December 2010 Broward County Parks Newsletter

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DECEMBER 2010 Newsletter

www.broward.org/parks

Focus on Tree Tops Park

Chip-a-Tree Program Returns to 13 Sites

Holiday Hours

Find Stocking Stuffers

Family Fun at Quiet Waters and T.Y. Parks

Holiday Fantasy of Lights Continues

Find Fun in the Sun – At the Toys in the Sun Run

For Another Good Cause

Find History – At Deerfield Island

Twinkle, Twinkle

Animal Magnetism

Nature in North Broward

Mangrove Adventures

Listening and Learning

Quote of the Month

Special Attractions

Mission Statement

Your Opinion Counts!

SWIM Central Broward County Board of County Commissioners

Focus on Tree Tops Park

This 243.3-acre park, like many of our parks, sits on land once slated for development, until it was declared open space in October 1976 through Broward County’s Land Use Plan. In this case, the

land was owned by golfer Sam Snead and three partners, who had planned a golf course and high-rise apartments for the property. Instead, it was acquired by the county in February 1980, at a cost of $4.4 million -- $2.3 million from the 1978 bond issue, which

approved 15 park acquisition and development projects, and $2.1 million from the

U.S. Department of the Interior via the Florida Department of Natural Resources’ Land and Water Conservation Fund, the program’s largest grant at that time. The Snead Tract, as it was then known, was renamed Tree Tops. The suggestion came from County Commissioner Anne Kolb, in reference to elevated nature trails that were planned for the park, which

was developed at a cost of another $2.9 million and opened to the public on December 11, 1983. The adjacent

Pine Island Ridge opened in February 1990 and is connected to the park by a paved path that leads to an interpretive shelter. Today Tree Tops Park is known for its extensive network of horse trails, which were developed in cooperation with the

South Florida Trail Riders Association. Guided trail rides and pony rides are provided through the park’s partnership with

AA-D Horse Adventures, a private concessionaire. Visitors are welcome to bring in their own horses as well. The park is also known for its 23 acres of restored freshwater marsh, which are accessible by way of

a thousand feet of boardwalk. Among the park’s additional features are nature trails, including one with an observation tower 28 feet high; a paved biking/jogging path; a butterfly garden; a gopher tortoise preserve; four

areas for volleyball; playgrounds and picnic tables and grills throughout; a marina that includes a snack bar and offers boat and sports equipment rentals; and Safety Town, a miniature two-block village designed to teach pedestrian and bicycle safety to children.

The 3,440-square-foot building known as Tree Tops Center includes park offices, the 180-capacity Oak Ridge Auditorium, a covered patio (capacity 64), and kitchen facilities. The park also offers two large rental picnic shelters (capacity 61-90) and three medium

shelters (41-60), all with water, electricity, tables, and grills. For more information, call

Tree Tops at . The park has a regular gate entrance fee of $1.50/person (children 5 and under free) that is in effect on weekends and holidays.

Chip-a-Tree Program Returns to 13 Sites

Is there anything sadder than a holiday tree that’s still standing around in someone’s living room well into the new year? If the holidays are long gone but your tree isn’t, it’s time to chip

in and donate your used evergreen to our annual Chip-a-Tree initiative. Last year Broward County Parks recycled 9,225 trees, representing 115 tons of material that would otherwise have gone to landfills, and this year your tree can join those recyclable

thousands. The free program encourages Broward County residents to remove all decorations from their holiday trees (no decorated trees will be accepted), then bring the trees to a participating park, where

they are chipped and used for landscaping throughout the county park system. There is a limit of two trees per vehicle, artificial trees are not accepted, and no commercial vehicles or garbage trucks are allowed. This season’s program runs from Sunday, December 26, 2010, through Sunday, January 23, 2011, giving you plenty of time to take advantage of those after-the-holidays sales before hauling your tree

to a park. And remember, the regular weekend and holiday gate entrance fee will not be in effect for recyclers, so there’s no excuse not to do the right thing. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the following locations, all of which are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

except for the parks listed in bold:

·

Piccolo Park, 9501 Sheridan St., City 33024;

·

C. B. Park, 900 N. Flamingo Rd., Pembroke Pines 33028;

·

Easterlin Park, 1000 N.W. 38th St., Oakland Park 33309;

·

Fern Forest Nature Center, 201 Lyons Rd. South, Coconut Creek 33063;

·

Markham Park, 16001 W. State Rd. 84, Sunrise 33326;

·

Plantation Heritage Park, 1100 S. Fig Tree Lane, Plantation 33317;

·

Quiet Waters Park, 401 S. Powerline Rd., Deerfield Beach 33441;

·

Reverend Delevoe Park, 2520 N.W. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale 33311;

·

Snake Warrior's Island, 3600 S.W. 62nd Ave., Miramar 33023;

·

Tradewinds Park, 3600 W. Sample Rd., Coconut Creek 33073;

·

Tree Tops Park, 3900 S.W. 100th Ave., Davie 33328;

·

T.Y. Park, 3300 N. Park Rd., Hollywood 33021;

·

West Lake Park, 751 Sheridan St., Hollywood 33019; All sites will be closed – no trees accepted – on January 1 and 17. For more information, call , or e-mail

praglin@....

