More than 100 runners, cyclist, and hikers showed up at Windsor's Black Oak Heritage Park Sunday after learning fences may soon be erected to keep them out.
Black Oak Park is a designated heritage site and nature preserve that runs along Broadway Blvd. in west-Windsor, right next to where Gordie Howe International Bridge work is already underway.
The Broadway Blvd. entrance through an area dog-park is closed, but residents are still able to access the opposite side of the park via Cherry Blossom Dr.
A cyclist uses paths snaking through Black Oak Heritage Park in Windsors west-end on Sunday Dec. 3, 2017. (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)
Brett Foland was leaving the park Friday when he encountered a city employee who informed him fences may be built to keep people out of the park moving forward.
An alarmed Foland quickly took to social-media to drum-up support to prevent the move.
"We run through here, we bike through here multiple times each week. We were concerned that we had not heard anything about this," he says. "When I got home I created the Facebook group because I wanted people to know what was happening and it exploded. I think within eight hours there were more than 600 members."
Friends of Black Oak Heritage Park gather outside the park's Cherry Blossom Dr. entrance on Sunday Dec. 3, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Crystal Mayville)
Windsor Parks and Recreation representative Jan Wilson tells AM800 News Port Authority workers notified the city of some bike-jumps built on adjacent land and recommended the city check things out at the park.
Wilson says that's when officials realized the park had similar structures, but the major issue is the park was closed to the public years-ago.
"Some of the fencing has been breached or opened up, so we are going back and filling in those areas," says Wilson. "We will also be adding signage; perhaps we didn't have enough signage up previously, so we'll add more signage to make sure people understand what's happening."
Wilson says environmental concerns caused the closure of the park in December of 2015 — with many species protected species living in the wooded area — but safety is also a major concern.
A document announcing the closure can still be found on the Ojibway Nature Reserve website.
"Some of the Gordie Howe International Bridge Plaza work that's going on blocks the appropriate accesses to the park, including emergency access, so it has been closed," she says. "It is temporary, it will eventually re-open."
Wilson says it's refreshing to see people so passionate about nature and assures the public the city is committed to offering alternatives until the area can be reopened.
She says there is no timeline for when that will be, but officials will be visiting the site Monday and will advise resident what areas, if any, can be used moving forward.
Residents exit Black Oak Heritage Park's Cherry Blossom Dr. entrance after walking their dogs Sunday Dec. 3, 2017. (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)