NWPRD wraps up first phase of Sorosis Park rehabilitation

“It’s still very vulnerable right now to foot and paw traffic, which is why we have ropes up to keep people off of the grass, probably until next spring,” NWPRD Executive Director Scott Baker said. “We really want it to get a good, solid start, so that it can fill in and be nice and lush for when we take those ropes down.”

Some areas are still open, however, to keep the park usable for visitors. Both the playground and exercise equipment areas have paths to them that cross patches of grass. In addition, half of the disc golf course is open, as are the tennis courts and areas that didn’t need to be replanted.

Stage one also included transplanting several trees, the vast majority of which are along Scenic Drive. At the moment, the trees are surrounded by a large expanse of bark chip, though Baker said the plan was to add a boulder garden and plant shrubs and other plants that would provide visual interest.

NWPRD chose to focus on the area by Scenic Drive rather than spreading their plantings out because they’re hoping to create a wooded area within the park, Baker said

“In a decade, we’re hoping this will become a very forested area,” he said. “So you just have some contrast between the sun and kicking a ball and flying a kite or throwing the Frisbee in the grass, and then coming into the shaded forest area where we’ll have some picnic tables and some benches, so you can kind of escape the heat a little bit.”

The new trees are being watered differently than in the past, in order to help boost their growth. NWPRD has added “bubblers,” which are a type of irrigation that goes into the ground and waters the tree from below.

“It encourages the roots to seek that water,” Baker said. “They’ll dive down deep to find the water and we won’t lose as much through evaporation … and that will use less water over time. But also the trees really thrive from that kind of watering. So even though they’re small now, with these bubblers they’re going to get big pretty quick.”

NWPRD planted several different types of trees, including oaks, cedars and sequoias. They chose trees based on their drought tolerance and fire resistance, Baker said. While the park previously had primarily ponderosa pines, the trees had to be removed due to damage by bark beetles.

“Although it was tragic to have to remove the ponderosa pines, what we do have now is this really amazing view of Mount Adams and the river,” Baker said

As of now, it’s not viable to replant ponderosas, as the bark beetles could come back, he said.

For now, all that’s left in phase one of the project is to upgrade the park’s current water pump to a more energy efficient one. Though NWPRD has the pump in question, it’s currently too cold to install it, meaning they will have to wait until spring. This installation will mark the official end of phase one. The next phases will focus on three main projects, apart from more planting, Baker said.

“You have three other kind of big infrastructure projects that will be happening here over the next 18-24 months, provided that we can secure some funding,” Baker said.

After the district had to remove the ponderosas due to the bark beetles, they found themselves looking at an opportunity to completely revamp the park and implement community feedback.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How can we make lemonade out of lemons?’” Baker said. “So we asked our community what they wanted to see in a reimagined Sorosis Park. And what we heard, in addition to trees and planting, was: Peplace Tree Top Playground, create a pavilion / community event gathering space … and add a basketball court.”

Currently, the highest priority is replacing Tree Top Playground, he said. The playground, which was built in 1997, is made of wood, which means it has suffered rot over time. Though NWPRD has done what they could to restore the playground in the past, its beginning to get to a point where replacing it is a more safe and viable option.

“Thoughts and designs of playgrounds have changed a lot in the last 20-plus years,” Baker said. “We’re just building playgrounds differently, more accessible ... One of the things that is important to us as an agency is that our playground is fun for everybody, and so it will be designed with accessibility in mind.”

They’re not yet sure what the new playground will look like, he said. They’re going to put the project out to bid and see what they get in terms of designs. They know the project will take roughly $700,000 to replace, and they currently have $200,000 put aside. The goal is to have the playground completely replaced by fall 2024.

“Clearly, we’re quite a bit short, and so we’re going to need to get creative with funding, go after grants, maybe get some help from our other community partners,” Baker said.

At the same time, NWPRD will also be trying to gather funding for the pavilion and basketball court. For those projects, the order they’re completed in will likely depend entirely on what funding is available for them.

“We’ll do a fundraising effort this spring and see what we’re able to achieve through that,” he said.

A space for the basketball court has already been allotted. Because the district planned in advance, when the construction company needed a staging area for their heavy equipment, they were able to make sure the staging area would be the right size, dimensions, and location for the basketball court.

“It’s dual purpose,” Baker said. “They get a staging area and we get a four-inch aggregate pad that becomes the base of the basketball court.”

The court will be 60-feet by 90-feet and covered, he said.

The plan for the pavilion is an octagonal space that’s 40-feet in diameter, Baker said, with a bump-out for a band or an altar, so it could be used for a variety of events, including weddings.

“People really want a low cost place to get married,” he said. “Everything is so expensive, and so we want to help with that.”

To make the park compatible for weddings, Baker said they would expand the parking and add hookups for food carts near the picnic shelter.

“That way you could ostensibly have a community event here,” Baker said. “You could spill chairs out onto the lawn, and then walk over to that large picnic area and have a big meal afterwards. So that’s kind of the vision for this area.”

What has already been done has already been a lot of work that cost a lot of money, but with the help of NWPRD’s community partners and support from the community at large, Baker said he believed it was possible; it just might take a while.

“What you’re looking at here is just over a million dollars worth of work,” Baker said, referring to what has already been completed in the park. “For a tiny district like ours, we only have eight employees — really only two full time employees, the rest are part time — a project like this is really big for us. So for these projects, we’ll have to be patient, and we’ll get there. But we’re gonna definitely take some time.”

Sorosis Park is located at 300 E. Scenic Drive in The Dalles. The park is open to the public every day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.