Holiday Hours

Fri., Dec. 24 and 31 –

Open: All regional parks, nature centers, and neighborhood parks except as indicated below; campgrounds (C.B. , Easterlin, Markham, Quiet Waters, and T.Y.); AllGolf (C.B. ); Butterfly World (Tradewinds); Lakeshore Tennis ( Piccolo); Ski

Rixen USA (Quiet Waters); and Tennis Center (C.B. ) – Closed: Boulevard Gardens Community Center, Deerfield Island Park, Lafayette Hart Park; all-day programs at neighborhood parks will

not be held. Sat., Dec. 25 –

Open: Campgrounds; AllGolf; and Lakeshore Tennis– Closed: All regional parks, nature centers, and neighborhood parks; Butterfly World; Ski Rixen USA; and Tennis Center. Sat., Jan. 1 –

Open: Campgrounds; AllGolf; Butterfly World; Ski Rixen USA – Closed: All regional parks, nature centers, and neighborhood parks; Lakeshore Tennis; and Tennis Center.

Find Stocking Stuffers

Looking for that perfect gift this holiday season? Purchase our Individual or Family

Parks Passports for fun, affordable gifts.

·

Individual Parks Passport - $25

·

Family Parks Passport - $60 (good for up to six people per vehicle) With a Parks Passport, you never have to worry about paying the $1.50-per-person gate entrance fee (children 5 and under free) that’s in effect on weekends and county holidays at most of our regional

parks. The credit card-style Passports are good for one year from the date of purchase and are available at park offices. Once you’re inside a park, many facilities are available for use free on a first-come, first-served basis. Here’s a sampling of what you can do for little or no money:

·

Basketball courts

·

Disc golf courses

·

Dog park

·

Fishing

·

Jogging/walking paths

·

Nature center trails and natural areas

·

Observatory

·

Picnic tables (freestanding only)

·

Racquetball/handball courts

·

Tennis courts (certain parks only)

·

Volleyball For further information, call or visit the park of your choice. Or pick up one of our new series of

Nature Posters, featuring the flora and fauna of our County parks. Framed or unframed, they make great gifts for home or office. The posters measure 18 inches by 24 inches and cost $10. They’re available at

Anne Kolb,

Fern Forest, and

Long Key nature centers, and at

Markham,

Plantation Heritage,

Tree Tops, and

T.Y. parks.

Family Fun at Quiet Waters and T.Y. Parks

Now that the evenings are finally cooling off a bit, what better time for an old-fashioned hayride and campfire, complete with a marshmallow roast? There are three this month, two at Quiet Waters

Park in Deerfield Beach and one at T.Y. Park in Hollywood. The Family Hayride and Campfire at Quiet Waters on Saturday, December 4 runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and costs $3 per person for one hayride and one bag of fixings to make s’ mores. Additional

refreshments will be available for purchase. Recent events have proved so popular that advance tickets are required, either by visiting the park office or calling . Another Family Hayride and Campfire, this one at T.Y., will be on Friday, December 17, from 6 to 9 p.m. It, too, costs $3 per person, which includes the ingredients you’ll need to make

your own s’ mores. Reservations are available and are required for groups of 15 or more. For more information or to make reservations, call the park at . The next night, Saturday, December 18, Quiet Waters will host a special

Holiday Hayride and Campfire, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The basics are the same, but with this event you also get a visit from Santa and the chance to create a holiday craft. Again, advance tickets are required for individuals as well as groups, so visit

the park or call . The regular weekend gate entrance fee of $1.50/person (children 5 and under free) will be in effect for the Saturday events.

Quiet Waters is accessible via

Broward County Transit Routes #14 and #48.

T.Y. is accessible via Routes #3, #12, and #17.

Holiday Fantasy of Lights Continues

Make Holiday Fantasy of Lights part of your holiday traditions. The drive-through light show continues at

Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek under the management of

Brandano Displays. The event runs through Sunday, January 2 and is open nightly from 6 to 10 p.m. Admission is $10 per vehicle on Mondays through Wednesdays and $13 per vehicle on Thursdays through Sundays. (The cost is for 20 or fewer passengers per vehicle.) For more information, call the hotline at , or visit

www.holidaylightsdrivethru.com.

