Audubon-Pennington Nature Park marks 35 years

PRAS board member and park manager Rob Mills; Sandy Artman, PRAS treasurer; PRAS members and park volunteers Larry Linn, George Davis, Sara Davis and Shannon McGinnis; Rhonda Harvey, director of Keep Charlotte Beautiful; Bren Curtis, PRAS president; and Nancy Leipold, PRAS secretary. COURTESY PHOTO

Peace River Audubon held a celebration March 15 at Audubon-Pennington Nature Park and planted another laurel oak tree in Betty Pennington’s “weed Garden” — her nickname for a native plant garden.

The occasion was the 35th anniversary of the park, which has a long and fascinating history.

In 1984, General Development Corporation (GDC) deeded just under 10 acres of land on a peninsula to Charlotte County, and then-Commissioner Tom Frame brought it to the attention of Peace River Audubon. GDC had planned to create a lake, but decided it was too expensive and the peninsula had some old growth trees.

The county was interested in creating an urban park, which would cost less to develop, so Peace River Audubon volunteered to help develop a plan. Some Peace River Audubon members (Francis G. McGovern, Charles Derrick, Charlie Caniff and Dave Wilson) held several planning meetings and took tree inventories of the area.

Then they bought 70 slash pine seedlings and 700 longleaf pine seedlings to be planted in 1988 to create a pine flatwoods landscape.

Audubon-Pennington Nature Park COURTESY PHOTO

They discovered an upland area with maple, salt bush and cabbage palm, which was home to five gopher tortoises. They explored a transitional area with dahoon hollies, live oak, laurel oak, elm, red maple, sweet gum, southern cedar and southern wax myrtle. The peninsula is surrounded by the Elkcam Waterway canal on three sides, ending in a southern cypress swamp.

In 1989, a retired teacher from Sallie Jones Elementary School named Betty Pennington donated her properties in the nearby community of Cleveland to Peace River Audubon. The Audubon used the proceeds of the sale of her properties to develop this urban park, since her lots were residential lawns. Charlotte County and Peace River Audubon named the park Audubon-Pennington Nature Park in her honor. A laurel oak tree was planted, and her memorial sign was erected in the park.

It is a unique urban park with an undisturbed hammock of old live oak trees, a pine flatwoods area and a small cypress swamp. A mile of trails was established through the three elevations.

Peace River Audubon entered into a 99-year lease with the county to manage the land as a natural area for $1 a year.

You can view an approximately 2-minute video about Audubon-Pennington Nature Park at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoQdofCeqzM. ¦

The post Audubon-Pennington Nature Park marks 35 years first appeared on Charlotte County Florida Weekly .