WILMINGTON – The Swinging Bridge located in Wilmington State Park’s Brandywine Park will be temporarily closed for repairs beginning 8:30 a.m., Monday, July 24 through 4 p.m. Friday July 28.

During the repairs, the bridge will be closed during the day from 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. but open each day after 4 p.m.

For more information, contact the Wilmington State Parks office at 302-577-7020.

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WILMINGTON –DNREC’s Division of Parks & Recreation and the Wilmington Area Rotary Club’s Community Fund will host a 10th anniversary celebration of the Can-Do Playground in Alapocas Run State Park from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday, July 15. The celebration, open to the public, will feature family-friendly activities, including a “Nature on the Go” cart and the Brandywine Traveling Zoo, along with free giveaways for the first 200 guests.

The festivities are also designed to unveil plans to the public for the Can-Do Playground’s nature-themed expansion. The state’s first barrier-free public playground, the Can-Do Playground promotes cooperative play between children with and without disabilities, and engages them in a wide range of activities essential to their social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.

The Can-Do Playground’s expansion, scheduled to be begin in September, will:

• Add additional pieces of nature-themed interpretive equipment aimed at improving the play experience of children with intellectual disabilities and those with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder;
• Enhance the parent-child bonding experience with “expression swings,” configured with a face-to-face design;
• Replace play components worn by weather and use with panels that add auditory, tactile, and visual experiences throughout the playground;
• Optimize the rubberized surface to ensure ease of access for children with mobility disabilities; and

• Add an accessible area for picnic tables and ground level music activities.

For the past decade, Rotary has remained actively involved in stewardship of the playground and will now fundraise for the expansion with its principal partner, DNREC’s Division of Parks & Recreation. With grant awards from the Longwood and Welfare Foundations and the opportunity for the project to be showcased on the National Recreation and Parks Association crowdfunding platform, the club hopes to reach its $245,000 goal for the expansion.

Vol. 47, No. 159

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WILMINGTON – Bellevue State Park is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and the staff and the Friends of Bellevue State Park invite the public to join the celebration with all kinds of family-friendly activities and fun for all ages noon – 10:30 p.m. Sunday, July 2. The park will waive its entry fee for the day.

The celebration will feature concerts by Kategory 5 and the 85-member Chester County Concert Band; a park-wide scavenger hunt with prizes; face painting; sand art; food trucks; an open house at Bellevue Hall (staged for a wedding); tennis and disc golf clinic; dog training and mounted police demonstrations; and exhibits from the Brandywine Zoo and Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research. The evening will include a craft beer garden on the patio, live music, a guided hike through the estate, and an introduction to observing the night sky.

Bellevue State Park was established in 1977, and was previously the estate of William DuPont Jr., a bank executive and prominent figure in thoroughbred horse racing and breeding. The estate features a large mansion home, a nine-furlong racetrack, the Figure 8 Barn, extensive stables and paddocks and a first class clay court tennis center used by DuPont’s wife, Margaret Osbourne, a champion professional tennis player.

In addition to the DuPont mansion and estate, Bellevue State Park also includes the mansion and grounds of the Daniel Cauffiel estate and the historic Mount Pleasant Meeting House, parsonage and cemetery.

Walking and biking are very popular around the park’s mile-long trail, which circles a catch-and-release fishing pond. Hiking and riding trails, including a portion of the Northern Delaware Greenway Trail, allow for leisurely exploration of other parts of the estate by foot, bike, or horse.

Bellevue also boasts a modern, privately-run equestrian facility with arenas and full-service stables. Year-round, the park provides a variety of public programs for visitors of all ages, including tours, guided hikes, and nature-themed educational programs. Youth day camps are also available for children of all ages, along with a popular concert series during the summer. Hayrides are available in the fall, and outdoor ice skating on the pond is available during the colder months, conditions permitting.

For more information, visit www.destateparks.com or call 302-761-6963.

Media contact: Beth Shockley, 302-739-9902

Vol. 47, No.150

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YORKLYN – Revitalization milestones will be on display from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday, June 4, during the first Yorklyn Day festival at the former NVF manufacturing site in Yorklyn. The event will highlight site remediation – including toxics removal and flood mitigation – along with new trails and amenities, and plans for continued redevelopment.

