Peenaquim disc golf course will work as part of multi-use park, says City parks manager

By Al Beeber on May 13, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Users at Peenaquim Park in north Lethbridge should be able to co-habitate after the construction of a planned disc golf course, city parks manager Dave Ellis said Thursday.
The 18-hole course is scheduled for construction at Peenaquim Park which is home to a city dog run, the Fish and Game Shooting Range, Softball Valley and the City of Lethbridge Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“All of our parks are multi-use. Nicholas Sheran and disc golf co-habitate really well,” said Ellis.
And while there may be some impact on wildlife “that’s a reality in the city except in preservation areas,” he said.
And Ellis noted Peenaquim Park, which was constructed in the 1980s as part of the city’s urban parks project, is not native, pristine land.
The area was previously known as Valley Feeders which operated from the 1960s to 1985. The city purchased the land and other areas in the mid part of that decade, according to The Lethbridge Historical Society before it was developed into a park.
“It’s anything but native,” said Ellis. The high lumpy grass that makes walking difficult in the area is perennial high grass which has established a ground cover since being planted during the reclamation initiative.
Ellis said the disc golf course will have a separate parking lot, which will be constructed across from the shooting range.
He is well aware of the parking issues at the dog park. The parking lot for walkers has been doubled in size since he’s been with the parks department.
The disc golf course itself will be constructed in an unused area between the gun range and power line area.
Potential conflicts between dog owners and golfers should be mitigated by the distance between walking trails and the course, he said.
Greg Morris, vice-president of the Lethbridge Disc Golf Association, told The Herald in an email Thursday that the rough areas of grass on the course will be left as is with only fairways cleared.
“The course is staying away from the thickets where coyotes might be and is not near the riverbank as there is an easement from the power lines. The course layout will not go near 98 per cent of the existing trails that are down there.”
Ellis said fencing is an option to prevent conflicts between dog walkers and golfers but “I hope we can delay it a bit.”
Morris said any physical barriers such as “fencing or low-height boundary is still a little up in the air. It sounds like some type of low-fencing will act as a boundary indicator but not be so large as to impact wildlife and/or trekkers.”
The park is named, according to the historical society, after Peenaquim, “head chief of the Kainai from 1840 to 1860…the river valley site became known (as) Stafford Bottom as William and Jane Stafford built their ranch in that location in the 1880s.”
Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter.

Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter

4
-3