By Dan Tortorice
Friends of Lake View Hill Park

The beginning of a new decade seems like a good time to appreciate the good things in our lives. For those of us living on Madison’s Northside, we can count the blessing of having Lake View Hill County Park right in the middle of our neighborhood.

Here are a few things that happened in the park in 2019 and some plans for this year.

The new fruit orchard, planted by the county in late 2018, survived its first winter very well. Some trees had small fruit on them this fall. Hikers to the bottom of the hill should be picking a variety of local fruit in just a few years.

The Madison Water Utility erected a platform to display artifacts from the old water tower near the base of the new tower. These relics serve as a reminder of the old tower that stood there for so many years. The water utility was also involved in a beautiful prairie restoration south of the retaining wall on the hill.

Dane County constructed a scenic split rail fence at the top of the retaining wall to protect the wall and keep snow boarders from using it as a launch point. The county also re-built the series of water retention ponds going down the hill to Northport Drive. They will be planting plugs of native plants on the bottom of the ponds this spring to allow for better water filtration into the ground.

The Friends of Lake View Hill Park (FOLVHP) cleaned out the big cistern behind the DCHS building. We planted healthful herbs there to celebrate the heritage of Lake View Sanatorium. Boy Scout Troop 12 built a trail and bench to help visitors enjoy this site. 

The park was designated as a Butterfly Way Station by a national group to honor its important role in supporting these useful pollinators. FOLVHP and the county will be planting a demonstration pollinator garden this spring along the path to the west of the cisterns. Visitors will see a variety of native pollinator-friendly plants that they might want to consider planting at home.

As always, local volunteer groups played a big role in ecological restoration. Blackhawk Church, Dane County Youth Conservation Corps and Shabaz High School ecology classes performed valuable work in removing invasive plants and collecting and planting native seeds. You can see the results of their efforts in the triangle area next to the visitors’ parking lot and in the woods to the left of the trail leading down to Havey Road. Wild flowers will be blooming where invasive buckthorn once dominated.

The new year has some exciting plans. We will place interpretive signs along the paths in the woods to celebrate some archaeological sites associated with the sanatorium. These beautiful and colorful metal signs were made by Dane County Parks on behalf of FOLVHP. We also will place a new martin house, in the shape of gourds, on a pole near the new prairie just southwest of the retaining wall on the hill

FOLVHP are working with Good Oak Ecological Services to study and reroute trails through the main woods to reduce water erosion toward the Havey Road entrance. The new trail might serve to take visitors deeper into the woods as well.

If you are interested in learning more or participating in the exciting work being done in the park, consider joining FOLVHP or serving on our board. Participating in the growth of this neighborhood treasure is a pleasure to be appreciated.

Learn more about the park at lakeviewhill.org or find us on Facebook@lakeviewhill.