Park board allows monitored disc-golf event while ecological review proceeds

At a Memorial Park Board meeting, board members voted to allow the local disc-golf group to hold a monitored volunteer event and a limited “soft opening” while the board reviews a newly delivered ecological assessment and pending construction plans.

Opponents, led by longtime volunteer Helen of HC RIPS, said the course’s wooded fairways have already damaged rare plants and compacted soil in a remnant forest that they described as locally irreplaceable. “The plants of Memorial Park, the delicate hepatica … will be destroyed. To me, it’s a crime against nature,” Helen said, urging the board to follow mapped protected-area boundaries in the report and to move disc-golf holes out of the most sensitive areas. She also offered up to $5,000 to replant trees if the course were relocated out of the woods.

Representatives of the Monty/Muny-area Disc Golf Club and supporting groups pushed back. Chris, who identified himself as the club representative, said volunteers spent years marking and building the course and that club work prioritized removing invasive or dead material rather than healthy trees. “We’re currently at about $20,000 spent on this project already,” Chris said, adding that much of the work has been volunteer labor and that the course design sought to use existing trails and contours to minimize impact.

Board members pressed both sides for details about the width and location of clearing and whether stream corridors or rare-plant sites had been affected. Staff and designers cited planned bridges and elevated walkways at a handful of drainages; conservation speakers and the Ecologics assessment raised concerns about at least one stream corridor and areas of high botanical value.

Faced with conflicting testimony and a new ecological assessment supplied before the meeting, the board approved a motion to let the disc-golf club hold the event with conditions: no additional permanent construction without final board review, monitoring by board members and park staff during the event, and a commitment to review the assessment and construction plans this week. The motion passed with one opposition.

The vote does not finalize the course design. Board members said they will reconvene to decide whether to permit further construction after staff and board members complete a site review of the Ecologics report and construction plans.

Monty-area Disc Golf Club representatives said they plan a volunteer opening and a public grand-opening-style event on the calendar; donors and community groups who have contributed funding said they would support mitigation and replanting where needed.

Next steps: the board will review the ecological assessment and the specific construction/pouring plans submitted by the club; park staff will monitor the upcoming volunteer event and report back to the board for a final decision on permanent work.