Around the County
By Larry Lovetinsky, JCCB Superintendent of Field Operations.

After a long grueling winter, the Johnson County Conservation Board staff is eagerly looking forward to a productive year of maintaining and improving our areas throughout the county.

This year, the staff will be working hard to upgrade all nine conservation and recreation areas in the county bringing them up to a higher standard of appearance for everyone to enjoy.

This new bridge at the Frytown Conservation Area provides easy access across the creek for hikers and hunters. Photo by Kristen

We will be completing the seeding and filling around the new shelter, which was built last fall at Walker Park. The shelter should make a nice addition to this area.
The River Junction and Hills Access areas will have some much-needed rock hauled on the roads. Improvements, such as filling potholes in the turf areas, grinding of stumps, etc., will be made on the grounds.

At the Frytown Conservation Area we will finish the seeding around the new bridge and trail section which staff also built last fall. A new entrance gate will also be, installed to allow easier access for staff to bring equipment across the creek. It will also serve as a new entrance for hikers and hunters.

Our newest property, the Cedar River Crossing Conservation Area, which is just down the river from the Sutliff Boat Ramp, will have a parking lot constructed and boundary signs installed this year. This will be a nice area for hunters and hikers alike to enjoy.

At Kent Park, many of facilities are getting to the age where they are in desperate need of repairs. This includes new roofs and paint. Staff will be starting these projects as soon as possible, and will make every effort to keep any inconvenience to a minimum for our park users.

The 1998 storm damage to Kent Park is nearly cleaned up with only a few things left to complete. This spring and fall we will begin replacing the trees which the storm destroyed, some of which were will over 100 years old. We are hoping to plant many of these trees by seed this fall if everything goes well. We will be looking for any acorns, nuts, etc. that we can get our hands on to utilize on this project. So, keep us in mind when you rake the acorns off your lawns this fall.

In June we will be performing annual road maintenance to parks roads, much of which will be focused on the campground area road system. These repairs are scheduled at the beginning of the week to keep an inconvenience to campers to a minimum.

We are also planning some future wetlands in Kent Park so keep looking for these exciting additions. I know we are really looking forward to having them.

For a complete map of JCCB areas, see Conservation Board Areas.