ALTON BAKER PARK.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Located in the center of the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area, Alton Baker Park sweeps across 400 acres of riverfront land and offers some of the best urban recreation opportunities around:

PARK HISTORY

According to the Kalapuya tribe, native people used the area for centuries as a place to live, fish and harvest camas root and sunflowers.

Most of the land was used for agricultural purposes through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, helping preserve the open space and natural features.

It was identified as a desirable place for a metropolitan park in the 1950s. In 1959, Lane County, Eugene and Springfield officials agreed to set aside land for North Bank Park. More than 500 acres had been acquired by 1963.

In 1967, the county park was renamed for Alton F. Baker, the late editor and publisher of The Register-Guard, who died in 1961. Baker was a key advocate for park development in Eugene.

A series of park planning and development efforts marked the 1970s. New features included the canoe canal and pond, two Willamette River bike bridges, riverbank bike paths, the Steve Prefontaine running trail, Ken Nielsen Gardens, Cuthbert Amphitheater, WISTEC and picnic shelters.

Eugene took ownership of the west end of the park in 1987.

In November 1992, voters rejected a long-proposed golf course on the east end of the park in favor of passive recreation. The measure directed the county to create a 15-member citizen planning committee to design a plan for passive recreation in the park.

The county transferred its remaining ownership of the park to Eugene and Springfield. Springfield turned over its 40-acre piece on the east end to the Willamalane Park and Recreation District.

A new master plan for East Alton Baker Park was approved in 1996, followed by an updated plan for the west end in 1997.

PARK FACTS

It's the largest single park in Eugene, but south Eugene's Ridgeline Park system now encompasses about 920 acres, including the 300-acre Spencer Butte parcel. Larger than both of them is the county's 2,363-acre Howard Buford Recreation Area, which includes Mount Pisgah, south of Springfield.

Compared to other urban parks, the east end of Alton Baker Park is relatively natural, with high biodiversity. The number of species documented in the park includes 35 mammals, 117 birds, 12 reptiles, nine amphibians, eight fish, 17 butterflies, 46 other invertebrates, 21 trees, 24 shrubs, 172 wildflowers and 43 grasses, sedges and rushes.

The county operated its main landfill from 1963 to 1974 on 70 acres of what is now a large open area in the east end of the park. Trash was dumped in pits where gravel had been mined for freeway and other construction projects. The dump was capped with a layer of soil ranging from 6 inches to 2 feet.

A wide variety of recreation occurs in the park, including fishing in the canal and pond, bicycle motorcross on five acres leased along Leo Harris Parkway and running on miles of crisscrossing trails. The University of Oregon uses land just north of the Autzen footbridge for a hammer throw practice field - a use slated to end in 2005.

The biggest challenge in managing park use, officials say, is persuading owners to keep their dogs on leashes. Dogs running loose intimidate children, annoy runners and disturb wildlife habitat, especially during spring nesting season.

The new Hays Memorial Tree Garden covers two acres but will grow to 14 acres in a crescent shape from the Cuthbert Amphitheater to the west park entrance. It began with a $100,000 donation from former Eugene Mayor Ruth Bascom and will be supported by private donations. As it grows, it will include a new, one-acre island cut from the canoe canal by a meandering stream channel.

After UO Duck football games at Autzen Stadium, the university now pays for litter cleanup along park paths. The city contracts with county juvenile offenders to do the work - part of a new program to monitor wear and tear on the park.

Lane Transit District and some city officials have discussed establishing a shuttle bus route across the Autzen footbridge and through the park, linking the UO campus with the stadium, park-and-ride lots and apartment complexes on the north side of Centennial Boulevard. The bridge could be modified for a bus lane, but the idea hasn't advanced far and doesn't appear in LTD's 20-year plan.

East Gate Woodlands, Willamalane's east entrance to the park, recently used a $40,000 grant to improve the trailhead near Aspen and West D streets, reconfigure a parking and boat landing area and add a kiosk about park history. The park district also developed a playground with the city of Springfield on land just north of the woodlands.

- The Register-Guard