About 30 volunteers gathered at the Skatepark in Rossland last weekend to put some of the finishing touches on the popular facility, working to soften the rock and dirt around the concrete bowl with greenery.
A few days before the Saturday event, Caley Mulholland was busy sweeping up dirt from the excavation work around the edge of the skatepark. Another crew was installing short logs as a barrier between the concrete and dirt surround, while an excavator moved big boulders around another corner of the site.
“We’re really trying to work with the materials we have on the site,” says Mulholland. “there’s rock, soil, fill and gravel, and we’re planting all-native shrubs and trees, those can grow really well in the soil we find around Rossland.”
Mulholland, who has a background in ecological restoration, says the goal is to surround the park with a low-maintenance, wild, greenspace.
“The idea is to kind of soften the concrete with some greenery, and that will eventually provide some shade… though that will take 15 or 20 years before that will happen,” she laughs. “We’ve included conifers, not deciduous trees, they are a lot cleaner. We want to keep leaves out of the park.
“The idea is for the first ten years it will be really a shrub-dominated landscape, then over time there will be some shade and conifers.”
The landscaping project has been getting a lot of business, community and government support, said Mulholland, including the City of Rossland, Powder Pig Excavation, SUTCO, ATCO Lumber, Patterson Pole, Three Tree Contracting, Boon Gardens and Pruning, and Granite Mountain Excavation.
“Everyone is so willing to help we’re really grateful,” she says. “We still have lots of jobs to do so we’ll still be calling on people.”
