Hickory Hill Park

Hickory Hill Park is a large natural area in northeast Iowa City, Iowa consisting of convert|190|acre|km2 of forest, abandoned fields, reconstructed prairie, wetlands, and parkland centered around Ralston Creek and its tributary drainages. It is owned and administered by the city [Iowa City website: http://www.icgov.org/default/?id=1011] , with help from Friends of Hickory Hill Park [ [http://www.hickoryhillpark.org/index.htm Friends of Hickory Hill Park Home Page ] ] . The park is popular with day hikers, dog walkers, cross-country skiers, sledders, and picnickers.Iowa City’s Hickory Hill Park should not be confused with Hickory Hills Park near Waterloo, or Hickory Hills Park in Tama County [ [http://www.iowadnr.gov/water/watershed/hickoryhillslake/about.html IA DNR: Clean Water Starts With You: Hickory Hills Lake Watershed ] ] .

Park history

Hickory Hill Park traces its origins to 1927 with a 40 acre parcel of wood lots and farm fields purchased for expansion of the adjacent Oakland Cemetery. Oakland expanded slowly, leaving much of the land to naturalize. Fifty acres were added in 1952 and the area was formally dedicated as a park in 1968, thanks to efforts of Dee Norton and other citizens. [S. Walz, "Iowa City Press-Citizen": http://mypc.press-citizen.com/story.php?id_stories=776] The park was expanded to convert|190|acre|km2 in the 1980s as part of a storm water control project. [see the Sierra Club guide, http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/natural/hickory.html] In April 2008, Friends of Hickory Hill Park raised $160,000 to purchase the Willa Dickens Preserve, a 16 acre parcel north of park that includes a low wetland as well as wooded and open areas. ["Iowa City Press-Citizen", 8 April 08, http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/NEWS01/804080321/1079]

Park layout

Hickory Hill Park is irregular in shape owing to its piecemeal land acquisitions. Much of the park is steeply sloped and wooded, with large areas of abandoned fields that are slowly being naturalized. Two picnic shelter areas and are available, one near the far south entrance off Bloomington Street, one in the west off Conklin Lane. A large retention dam, built in the 1990s, sits in the center of the park. [For a map see, http://www.hickoryhillpark.org/map.htm] Attempts are underway to acquire more land in northern parts of the park. [Friends of Hickory Hill Park, http://www.hickoryhillpark.org/index.htm ]

Park threats

Until the 1990s, Hickory Hill Park was at the edge of the city, and the park boundaries abutted farmlands to the north and east. However, development of the First Avenue extension to the east and Scott Avenue to the north enclosed the park, and new housing an commercial developments within this area greatly reduced the potential expansion area for Hickory Hill. Expansion plans are also limited by the adjacent Oakland Cemetery, St. Joseph’s Cemetery, and Regina High School. Other threats include trail erosion, and invasive species including garlic mustard, multiflora rose, and tree of heaven.

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