Happy belated birthday to Phoenix’s Encanto Park, which turned 75 a few months back. Unfortunately, as we reported earlier, this iconic park is not necessarily getting better with age.

Encanto Park might have been named one of “America’s Best City Parks” by Forbes in 2009, but it’s in serious distress, says a recent report in the AZ Republic.

Sprawling across 222 acres in midtown Phoenix and featuring a golf course, navigable canals and an amusement park, our little version of NYC’s Central Park is still plenty popular. However, due to financial cuts the City of Phoenix is having difficulty keeping up this historic gem.

In fact, Encanto is in danger of being “loved to death” due to the sheer number of visitors, says one parks official. Sediment in the lagoon has built up over the years, leaving the canals at only half of their regular depth, while the 1930s-era Encanto Clubhouse (which is on the National Register of Historic Places), is now closed to the public until further notice. Meanwhile, Mother Nature isn’t helping, as monsoon storms continue to wipe out the park’s famed vegetation, including a storm in 2008 that wiped out about 150 trees, including many towering Aleppo pines and eucalyptus.

Fortunately, citizens groups such as Friends of Encanto Park have stepped into the void. Kelly Larabee Morlan, one of the founders of the organization, said they’ve been working since 2005 on plans to help Encanto. So far, they’ve raised about $40,000 toward replacing what she calls “blighted” chain-link fencing around portions of the park with wrought iron. Her group wants to create an Encanto Entrada, a formal entrance on the park’s southeastern edge. Steven Vollmer, a landscape architect and group member, says city officials have been so focused lately on downtown that Encanto seems to have been forgotten, adding, “The city needs to keep their eyes on the prize.”

[AZ Central]

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