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The environment desk at Aspen Public Radio covers issues in the Roaring Fork Valley and throughout the state of Colorado including water use and quality, impact of recreation, population growth and oil and gas development. APR’s Environment Reporter is Elizabeth Stewart-Severy.

City preps for Wagner Park restoration amid drought restrictions

Elizabeth Stewart-Severy
/
Aspen Public Radio

The City of Aspen has cut back on irrigation at most parks across town to meet a goal of reducing water consumption by 10 to 15 percent. But Wagner Park, in the city core, is managed pretty differently.

 

Tents have started to go up in preparation for the Food and Wine Classic, and all that weight, plus heavy foot traffic, is really hard on the grass at Wagner Park.

 

“Most of that park is essentially killed after that event," said Matt Kuhn, operations director for the Aspen Parks Department.

About 70 percent of the turf dies. Those damaged parts used to be re-seeded, and it took about a month to reopen the park. For past three years, the parks department has ripped out the dead grass and replaced it with fresh sod. That’s under direction from city council.

 

"So that the park is green and open to the public by the Fourth of July," Kuhn explained.

The old turf is turned into top soil for other parks. With the stage one water restrictions, Wagner will be one of the few in town that is watered daily.

"We have to water the new sod as it gets installed and make sure that it gets established as well," Kuhn said. He added that even with Wagner Park’s special treatment, the parks department will reduce its water consumption by about 15 percent from last year.

 

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.
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