Find Fun in the Sun – At the Toys in the Sun Run

Imagine a marathon run on motorcycles instead of on foot, and you’ll get the idea behind the

Toys in the Sun Run, an annual event that sends more than 30,000 bikers from all over the country on a roughly 26-mile expedition from the

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek to

Markham Park in Sunrise. This year’s festivities, marking the event’s 23rd anniversary, take place on Sunday, December 5. The bikes begin lining up at 6:30 a.m. at the casino, with the

parade pulling out at 9:45 a.m. The park will open at 8 a.m., and live entertainment (including headliner

Charlie s Band) gets under way at 11 a.m. on three stages. Activities at the park include a motorcycle show, a classic car show, more than a hundred vendors selling a wide variety of merchandise, and an international

food court. Admission is $10 and one unwrapped toy per person (no stuffed animals, please); if you don’t bring a toy, the cost is $20 per person. To get an idea of how much this fundraiser has grown over the years, consider that when it was started by

Wings of Gold Motorcycle Club president Bob Amchir back in 1987, about 700 motorcycles participated, and the event netted $965 in cash and a little over 500 toys. These days the run typically raises more than half

a million dollars and collects more than 50,000 toys. For more information, call , or visit

www.toysinthesunrun.com. The park’s regular weekend and holiday gate entrance fee of $1.50/person (children 5 and under free) will be in effect.

For Another Good Cause

Help raise money for canine cancer research this month by participating in the first

K9 Cancer Walk, a dog- and family-friendly event at the Fritillary Shelter at Tradewinds Park South in Coconut Creek on Sunday, December 5. Online registration closes at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 3. Race-day registration and check-in open at 9:30 a.m.

Call for registration fees. The fundraiser, presented by the Animal Foundation and expected to become an annual event, consists of two walks of varying lengths. For those who opt for the long walk, they’ll cover 1.75

miles. Participants in the short walk will cover three-quarters of a mile. The walks will be followed by a program to include speakers at 11:30 a.m. For more information, call

Tradewinds at . To register, visit

www.k9cancerwalk.org, or call . The park is accessible via Broward County Transit Route #34. The park’s regular weekend and holiday gate entrance fee of $1.50/person (children 5 and under free) will also

be in effect.

Find History – At Deerfield Island

Few corners of Broward County’s park system are as rich in history as the 53.3 acres that make up Deerfield Island Park in Deerfield Beach. A link with gangster Al Capone in the early 1930s, for

instance, led to the land being labeled Capone Island – even though Capone himself never actually owned it, and the area at that time was a peninsula, not an island. This is the sort of tidbit you might pick up when the park, which opened in September 1980, hosts an

Intracoastal History Tour, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 26. The cost is $5 per person, and boat transportation to the island is provided, although you must be at the Sullivan Park dock by 9:30 a.m. to catch the shuttle. Space is limited, and so preregistration is required and can be made by calling Quiet Waters Park at .

Deerfield Island is accessible via

Broward County Transit Routes #48 and #50.

Twinkle, Twinkle

Find out what will be in the South Florida sky during the upcoming quarter at

An Evening With the Stars, starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 17, at Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek. Speakers will cover basic telescope techniques and general astronomy information. The South Florida Amateur Astronomers Association (SFAAA) co-sponsors this free event on a quarterly basis. The SFAAA also opens the Fox Observatory at

Markham Park in Sunrise every Saturday evening, weather permitting, from dusk to midnight. For more information, call

Fern Forest at or the SFAAA at , or e-mail

info@.... The nature center is accessible via

Broward County Transit Routes #31 and #42.

Animal Magnetism

What makes Secret Woods Nature Center in Dania Beach a magnet for wildlife? It must be the park’s three distinct vegetative communities, influenced by the New River: a freshwater cypress-maple

wetland, a pond apple and mangrove community along the river, and a laurel oak hammock that lies at a slightly higher elevation. That’s a lot of ecological diversity packed into the nature center’s 57 acres. To highlight what this urban oasis has to offer, Secret Woods is offering two programs on consecutive weekends this month. On Sunday, December 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., the nature center invites you

to help welcome back its migratory feathered friends with a program called Snow Birds. Family-friendly crafts and activities will be featured, along with a special wildlife presentation courtesy of the

Sawgrass Nature Center and Wildlife Hospital beginning at 2:30 p.m. Then, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 18, the park will present

Wonderful Reptiles, featuring some of the native reptiles that make their home at Secret Woods. Both programs are free and open to all ages. For more information, call

Secret Woods at . The nature center is accessible via

Broward County Transit Route #6.

