Northpinellas: Park short on frills but long on nature

TARPON SPRINGS -- In the two years he has spent creating the North Anclote River Nature Park, Norm Dicks has seen one type of troublesome tree so often that its image is permanently imprinted on his brain.

"I see pepper trees in my sleep," said Dicks, a maintenance worker with the city of Tarpon Springs.

Part of the long process of turning the 77 acres into a park involved getting rid of the aggressive Brazilian pepper trees. Dicks and other workers also cleared paths to make walking and biking trails, made signs and created a parking lot off Dixie Highway.

Now, a decade after city officials first discussed it, the park is almost ready for its grand opening, probably next month. Using state, city and donated money, Tarpon Springs has created a park with few frills that emphasizes vegetation and trees native to Florida.

There are several benches near the river throughout the park, and there is a plastic playground near the restroom building at the entrance to the park. A larger playground, picnic tables, grills and a fishing pier will be installed later.

"It'll be a very nice, contemplative place," said Kathy Monahan, director of the city's department of cultural and civic services. "This is preserving it from development, and preserving the habitats of the gopher tortoises and the sea birds."

City officials first talked about creating a park on the property in 1991. In the mid 1990s, officials said the project moved along slowly because of difficult negotiations with the large corporations that owned the land.

In 1996, the city spent most of a $1.85-million grant from the Florida Communities Trust, a state agency that administers preservation grants, to buy the bulk of the property from USX Corp., the Pittsburgh-based parent of U.S. Steel.

The next year, the city was in danger of losing the rest of the funding because of a time limit on using grant money. But the city made an agreement with CSX Corp. to buy the rest of the property and used the rest of the money.

USX made a $250,000 donation for development of the park, and the state and city each poured in $125,000.

When city crews started cleaning up the land, they first had to remove the trash people had left at the entrance, which was used as a dump. They cleaned up rugs, bed springs, washing machines and "I don't know how many tires," Dicks said.

Compared with what was to come, the trash was the easy part. Brazilian pepper trees, an invasive plant not indigenous to Florida, covered big portions of the property. Because most of the pepper trees were near wetland areas, Dicks and other workers could not use machinery to haul out the trees and had to remove them by hand.

"A thousand feet back -- it was all pepper trees," he said last week on a tour of the property. Some of the pepper trees were as big as oaks, he said.

He also had to make paths by chopping down a thick tangle of branches and vines.

"I chainsawed my way through," he said.

Dicks even made the signs on the property, pointing the way to the trails, restrooms and a canoe launch. At first, he was going to use pressure-treated wood. But because of widespread concerns about the possibility of arsenic leaching out of pressure-treated wood, he switched to cedar and pine.

Now, the paths are cleared and ready for walkers or bikers. Some of the paths eventually will be covered with broken shells, he said.

Even after the grand opening, which could happen early in November, there still will be a lot of work for the city to do, including regular maintenance, the addition of a bird-watching lookout and a fishing pier, and the installation of a big playground.

"It's a big project for a little community to do," Monahan said.

Dicks will be involved in the ongoing work at the park, including the continued problem of the pepper trees. Small trees have sprouted up all over the property, and he doesn't want them to grow any bigger.

"I see a bunch of little babies I need to take care of," he said.

-- Times staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or

gazella@sptimes.com.

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