Friends of Willow River and Kinnickinnic State Parks: Rita Thofern, President of the Friends of Willow River and Kinnickinnic State Parks, told us that the Friends’ current goal is the upgrading of the Willow River Nature Center. She said that they are at about 25% of the needed funding.
The Friends are an all-volunteer group. They do support the park naturalist that they were instrumental in hiring. Over their existence, the group has run events that have brought many visitors to the parks, and they have worked to educate visitors about impact on natural environment of human activity. Pre-Covid accomplishments include: hiring and funding the park naturalist, providing programming for all ages, and purchasing equipment to enhance the park and improve visitors’ experiences.
The Friends had big plans for 2020: there were planned spring/summer/fall programs were all brought to a halt by Covid-19. Parks closed down March 2020 for any indoor or organized activity. Standard fundraising of firewood sales, canoe & kayak rentals, gift shop, and other revenue sources were all abruptly halted.
The group had to pivot; they put up a sign on the door of the closed nature center with suggestions of what to do. Ironically there was finally a lake for canoeing and kayaking but rentals were not allowed. Grants were a mixed bag; many couldn’t happen due to shift in priorities for grants. Got board member help for PPP, which was a major help. Also had some donors step up to close gaps in revenue.
Now the nature center is back open with restrictions. Most programming occurs outside, and the park and Friends have moved to a lot of non-contact activities, ways to pay, etc. Took a long time to get canoe and kayak rental back due to slow agreement to allow the amount of contact inherent in handling the equipment.
Rita made an appeal to Rotary for board members; the board presently has openings. They are working on a capital campaign. Plan is for a new building on same site as the current one. That will create challenge during transition to the new building. Existing building is a house moved and repurposed.
Have added mountain bike trail, with mountain biking recently allowed in parks. Trails are being added at both parks. Adding trails in an undeveloped corner of Willow to avoid conflicts between bike riders and other park users.