Shelby Farms Community Gardens Update

For the community gardeners out there, the gardens haven't been staked yet.

I was out there late yesterday afternoon and they hadn't been done. With the rain and the holiday weekend, it's not likely it will happen within the next few days.

I know people have been asking and watching, so I thought I'd put that out there.

But if anyone does go out there and see they have been staked, hit me up: cashiola@memphisflyer.com.

The Power of Greenways

Here's an upcoming event that might interest some of you.

ULI Memphis will host "Exploring the Transformative Roles of Greenways," with Jim Langford, president of the Atlanta-based MillionMile Greenway.

The event is this Wednesday at Christian Brothers University. Registration is free and open to the public; you can either register online at memphis.uli.org or by calling 1-800-321-5011.

Panelists for the event include Laura Adams from the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, Benny Lendermon, president of the RDC, which operates Mud Island, and Cindy Buchanan, director of the Memphis city parks division.

Belly Up

Skating at Shelby Farms recently has been quite pleasant. The weather has cooled off some, kids are back in school, and the sunsets have been really gorgeous. Everything has been pretty perfect ...

Until last night.

There we were, skating around the first south of Patriot Lake turn when it hit us. A noxious cloud of stink, worse than anything I have ever smelled. Like dead fish times 1,000.

Now, sometimes there are ... smells ... at Shelby Farms. Usually they're localized and you just identify them and try to get out of the area as fast as possible.

But this was a foul wind on the entire south side of Patriot Lake.

Walkers were pulling their t-shirt collars over their noses. Children were crying. Dogs were covering their noses with their paws.

After our third or fourth lap, I made the mistake of looking at the lake's sandy shore and it was blanketed with dead fish. All the way down. Just one after another, lined up like you'd see at a fish market. But not. Definitely not.

Obv. not Shelby Farms. I didn't have a camera with me.

More dead fish were floating belly up in the lake.

In March, Patriot Lake saw a similar occurrence. Gizzard shad, a fish sometimes used by fisherman for bait, began dying off. Robert Mayer, the director of park operations, says he's not sure how gizzard shad, generally found in streams and rivers, were introduced into Patriot Lake, but the fish eggs could also have been carried into the water by birds.

The U of M Ecological Research Center's Bill Simco investigated the March kill and told the park that cloudy weather had reduced the oxygen levels in the lake, making it inhospitable for gizzard shad.

The park has called Simco to test water quality again, just in case, but because the dead fish are once again gizzard shad, they suspect lower oxygen levels as the culprit.

"We don't think we have any cause for alarm," says Mayer. "This is just a natural occurrence."

The real bad news is for park rangers.

"The rangers have to put on their waders, get out in the water and scoop out the fish," says communications manager Jen Andrews. "We have to get them out somehow."

Shelby Farms Skate

Yesterday, the County Commission's Conservation Committee approved a master plan for Shelby Farms that includes an expanded Patriot Lake, improved park access, and even a small beach area. The master plan was designed by New York-based field operations.

My colleague Bianca Phillips covered the meeting for the Flyer and she knew I would be interested in the fact that Commissioner David Lillard was looking out for roller bladers and skaters.

Apparently, Lillard is something of a skater himself and was concerned that the plan's proposed pedestrian entrance and loop around the landfill would be a stone dust trail. Which would be rather difficult for skaters to use.

field operations principal James Corner said that was something they hadn't thought about but would consider in going forward with the plan.

Lillard also cited a proposed boardwalk around Patriot Lake as a potential problem for cyclists and skaters.

I'm so glad he brought those issues up.

I used to skate at Tom Lee Park and it's just awful. Though there are these nice, wide, smooth squares of sidewalk, they are interspersed with about a foot of cobblestones in between each one.

I get that it's a nod to the cobblestone landing — I sure hope it is — but it's not fun to skate. It's like you're skating nicely along, though not for very long, and you hit this big bump. Then you're back on smooth sidewalk, then another bump, and it goes on like this, one jarring bump every 10 seconds. If that.

(I can demonstrate this concept better with my hands and some very strange noises, but I'm finding it very difficult to explain here.)

Once you get going pretty fast, it's easier to ignore it, but if a strong wind is blowing or you're tired, just forget about it.

I even once advanced the theory that Tom Lee was designed this way on purpose to keep skaters from using the park. I don't really believe that's true, but the other options are that it either didn't cross anyone's mind or it did and they didn't care.

Either way, it looks like I need to thank Commissioner Lillard for mentioning skaters before the path is built.

The Shelby Farms plan goes before the full commission Monday, August 4th.