2023 Issue 4 Jul/Aug Focus - Mid-South Magazine

will be leading the charge when it comes to the restoration,
not just from aesthetic point of view, but also determining
what area will flood every year and which plants are
needed to transition the existing fields to hardwood
bottomland, meadows, and swamp for the long term.
Currently, Ducks Unlimited Park is in the final stages
of completing a park master plan with Richie Smith
Associates, a Memphis landscape architecture firm
experienced with local parks and parks all along the
Mississippi. Ware expects a final edited version to the
master plan later this summer and then they will compare
and contrast costs and fundraising expectations.
Fundraising will be ongoing over the next year or two.
Groundbreaking for the first of several amenities is
planned for Fall 2023. Ideas include a welcome center, low
impact meandering trails with an elevated boardwalk that
connects to an outdoor classroom and hardwood swamps,
a retriever training area, and an off-leash dog park. The
ultimate goal will be a raised pavilion at the corner of Dacus
Lake Road near the I-40 Bridge that will look back toward
Memphis. The mound itself will be several hundred yards
wide, an elevated open air pavilion with a sunflower meadow
out front and multiple staggered seating areas on the mound
area facing the river. This summer some flowers will again be
planted that will bloom in July and early August.
The almost six-mile trail through the park, once gravel,
is now paved and swings to a viewing area near the river.
Shade awnings are planned for this trail. There is also a
connection to Big River Levee Trail, which is currently part of
a gravel 76-mile trail system that connects the levees from
Marion, TN to Marianna, AR, and will eventually be part of a
1,607-mile levee trail that connects from the Mississippi to
the headwaters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Entering this park, Ware says, will be a different
experience. “When you step over there, that land that’s
in-between the levees over the last 100 years has really
created its own ecosystem. There’s much more biodiversity
in that little area than there is basically within 100 miles of
here. That's the way it is with the entire Mississippi levee.
There’s different trees, different fauna, different bird
species that stay on the property there, different insects.”
Ducks Unlimited Park will complement Memphis River
Parks Partnership, the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy,
and other Memphis green spaces.
More green space here will also help to attract
corporations, Ware hopes. He explains that Tennessee has
many advantages for corporations to relocate here and
this park will be another reason for them to prefer Memphis
over Nashville and Chattanooga, in addition to encouraging
the wonderful people who are growing up here to choose
Memphis, and for those of us who live here to enjoy it. Ware
says the city of Memphis has been supportive of the park
and he notes that Tom Lee Park and Ducks Unlimited Park
will literally and figuratively connect by way of the bridge–
one park will be extended to the other.
“Coming out of the pandemic, any small business owner
will tell you that quality of life was important before, but
that factor has gone through the roof. We recognize that,
the city recognizes that, Arkansas recognizes that, and I
think that's why a lot of major corporations are willing to
step up. We hope to be just one of the many parts of a
bigger partnership project that extends this kind of habitat
restoration up and down the river all the way down to New
Orleans. There is actually a lot that could be done without
very much effort.” A green, sustainable investment in the
future of Memphis: this is a reason for Memphians to keep
walking across the Big River.
14 Memphis Green | JUL+AUG 2023 | focuslgbt.com