Duncansville Memorial Park is a “hidden gem,” said Mayor Eric Fritz, who worked alongside the others to spread mulch in the drainage ditches along Eighth Avenue. The mulch, along with a few hundred native plants, bushes and trees will help prevent flooding, filter the water, create an oasis of color and provide food for humans, caterpillars, birds and more, said Jordan Wild.

Grants through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation help communities put in and maintain rain gardens and riparian barriers, as well as erect and repair stream banks, said Beth Futrick, of the conservation district.

The district partnered with The Wild Ones, a local nonprofit operated by Jordan and Jennarose Wild, to install the Duncansville rain garden.

The concept is simple, said Wild, who enthusiastically described how the nonprofit focuses on habitat restoration using native plants.

Jordan Wild shows off a monarch butterfly caterpillar that he called “a late bloomer.” It is weeks behind others that already transformed into butterflies and aewmheading to their winter grounds in Mexico. He plans to protect it until it transforms in the hopes that it can fly to Mexico, too.

The group planted elderberries, blue lobelia, iris, milkweed and mountain mint, along with pawpaw, native plum, hazelnut and northern hardy pecan trees, serviceberry, persimmon and red mulberry, to name a few.

Pawpaw fruit is “like a mango mixed with a banana,” Wild said. It’s native to the area, but for some reason is rare, found more often in the southern part of the state around Pittsburgh and in the Susquehanna River Basin near York to the east.

Originating from the West Virginia town of the same name, the pawpaw tree is the only plant zebra swallowtail butterflies will lay their eggs on, he said.

“There used to be a lot of pawpaws here,” Wild said. It’s hoped that reintroducing the tree will bring back the butterflies.

Sweeping an arm around the new rain garden, Wild said all the plantings made Friday are of plants and trees native to the state and therefore they all have natural protections against insect damage, while also providing a valuable step in the “food web.”

Among the many other amenities at the park, Blair Gap Run is stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. With areas deep enough to swim, children also enjoy playing in the water.

For instance, 76 different pollinators have been observed on the flowers of the mountain mint, and more than 300 species of caterpillars can be found on oak trees. By contrast, the invasive tree of heaven is host to only one insect — the equally invasive spotted lanternfly.

Get rid of the tree of heaven and we also get rid of the lanternfly, he said.

Wild, who grew up in Altoona and calls the area home, said Ohio spiderwort leaves are edible and much like kale. “It’s good food for wildlife, but we can eat it, too,” he said.

With the push to fight climate change and to provide food for the masses, he believes gardens — such as the one now growing in Duncansville — are viable solutions.

Done right, these gardens can turn into a “food forest,” he said. “It’s a community garden that no one has to take care of.”

Duncansville Mayor Eric Fritz shovels mulch at Duncansville Memorial Park.

The rain garden plantings will flower April to October, Wild said, so there will always be something to see.

He hinted that landowners could do the same thing on their properties, embracing “wild” plantings and thus cutting down on weed killer, which contributes to the decline of bees, birds and other insects.

He encourages everyone to learn about planting for ecology, adding “it wasn’t until I was 29 years old that I learned the monarch butterfly can only lay its eggs on milkweed.”

His dream is to create these edible gardens — for both wildlife and humans — connected by a bike trail. With the gardens already in Bellwood, Altoona, Hollidaysburg and now Duncansville, he said the next step would be to create the trail and then connect the entire system to the Lower Trail.

Park plans

Wild’s dream is contagious, with Fritz adding bike trail improvements and a connection to the Lower Trail would be ideal, especially ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Duncansville is along the 9/11 trail, Fritz said, and he expects more bicycle riders along that path in the years to come. He feels the time is ripe to make improvements, to draw in visitors to restaurants and shops, and provide them with a place to relax before continuing their journey.

The borough is looking to upgrade the park well before 2026, though, he said.

The park has been in existence for years, but is showing its age — the tennis courts are cracked, with weeds growing through the surface, and the nets have seen better days. The ballfield, too, is in need of work to restore the playing area.

There is a long list of things to do, Fritz admitted, but the idea is to do what can be done and keep applying for grants.

Fritz, who moved to Duncansville with his family about 10 years ago, said one of the top priorities is to install a basketball court, a feature for which area residents have expressed a need. The idea is to replace the tennis courts with the basketball court and add pickleball courts, too.

The problem, though, remains how to fund the improvements.

The park has been neglected for a lot of years, he said, and Duncansville can’t really afford to put all its money into it, as there are roads to be maintained, among other borough concerns.

The borough has applied for a $1 million grant, again, after being turned down previously, but they’ve learned from past applications, he said, and hope for at least some money to make improvements.

Park has amenities

To be fair, the park already has a lot going for it, Fritz said, during a walking tour of the facilities.

There are pavilions, bathrooms, walking and biking trails — though some are brick and the rest are dirt. The park has a few different areas of playground equipment, such as slides and swings, a concession stand, benches and a scoreboard, all in relatively good shape. Electrical outlets were added this year and there is some lighting, though not enough, Fritz said.

The stream — Blair Gap Run — is stocked with trout by the state Fish and Boat Commission and some areas are deep enough to swim, he said. Children enjoy playing in the water, turning over rocks to search for crayfish and just splashing around.

The walking track is about half a mile in length and includes two pedestrian bridges over the stream, he said, as walkers with and without dogs took advantage of Friday’s mild weather to get in some exercise.

Four different Eagle Scout projects have been completed at the park, with one placing informational signs labeling the tree species. Another project installed benches and two others created the flag memorial, seating area and walkway.

The park is a popular stop for those playing Pokemon Go, he added, as there are several PokeStops.

The tree labels could use some upgrades, he said, and the bike racks, though functional, are in rough shape.

There is also a shuffleboard hidden in the weeds that has never been used in his memory.

“We were a cruise ship at one time,” he joked.

On a more serious note, as he looked around the park, Fritz said Duncansville doesn’t “have the tax base for a million dollar park.”

It’s difficult for smaller communities to make upgrades to parks, he said. “We don’t even have $100,000 to put into it,” but he and other community members are hoping the rain garden is the start of greater things to come.

He’s on board with Wild’s thoughts to plant a riparian barrier along the stream and Wild suggests hazelnut trees along the tree line as the nuts can be eaten, made into hazelnut butter and Nutella.

With upgraded walking and bike trails, along with edible plants, Fritz said people could theoretically “walk the trail and have a snack along the way.”