Anderson Park in Isanti County is an almost perfect example of what can be accomplished when a family, a government body and a group of will-ing and active volunteers come together.

In 2007, the Anderson family began talking to Isanti County about selling their 174-acre farm to the county. Lee Kingsbury and some of her neighbors heard about the possible sale and knew that if they wanted to have a voice in what happened with the beautiful natu-ral area, they needed to form a Friends Group.

Two community meetings later, the group had lots of ideas, a few donations, volunteers for a planning committee and plenty of enthusiasmand literal muscleto make things happen.

Our mission was to preserve the natural beauty of the area, said Kingsbury. The park sits in the south-east corner of the county, an area with a great diversity of flora and fauna. The park includes restored prairie, woods, marshes and over a half mile of frontage on two small lakes.

The Friends Group wanted to help in the creation of a park, its members also wanted that park to stay natural. Today, just seven years after the land was sold to Isanti County, the park has several added amenities that maintain the idea of a place to view wildlife, to walk in tranquility and to see Minnesotas geo-logical and topological history.

The Friends of Anderson Park decided that the first thing it wanted to help accomplish was to build a picnic shelter,

Kingsbury said, because it would be a real structure, something that people could use. A picnic structure would help identify the area as a park.

As has been typical for the group, the picnic structure started and finished with lots of people pitching in. A member of the group knew a log builder who offered to help construct the shelter, if the logs were purchased from him. Those two men, plus a group of retirees who called themselves the AARP Crew, built the shelter. The Friends Group raised several $1,000, then asked the township for a grant of $5,000. Then I went to the Isanti County Board and told them we need-ed $24,000 from themfor a $78,000 project, Kingsbury said.

The picnic structure is made of huge logs and looks like it belongs in a natu-ral area. Prairie and rain gardens have been planted around it. Between the shelter and a nearby lake is a natural childrens play area, with play structures made from tree trunks, branches, cul-verts and sand. Kids can and do create teepees, houses, make-believe campfires and anything else their imaginations come up with.

Three boardwalks, one of them 950 feet long, allow visitors to walk through what otherwise might be marshy areas

without damaging the terrainor their footwear. The longest boardwalk has Horse Leg Lake on one side and a wetland on the other, with a big view-ing platform in the middle. The Friends Group helped raise the grant money to create the boardwalks.

Anderson Park has become known to birders for its rich variety of birds, from sandhill cranes to common loons to red-shouldered hawks. The Friends have partnered with the Isanti County Parks Department, the Minnesota Audubon Society and Wild River Audubon Chapter to build a chimney swift tower, hoping to attract hundreds of swifts, a declining species, and to put up purple martin nest boxes in a number of sites in the park.

In 2013, a master plan for the park recommended that adjacent land be acquired for the park as it became available. Barry Wendorf, Isanti County parks director, began contacting the owners of those properties, letting them know that if and when they were ready to sell, the County was interested. The owner of one property responded and talks beganwhich prompted the Friends Group to start fundraising. Then I got a call from another land owner who said it had always been their dream to have their land saved to be part of a park, said Kingsbury. Then another piece of property, on the other side of the lake, also came up for sale. We were just trying to catch our breath.

The Parks & Trails Council of Min-nesota (P&TC) is the fiscal sponsor for Friends of Anderson Park, a role it fills for a number of Friends Groups. The Friends Group suggested that Wendorf contact P&TC to help acquire the land and hold it in trust so the county would have time to raise money. P&TC is currently negotiating with one land-owner and will soon be doing apprais-als and surveys on the other possible acquisitions, while the Friends Group is raising money to use as matching funds for grants. The adjacent properties would grow the park from 174 acres to roughly 280 acres and add a mile of lakeshore.

Between 2008 and 2013, the Friends of Anderson Park estimates that it provided more than 4,000 volunteer hours with an estimated value of nearly $100,000, and generated donations of more than $23,000. Thats a mark of the organizations success, and the com-mitment of its members, but Kingsbury said that for the new acquisitions, it will need more funding. People have stepped forward and put a lot of money on the table.

parks & trails council of mn w w w . p a r k s a n d t r a i l s . o r g

6 Summer 2015 Minnesota Trails

parks & trails council of mn w w w . p a r k s a n d t r a i l s . o r g

Friends Group HighlightFriends of Anderson Park Working together to preserve and restore a natural area

The log picnic shelter was put up by volunteers through Friends of Anderson Park.

By Linda Picone, Parks & Trails Council volunteer

Helping Friends GroupsParks & Trails Council of Minnesota works to increase the capacity of volunteer-run Friends

Groups for state and regional parks and trails. By helping these groups get established, connecting them with valu-able resources, and helping to acquire land on their behalf, we help grow a tremendous volunteer network to care for these special places. Learn more about this work at

www.ParksandTrails.orgMinnesota Trails Summer 2015 7

Three boardwalks in the park allow visitors to walk through marshy areas without damaging the ter-rainor their footwear. .

Irving and John Anderson County Park

The rich variety of birds in this Isanti County park include sandhill cranes.

...if they wanted a voice in what happened with this beautiful area, they needed a Friends Group.