Preserving a place for suburban parks

It's easy to see the allure of Big Marine Park Reserve on a bright September morning in northern Washington County, where the lake glimmers like a jewel on a green canvas and cries of waterfowl echo in the woods.

Big Marine, the metro's newest regional park, will open next year at a time when people are seeking refuge from the urban bustle in record numbers. Last year, more than 33 million visitors found their way to the 83 regional parks and trails already in place in the seven-county metro area. That's more than six times the turnout just 30 years ago. Responding to that growing interest, metro counties and the Metropolitan Council plan even more regional parks:

Dakota County plans Empire Wetlands. Scott County plans Cedar Lake Farm. Carver County has two in mind: Minnesota Bluffs and Ravines, and Miller Lake. In addition to Big Marine, which will be Washington County's sixth regional park when it opens over Memorial Day weekend, the county also is working on buying additional land on Lower Grey Cloud Island near Cottage Grove for yet another regional park of 1,440 acres.

Regional parks, advocates say, are a hedge against development as it surges into suburban counties.

"The idea is to preserve large areas of this so future generations can come in and enjoy," said Washington County's parks director, John Elholm, pointing to Big Marine's wind-ruffled fields of prairie grass, which look like they've never been touched by humans.

The park, which surrounds Big Marine Lake on three sides, has been in the works for 18 years. Workers are building hiking trails, a swimming beach and a park headquarters, but most of the land will remain natural as required for regional parks, Elholm said. The county owns 637 acres inside the park boundary. An additional 1,200 acres in the plan will be acquired from private landowners whenever they decide to sell, he said.

The Big Marine project inspires park enthusiasts such as Maggie Vogel-Martin of nearby Forest Lake.

"This was prime real estate. If a developer were to get in there, he would put in million-dollar homes and nobody else could touch it," said Vogel-Martin, a former county parks board member. "It's really important to preserve these natural resources for the good of the whole."

Respondents to Metropolitan Council surveys say they value such open spaces as a reason to live in the Twin Cities, said Arne Stefferud, the council's parks planner.

"To quote Sam Morgan, who was one of the founding members of the Minnesota Trails Council, parklands are the poor man's country estate and allow everyone to enjoy peace and quiet in a close distance from their residences," Stefferud said.

The Metropolitan Council measures the use of regional parks, and that rate is growing faster than the overall population, he said. By 2030, the council would like to add about 18,000 acres of regional parks and trails to the more than 50,000 acres already in place.

"We're in the upper tier of park systems in the country," Stefferud said.

At Big Marine, the county erases evidence of human habitation after it takes ownership of private land. Elholm said landowners are paid "fair market value," and once they depart, houses and other buildings are either moved or demolished. Wells, septic systems, driveways and other signs that someone once lived there disappear, too. Then county workers plant native grasses and trees and the transformation begins. On the south shore of Big Marine Lake, an area intended to be the park's public centerpiece, no trace remains of several old houses and cottages.

Stefferud said that in his 29 years at the Met Council, landowners contested a purchase price in only a handful of instances. In many other cases, he said, owners valued parks to the point that they sold land for a reduced price or donated it.

In Washington County, where the population is fast approaching a quarter-million residents, there's a push to preserve other natural areas as well. A county legacy program that voters approved last November will spend up to $20 million to preserve natural areas -- often private land that farmers want to save from development. This program, separate from parks acquisition, now has 28 proposals, said county planner Jane Harper.

Vogel-Martin said that she's thankful that Washington County leaders didn't overlook the opportunity to preserve the Big Marine land as a park.

"If we did, we'd regret it for the rest of our lives and our children and grandchildren wouldn't know what they were missing," she said.

Kevin Giles • 651-298-1554

Kevin Giles • kgiles@startribune.com