On Eighth Avenue between the planets and the trees lies the newly renovated Loblolly Woods Nature Park boardwalk, ready for bikers and runners alike.
After being closed for almost a year, Linda Demetropoulos, the Gainesville Division of Cultural Affairs nature manager, said they repaired holes in the boardwalk and replaced side rails.
The quarter-mile boardwalk is free to the public.
UF junior Carley Reynolds said she is looking forward to going to the boardwalk and checking out the renovations. The 21-year-old environmental science major prefers Loblolly Woods Nature Park because of its proximity to campus.
“It will be nice to have a bike path closer again,” she said.
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Cofrin Nature Park will soon close temporarily for structural repairs.
Starting April 7, the park, at 4810 NW Eighth Ave., will be closed for a restoration project to the Beville Heights Creek, which runs through the park.
The property contains a half-mile-long hiking trail, a playground for children and the Survivors of Suicide Memory Garden.
The restoration project will keep the park closed until August, said Don Musen, a habitat naturalist for the City of Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department.
Musen said a lot of the damage to the creek is due to erosion that contaminates the water quality for anything that would naturally thrive in the creek ecosystem.
“By stabilizing the banks and bringing up the base of the creek to a more natural elevation,” he said, “we’re hoping to contain and stabilize that sediment flow so that we can overall improve the health of the creek.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 4/1/2015 under the headline “Gainesville parks in stages of repair”]
Pictured is the renovated Loblolly Woods Nature Park boardwalk on Eighth Avenue. The quarter-mile-long boardwalk is now open to the public after being closed for almost a year for repairs to holes and the side rails.
