Assiniboine Park

Assiniboine Park is a park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was established in 1904 and is located north of the Assiniboine Forest. Today, it covers convert|1100|acre|km2, convert|400|acre|km2 of these are designed in the English landscape style.

The Park includes the convert|700|acre|km2|sing=on Assiniboine Forest, Assiniboine Park Zoo, Assiniboine Park Conservatory, the historic Assiniboine Park Pavilion (which is a favoured spot for weddings), formal and informal gardens, a sculpture garden, an outdoor bandshell theatre for performing arts and numerous other attractions. Assiniboine Park and Forest is a regular and beloved destination for millions of Winnipeg residents and visitors annually. A private minimum gauge railway named the Assiniboine Valley Railway is located next to the park and the zoo, while the park has its own miniature railway near the zoo.

Prominent attractions

The English Garden, established between 1926 and 1927, is known throughout North America for its luxuriant display of thousands of annual and perennial flowers. The English Garden contains nearly three acres of flowers, shrubs and trees in the traditional English style. A large rose garden (with more than 400 bushes of Floribunda, Grandiflora and Rugosa varieties), broken into four sections, surrounds a central lily pond containing fish.

From the outset, the English Garden was designed to serve as a popular park attraction where local residents and tourists could obtain information about specialized floriculture in Manitoba. New plant varieties have been introduced annually.

Other prominent features of Assiniboine Park include the Assiniboine Park Pavilion, which became a focus of early Winnipeg's social life. Destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt in Early English style and is today one of Winnipeg's most familiar landmarks. The highly regarded zoo, with about 90 acres, contains some 300 animal species. The Formal Garden, located at the southeast park entrance, is Winnipeg's largest and finest example of the French formal garden.

The Lyric Theatre is a large outdoor stage located next to the Pavilion. It opened in 1999. It carries on the tradition of a bandshell near the Pavilion that started in the 1920s.

One of the earliest park features and a major indoor attraction is The Conservatory, which houses more than 8,000 flowers, plants and trees that are non-native to Manitoba, but which grow profusely under the ideal conditions created in the Palm House and Display Garden. The original Palm House was erected in 1914, and in 1968 a fully modern structure was built over and around the Palm House, enclosing it. The Conservatory and English Garden are open free of charge to the public every day of the year.

The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, opened in 1992, contains over one hundred of Leo Mol's works.

Adjacent to Roblin Blvd. the last steam locomotive to run scheduled service in Canada, CNR 6043, Class U-1-d, 4-8-2 is on permanent display courtesy of the Winnipeg Railway Museum.

Toward the north of the park, and just to one side of the pedestrian footbridge from Portage Avenue is the serpentine Duck Pond. The park also includes picnic areas, a playground, bicycle path, baseball and cricket fields and the Terry Fox Fitness Trail, dedicated to his memory and constructed for disabled and non-disabled individuals alike. Assiniboine Park is wheelchair-accessible.

Riverbank Restoration - Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project

The summer of 2006 and 2007 have seen a riverbank restoration taking place in Assiniboine Park.

The Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest [the strip of forest along the Assiniboine River within Assiniboine Park, just east of the footbridge on the south side of Portage Avenue] is a well known and loved recreational area. Over many years, the forest has lost a lot of vegetation due to flooding, invasive plant species that replace native species, and trampling from recreational activities such as hiking and biking. Generations of heavy trail use has caused extensive trail networks, soil compaction, and large areas of bare ground. The Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project is striving to help the riparian forest bounce back from heavy use and enhance the recreational trail experience.

Restoration is underway in the forest through careful planning, cooperation from trail-users and efforts such as tree planting, invasive species removal and creating a main trail. By reducing the impact of recreation in the forest, this natural area still be around for generations to enjoy 100 years from now.

External links

* [http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/ape/default.stm/Official Park website]

See also: List of botanical gardens in Canada