Franklin Park Disc golf Boston dream alive

[Phil Lindsay]

Hey!

While DCR and local politics derailed our effort to get 9 holes in Pope John II Park the real deal has started to slowly unfold in an effort to get approval for a course in Franklin Park in Boston.

Here's the up to the minute update:

June, I met with newly installed Parks & Recreation Commissioner Chris Cook in Franklin Park. We lured him into a spot in the woods where we had a temporary basket set up for a small par 3. After we played a hole he was standing there and said, "More people need to be here." So we took that as his nod to start the application process.

It is a two stage process with P&R. In September an initial outline proposal was submitted to the Director of Recreation Mike Devlin. We met at 1010 Mass Ave in early October. Then we set up a meeting in Franklin Park to walk the grounds. We had three holes laid out this time in three different segments of the park we have in mind.

While we didn't get a blank check endorsement, we got the insider suggestion list on how to proceed.

Mr. Devlin was partial to a walk through he did with the current NEFA treasurer 15 years ago following the X-Country course. That had been eliminated by our local support advocates and the Commissioner as the area is too busy and there are too many competing elements. He was trying to help us keep the cost down though and avoid a political fight related to the forest (see below).

The number one stumbling block he outlined was that the portion of the Park we had in mind thanks to our work with local advocates and the Commissioner was an area of the park they didn't want to encourage car traffic or provide more parking. That issue will be a stumbling block for sure, but hopefully we can build enough support that issue will go away.

The next big issue is there are P&R officials that have the mistaken impression that leaving park land forest to their own devices is preservation or the best management and that historically intrusion is a no no. Well a few good quotes from Frederick Law Olmsted would do in the historic reference since he designed the forest and planned where all the trees were planted. Also removing the human element to a forest isn't preservation. Instead it encourages biological attacks from invasive species and spawns diseases like lime disease. It also denies wild life good edge habitat. Anyway, we can go on.

The third thing suggested was that we begin to take a more public approach to building a public following. So here we are to start with NEFA folks. VP Thomas Bentley has been part of the initial effort, so some of you may well have heard there is an effort.

We have the retiring ED of the Franklin Park Coalition in our corner and we met with the newly hired director on Friday and got a generally positive result. We have at least one board member of this group already on board and know several of the others. We're set to be on their board agenda in December to solicit their support.

We have feelers out with the Boys & Girls Club around the corner as they went to Nantucket on a field trip to play the course there the summer before now. We haven't picked up this trail, but expect we will once we get other stuff done.

We're working on connections to local schools to reach out to them to introduce disc golf as an educational alternative as well as a great way to get kids outside which is slowly emerging as a good way to reduce stress and help learning.

P&R suggested we set up a mini course and invite other park officials to come and play as well as hold general public disc golf demonstrations during the year to get more knowledge and support for this idea.

They also asked for a better map with a rough lay out in the area to show how it might look.

There is fundraising and other outreach that would need to be done, but it is sort of hard without a definite YES.

So, ANYONE particularly Boston residents is invited to respond to me to show your interest in helping with this effort should contact me through this forum or better yet at my e-mail, rhlwool@aol.com We need folks to help staff some of the disc days as well as anyone with knowledge of organizations to provide support.

We have had noted disc golf course designer John Houcke already survey the property and during his visit he said, "You know you could have one of the best public disc golf venue's anywhere in the country on this site." That's how exciting the site is. There is tons of up and down and big big trees. Pudding stone outcroppings and ledges to play from or to as attractions.

This process I would suggest would take until next year at this time to get P&R to act on an approval.

Thanks! Phil Lindsay, lousy disc golfer, but disc golf course dreamer...

[Brian Giggey]

Great news, and congrats on the forward progress!

Explore Disc Golf has been dialing in logistics for a "high profile" event in Boston for the past year. Part of that event would be 9 DISCatcher Pros donated by Innova Disc Golf --- of which we would use for the event, and then donate to a Boston-based course.

Hoping to solidify more info and 2016 dates over the winter, but if all goes well, I'd love to have the discussion about Franklin Park receiving the 9 DISCatcher Pros. It all really depends on timing, but it would be wonderful to have this event be able to announce/promote the course Franklin Park course before and during the event. That being said, this event might give some more leverage to the project knowing some of the forces standing behind it.

Feel free to write me at info@explorediscgolf.com anytime.

[Matt Stroika]

This is great news. I helped put in a temporary course there about 15 years ago in conjunction with a Boys and Girls club event. Great piece of land for disc golf.

[Thomas Bentley]

Thanks for your diligence and dedication to this Phil!

When do you think we should schedule to set up a 9 hole for a demo? I would guess March might be nice because a) it will give us time and b) the leaves will still be off the trees.

It would be great to start collecting names, email addresses and physical address to the cause. Should we set up a website?

Also when did you get Houck out to the park? That is amazing.

[Franklin Sullivan]

Well a few good quotes from Frederick Law Olmsted would do in the historic reference since he designed the forest and planned where all the trees were planted. Also removing the human element to a forest isn't preservation. Instead it encourages biological attacks from invasive species and spawns diseases like lime disease. It also denies wild life good edge habitat. Anyway, we can go on.

Maybe it's semantics, but I'd be careful telling that to people who believe this site should be "managed" through "preservation", because you're probably a bit wrong on most points here. Like I said, it's semantics, but I think conservation would be a more accurate word for what you're describing - responsible use of humans in an environment that is basically kept in its natural state, aside from the interaction of humans. And considering DCR has conservation right in its name, I'd say you're largely in the right, as far as goals for these open spaces go.

Light use = conservation
No (or perhaps extremely limited) use = preservation

I only point this out because when you write your proposal, if you include this stuff, it'll behoove you to be correct in what you write, especially as far as multi-use land goals go, so that any opposition can't point out the minor ways in which you were wrong to distract DCR and decision makers from all the ways in which you're so right.

Disc golf inside 95, walking distance from a T stop? That's freaking cool.