New nature park provides green space in East End

Winter-brown grasses, sedges and bulrushes ring the three ponds at the new Buffalo Bend Nature Park, a wetlands habitat.

The 10-acre park in Houston's East End was designed to work hard, converted from a former brownfield site into a wetlands demonstration project. Those plants have jobs to do, as does the green space itself, a few miles downriver from the glamorously reimagined Buffalo Bayou Park. This is where Houston's signature waterway meanders through the industrial heart of the city, bending sharply before it flows through the port's turning basin.

In development for almost 12 years, the nature park was funded with $2.8 million from the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the federal government, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Harris County Precinct 2 and the Harris County Flood Control District.

The federal funds for the land acquisition stipulated that the space be used for "passive recreation" - meaning no swing sets or soccer fields, said partnership president Anne Olson. And during community meetings, area residents told the Partnership they wanted spaces to enjoy nature.

"Once we decided the park would be natural, we thought it would be a great idea to have an environmental component," Olson said. "That's where the idea of the wetlands came into play."

Eventually Buffalo Bend, which officially opens with a ribbon cutting Wednesday, also will become an important trailhead in the 10-mile chain of hike-and-bike paths the Buffalo Bayou Partnership has planned from Shepherd to the Houston Ship Channel.

Beautiful and natural

Kevin Shanley of SWA, the park's designer, said some of Houston's wetlands are so vast they're hard to comprehend. The landscape architect envisioned "a beautiful little natural place where people can see how a wetlands works at a small scale."

Near the top of the park, a small solar pump draws bayou water into a cistern. The water dribbles out into three "treatment" ponds before returning, filtered, to the bayou. This process can take days or weeks, Shanley explained. "That's part of the idea of three ponds; they encourage the water to move but also slow it down."

Native plants in the ponds grab debris at the surface but also filter bad bacteria and neutralize pollutants through their roots, Shanley said. "There's a very beautiful, complex relationship between what's happening with the plants above water, with photosynthesis and wildlife, and what's happening in the soil."

Buffalo Bend's last incarnation actually benefited the current project.

Years ago, the previous owner wanted fill dirt for the abandoned, low-lying property. Tellepsen Builders, which was digging tunnels nearby for the city's environmentally friendly 69th Street wastewater treatment plant, obliged with tons of spoilage excavated from 30 feet underground.

"For many uses, that would be a problem," Shanley said. "The soil is so heavy you could make pottery out of it. But for wetlands, it's perfect. It does a great job of holding water."

Concrete remnants of the site's industrial past have been put to use as well, recycled to create the cistern, the columns of a shade pavilion, "rock" walls and a wildlife island in the largest pond. The park's small hill was built from the pond excavation.

Appreciated by community

Olson said the partnership soon will complete a trail from Buffalo Bend to nearby Hidalgo Park. The group still has a long way to go to acquire other property and rights-of-way along the bayou's eastern banks.

"As things come available, we try to put it together," Olson said.

Area residents haven't waited to enjoy the park's open paths, scenic overlook and abundant birds. Community volunteer Sonny Flores, who owns an engineering firm in the area, said families already fill Buffalo Bend on weekends.

"It's a lower-income area that needs green space," Flores said.

Bo Fraga, a community developer at Neighborhood Centers, grew up in the East End and remembers having to cross town to visit the arboretum to experience nature as a child. He hopes the area's elementary schools will use the park for their classes in ecology and science.

Buffalo Bend offers "a perfect example" of how public-private partnerships are enabling improvements throughout the county, said Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Jack Morman.

Harris County owns the land and is required to maintain it, while Buffalo Bayou Partnership will be responsible for any additional developments.

"I'm sure the community is going to appreciate it, and it's only going to get better with time," Morman said. "All of our money goes a little further."