A donor wall at the Ridge Wilderness and Public Park in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. will feature natural engraved stone plaques mounted over existing masonry walls, remaining from the original development.
Photos Courtesy of Scott Peterson Landscape Architect, Inc.

The dream of transforming a failed multihousing development into a large wildlands nature park is underway in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. The San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust purchased the 81-acre property with hopes of restoring the project back to its original native character.

The Land Trust recruited Scott Peterson Landscape Architect, Inc., to develop an overall conceptual master plan depicting the vision for restoring the project. SPLA was engaged, primarily on a pro bono basis to provide the initial schematic designs.

A major design challenge for SPLA was to modify many of the remnants of the original housing project, such as asphalt roadways, storm drains, site drainage, masonry walls, large grading scars, etc., and to restore and incorporate them into the overall master plan.

Specifically, the firm was asked to use some of the existing asphalt roadway to create additional parking needed for the park. Many of the 40-foot wide roadways will be modified to create numerous 8-foot wide natural meandering pathways, which will traverse the steep terrain.

A conceptual rendering shows the proposed trail system and restored slopes. Design goals scheduled for the wilderness park will be the creation of numerous viewing decks located at key areas in order to capture the dramatic views of the surrounding forest and mountain topography.

Once complete, there will be well over four miles of hiking trails integrated within the park. Bioswales will be created to mitigate the many drainage issues throughout the site. Boulders and rock, which are prevalent on the site, will be used to construct the network of bioswales.

Revegetation of the hillsides caused by the initial site grading will be a primary goal for the renovation efforts. Grading scars will be mitigated by planting indigenous trees, such as Coulter, Jeffery and sugar pines, in conjunction with native shrubs, grasses and ground covers. Many of the native pines will be provided by local United States Forest Service outlets.

Large all-purpose activity play areas will be created by filling in low areas and backfilling sediment basins, which were originally constructed for the housing project but are no longer needed.