Pretty parks
Kish Park project moves toward completion
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BURNHAM -- It was John Muir who once said "In every walk with nature one receives far more then he seeks."
Local parks whether in big cities or small towns bring the outdoors to the community and offer a place for people to seek serenity and natural green spaces. These spaces keep people connected with nature and merge the urban and natural worlds.
However, the union of natural and urban takes effort, something to which Josh Hassinger, Kish Park Administrator can attest.
"Any time you try to marry those aspects together it gets difficult," Hassinger said. "We seek to find that balance between what is an acceptable rate of recreation and how do we maintain some sort of grasp on the liability of how said recreation can impact the tree life and plant life that is in natural areas."
In the summer of 2018, work began at Kish Park in Derry Township near Burnham for a multi-phased stream improvement project.
"The section of Kishacoquillas Creek running through Kish Park is already designated as a High Quality Fishery, but there are several indicators that habitat is degrading or has already degraded," said Trevor Weaver, watershed specialist from the Mifflin County Conservation District, at the start of the project.
One of the likely contributors to the eroding stream banks was the loss of the ash trees. Derry Township removed more than 200 of the dead trees and began a significant effort to replace them through a PA DCNR TreeVitalize grant.
There were two phases to the project -- the first one completed, and the second phase set to be completed later this year.
The first one included the installation of fish habitat structures designed by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Habitat Division. The structures provide stabilization along the streambanks and additional fish habitat, centers stream flow and provides better access for anglers.
The waterfowl management that took place also played a part in the improvement project and was essential to ensure that an over population of waterfowl would not continue to cause problems along the embankments.
Phase 2 included planting of native trees and shrubs along the banks of Kish Creek. These trees and shrubs are designed to not only bring natural beauty to the park but offer more stabilization to the streambanks and provide shade and overhanging vegetation for fish and other aquatic species.
Weaver said DCNR had stepped up to contribute money and grants to implement riparian forest buffers which serve as a transition from land to water. Hassinger added since Kish Park was so heavily used it was a perfect place to showcase how these riparian forest buffers can work.
"There were a lot of aspects of Kish Park that needed rehabilitation," he said. "It was going in and figuring out what was invasive what should be here and what should not. There was a lot of species forensics and going back to old pictures of the park that predated Miller's Amusements to help see what would have been endemic. What we set out to do was start an initiative here at the park where we could illustrate the marriage between an urban recreational setting that still concentrated on naturalization."
All of the shrubs and trees that were planted during the phases of the project that took place throughout the park are things that are endemic to the area and were chosen with great care in an effort to keep Kish Park as naturalized as possible.
"We are planning to add a few habitat/bank stabilization structures in the lower section of the park, yet this summer and we have a few flowering trees to plant this fall to finish up the project," Weaver said.