek outside funding to proceed with this design and negotiate an interim agreement with the Foundation for the use of the property. Council member Mac Morrow’s motion in favor of this action died for lack of a second.

Then there’s the main reason for this lack of enthusiasm: Roughly $1 million of city and donated funds was used to build a trailhead and surrounding features, Depot Railroad Avenue Park, completed just three years ago.

As several speakers and Council members pointed out, this park on the Estatoe is close to city businesses, is currently underused and offers parking, a bike-repair station and gathering spaces for users. 

It not only mirrored the image of an ideal trailhead shown in a presentation at the meeting by the Friends of the Ecusta Trail, “it looks ten times better,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Daniel, who described the park/trailhead as a project “no one asked for, no one needs, and that in all probability will get minimal use.”

Ashley Borman, an Allison Road resident, after voicing her own concerns about the project, submitted a letter from her third-grade daughter that summed up the prevailing sentiment about the plan.

Citing the potential loss of habitat for fox, deer, crawfish, orb-weaver spiders, goldfinches and red-shouldered hawks, Maddie Borman wrote, “turning the field into a parking lot is a bad idea.”

Letter to the Brevard City Council from Maddie Borman

Skipping Steps?

It was so flawed that Daniel and Council member Aaron Baker, particularly, questioned why it had even come before Council.

Considering that neither city’s Ecusta Trail Advisory Board nor the Parks, Trails and Recreation Advisory Committee had voted to approve the plan, Baker said, it seemed to skip “many, many steps in the process that we’ve established.”

He said he was “incredibly disappointed” that city staff had devoted so much effort into the project without such backing.

He also suggested that this had happened — and that the project had acquired a politically pleasing name — because of the Foundation’s influence.

“It’s really hard to sit up here and be against a playground. It’s really hard to be against something called Freedom Park,” he said.

“I’m a little confused about how we got to this point and I’m very concerned that some well-connected non-profit folks along with the mayor and some other people have put this forward above other priorities.”

Actually, Mayor Maureen Copelof said after the meeting, there were legitimate reasons the project had arrived in the form it did.

The Foundation owns the land, came up with the name, created the preliminary plans for the playground and exercise stations displayed at the meeting, and offered to pay for the park’s maintenance.

She had briefed the Ecusta Advisory Board on the trailhead part of the plan, she said, and the group had discussed it.

“We didn’t go into details about Pisgah Health Foundation’s portion,” she said of the playground and exercise park, “because that was their plan.”

An “Insect Factory”

The Council didn’t kill this proposal altogether, but referred it back to the Parks Committee for further consideration.

Which, in general, is much needed for all aspects of a project as costly and crucial as the Ecusta.

The city has received vast sums for the trail, including $46 million in federal grants to build its unfunded sections, Baker said, and its potential impact could rival that of the original railroad, the route of which the 19-mile Ecusta will follow between Hendersonville and Brevard.

For these reasons both he and Daniel suggested a dedicated planning session to consider, for example, redesignating as part of the Ecusta stretches of existing, city-owned Estatoe that extend into town.

Borman, in her comments to Council, floated another idea: “Is there a way to work with the Pisgah Foundation to preserve that field as it is?”

Jeremy Purcell, the chair of the group’s board of directors, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on this topic, but the unsuccessful resolution did include language about protecting “birding areas” and creating features to “educate trail users and outdoor enthusiasts on the natural environment.”

Which would be great, Plauche said, as long as some of that natural environment is still around.

Birds thrive on the Pisgah property partly because of its mix of natural landscapes, Plauche said. One of its creeks was probably the source of the hawk’s prized snake. The surrounding woods shelter songbirds such as the yellow-breasted chat.

And the planned site of the trailhead/park, the meadow, Plauche said, “is kind of like a little food repository, with grass seeds for the sparrows and finches. It’s an insect factory . . . a great place for the butterflies and moths to make caterpillars.”

As valuable to wildlife as it is now, he said, it could be “superb” with relatively inexpensive measures such as controlling invasives and planting native grasses and wildflowers. In other words, he said, Brevard could follow the example of Mills River, which is enlisting the help of state and federal wildlife agencies to create a low-maintenance 15-acre “pollinator meadow” in one of its parks.

Plauche said he is not speaking for the Club, not submitting a formal recommendation, not contemplating any radical action.

“We’re not out here chaining ourselves to trees,” he said.

But he does think he can make a request on behalf of the general population of people like him.

“We just want a little consideration for the wildlife and the people who appreciate it.”

Email: brevardnewsbeat@gmail.com

Editor’s note: Taking a short break to visit my son at his home in Miami. Be back early next week.