Perkins Park in Perry has long been neglected, but that’s all changing this year as the Parks and Recreation Department has teamed with Dallas County Conservation to completely remake the area.

Parks and Rec Director John Anderson says when he looked at the park this winter, it was severely overgrown with vegetation to the point of being dangerous for users. He says it’s a beautiful property, but until recently his department didn’t have the right equipment to properly maintain it. Realizing he needed help restoring the park, Anderson reached out to the County Conservation Department, and a plan was created to turn Perkins Park into a legitimate conservation area.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to showcase multiple different forms of conservation in that one area. So you’ll be able to go down there, and in one section we’re going to have potentially like butterfly habitat. And then the next section we’ll showcase soil stabilization, CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) buffer strips, that type of a conservation area. And then in the next one we can do more of a wildlife/animal area, and we’ll plant fruit-bearing trees like pecans or walnuts. Really what we’re going to do is we’re going to bring more wildlife to that area.”

Anderson says they’ve gotten a good start on the project by clearing much of the overgrowth, and Conservation has supplied equipment to make the job more efficient. This spring, they plan to replant the areas that have been cleared out, putting in various seed mixes such as pollinators and soil stabilizers. In the fall, they should start planting the new trees. Once the Perkins Park renovation is complete, Anderson says they’ll be able to start new programming, and connect the community with the environment.