Nature in North Broward

Two of the best-preserved natural areas in northern Broward County are the focus of

Guided Nature Walks this month: Helene Klein Pineland Preserve on Friday, December 3, and Highlands Scrub on Friday, December 10. Both walks run from 9 to 10:30 a.m. At approximately 13 acres, Helene Klein is one of the smallest sites in our natural-areas system but also one of the most diverse. Up to 55 species of wildlife have been observed in the preserve,

which opened to the public on February 1, 2008. The site includes an abundance of its namesake slash pines, as well as a combination of cypress swamp and two small marl prairies. Highlands Scrub, formerly known as the Jungle, opened on October 5, 2007, and consists of approximately 34.27 acres. It is considered one of Broward’s last substantial remaining sand pine scrub

communities. This rare type of community, unique to Florida, is one of the most imperiled in the state, and only two percent of such habitat remains in the county. The “scrub†is home to many rare and endangered species of both plants and animals. The cost for each of these walks is $3 per person, and preregistration is required by calling Tradewinds Park at no later than a day prior to the scheduled walk.

Helene Klein is accessible via

Broward County Transit Routes #14 and #31, and

Highlands Scrub is accessible via Route #50.

Mangrove Adventures

How much do you know about Florida’s mangrove plant community, as exemplified by coastal mangrove estuary found at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood? Did you know, for example, that the

nature center is home to all three varieties of mangrove, red, black, and white? Or that mangroves provide an important habitat for many species, from the fish that use their root systems as nurseries to the coastal and wading birds that roost in their branches? Find out more about mangroves when the nature center hosts a

Mangrove Adventure Hike, from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, December 2. This naturalist-led hike will take you along the mangrove-lined trails, where you’ll also encounter native wildlife. The cost is $3 per person. For more information, call

Anne Kolb at . The nature center is accessible via

Broward County Transit Route #12.

Listening and Learning

Fern Forest Nature Center continues its

Nature Lecture Series this month with two talks: “Reptiles and Other Neat Creatures†on Sunday, December 5, and “Dangerous Plants, Animals, and Insects†on Sunday, December 19. Each lecture starts at 2 p.m. and runs approximately an hour, followed by

a question-and-answer session. Live animals will be used to emphasize each lecture topic, although there will be no handling of the animals by the public. Admission is a $3 donation to the Fern Allies volunteer group. For more information, call

Fern Forest at . The nature center is accessible via

Broward County Transit Routes #31 and #42. Events Calendar

Quote of the Month

“Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.†- Welsh proverb

Special Attractions

Batting Cages (AllGolf at

C.B. Park) –

Butterfly World (Tradewinds Park) – Cable Water-Skiing (Ski Rixen USA

at Quiet Waters Park) – Campgrounds (C.B. Park,

Easterlin Park,

Markham Park,

Quiet Waters Park,

T.Y. Park) – Dog Park (Barkham at

Markham Park) – Educational Farm (Tradewinds Park) – Exhibit Halls (Anne

Kolb Nature Center at West Lake Park,

Fern Forest Nature Center,

Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center,

Secret Woods Nature Center) – Golf Facilities (AllGolf

at C.B. Park) – Multipurpose Athletic Fields ( Piccolo Park,

Central Broward Regional Park & Stadium,

Tradewinds Park) – Observatory (Markham Park) – Riding Stables (Tradewinds

Park, Tree Tops Park) – Skate Parks/Tracks ( Piccolo Park,

Quiet Waters Park) –

Target Range (Markham Park) – Tennis Centers (

Piccolo Park, C.B. Park) –

Velodrome ( Piccolo Park) – Water Playgrounds/ Waterslides/Swimming (C.B.

Park, Central Broward Regional Park & Stadium,

Quiet Waters Park,

T.Y. Park)

Mission Statement

The Parks and Recreation Division is dedicated to providing exceptional services and facilities essential to the quality of life in Broward County while preserving our natural areas.

Your Opinion Counts!

We’d like to know what you think about our programs and facilities. Please take a moment to tell us how we’re doing by filling out this

survey.

SWIM Central

Broward County Commission's primary resource and referral service for available swim programs in cooperation with various cities and nonprofit organizations. Call 954-357-SWIM (7946).

Founded in February 1956 and accredited by the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies,

Broward County Parks and Recreation manages nearly 6,500 acres, encompassing 18 regional parks and nature centers, six neighborhood parks, and 21 natural areas at various stages of development. Facilities include water parks, campgrounds, a target range,

a stadium, skate parks, an observatory, mountain bike trails, an educational farm with stables, and a velodrome and other sports facilities. Hours and fees vary by location. For more information, visit

www.broward.org/parks. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations in order to participate in County programs, services, and activities must contact the

Special Populations Section at or TTY at least 10 business days prior to the scheduled meeting or event to request an accommodation. Broward County Board of County Commissioners

Sue Gunzburger

Dale V.C. Holness

D. s

Chip LaMarca

Ilene Lieberman

Ritter

E. Rodstrom Jr.

Barbara Sharief

Lois Wexler

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