“We are making tremendous progress in transforming Yorklyn into a residential, commercial, conservation and recreation area, while also removing a century of contamination,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin. “We are turning the area into a revitalized, vibrant hub of activity that retains its historic character and provides the kinds of amenities that will help drive economic growth while improving the quality of life for residents and visitors alike.”

• Already completed is the new Yorklyn Bridge Trail, located in the bullseye of the revitalization effort. It will surround a new flood mitigation wetland, which is slated to begin construction later this summer.
• The Yorklyn Bridge Trail now also connects to the CC Arts/Snuff Mill Trail, which also will be open to the public on Yorklyn Day. The trail connects the former NVF site with the historic Garrett Snuff Mills and the Center for Creative Arts. The centerpiece of the trail is the restored foundation of one of the Snuff Mills, dating back to the 1800s.
• In addition, the Oversee Trail, with beautiful, scenic views, is planned to be open in the next several days.
• Coming soon, a connection between the Yorklyn Bridge Trail and the Auburn Heights Trail loop, the first trail section completed in 2012, will be under construction in late summer 2017. This connection will include a renovated historic bridge behind the former Marshall Brothers Paper Mill on Benge Road.

What is not readily seen, but critical in the revitalization effort is the environmental remediation that continues. The former NVF manufacturing facilities in the area of Red Clay Creek are undergoing a massive environmental cleanup of nearly a century of historic contamination in soil, groundwater, sediment and surface water. In the process of remediating harmful contaminants from soils, a series of wetlands and flood mitigation measures will be created to reduce severe flooding that has resulted in significant economic impacts to the valley. In addition, restoration of the cross-stream that flowed through the facility will improve water quality and help to protect fish and other organisms in the Red Clay Creek.

DNREC’s Division of Waste & Hazardous Substances’ Site Investigation and Restoration Section (SIRS) is leading the remediation of the Brownfield site, including removal, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials from inside demolished buildings, removal and disposal of soil containing hazardous levels of zinc and lead, groundwater recovery and treatment, and monitoring of Red Clay Creek surface water and sediments. The private property owner has funded asbestos removal and building demolition. To date, more than 200 tons of contaminated materials have been removed from the interior of demolished buildings.

During the recent soil removal effort dubbed the “Big Dig,” more than 325,000 pounds (over 162 tons) of zinc have been removed from soils beneath the former manufacturing facility that now won’t contaminate the Red Clay Creek. Removing the zinc-contaminated soil eliminates the source of contamination to groundwater, and will thus minimize the time needed to operate the groundwater zinc recovery/treatment system. On average the treatment system recovers 600-700 pounds of zinc per month from the groundwater beneath the site. Since 2008, approximately 75,000 pounds of zinc has been recovered from groundwater and been kept from discharging to Red Clay Creek.

The partnership includes private developers, neighboring organizations and DNREC’s Divisions of Parks & Recreation, Waste & Hazardous Substances, Watershed Stewardship and Water. Partners include the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the EPA, local, state and federal legislators, business developers and strong support from neighboring property owners, as well as conservation and recreational organizations in the Yorklyn area. The collaboration is one of the most inventive undertaken in Delaware and serves as a national model for other similar projects.

To date, almost $8 million dollars of state funding has been spent to remediate the site, in addition to $1.6 million from FEMA for property acquisition, more than $800,000 in private loans from EPA and State HSCA funds to assist in asbestos removal and building demolition, and additional private funding for building demolition and restoration of an onsite office building.

Vol. 47, No. 127

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LEWES – On March 1, the Point at Cape Henlopen State Park was closed for migratory and beach nesting shorebirds. The closed sections, including a stretch of ocean beach and dunes, and a half mile along the bay shoreline, were marked with PVC poles and twine with flagging for visibility.

The closure benefits threatened and endangered beachnesters and migratory shorebirds, including red knot, piping plovers, oystercatchers, least terns and other wildlife.

This week, the closure will be extended approximately 100 yards south toward the Point parking area crossing. In addition, another adjustment to the southern boundary may occur as early as May 14.

The nesting habitat on the ocean side will reopen on Sept. 1, while the bayside beach will remain closed until Oct. 1 for use by shorebirds migrating south for the winter.

DNREC’s Divisions of Parks and Recreation, Fish & Wildlife and Watershed Stewardship have been working together since 1990 to implement a management plan to halt the decline of beachnester and migratory shorebird populations. The Point has been closed annually since 1993.

Vol. 47, No. 80

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