Friends of Morris Park History
Founded in 2004 by the Gasiewski brothers. Their mission was to return this 147 acre park back to its native state. They were the first group to approach Morris Park with a unified plan for the care and maintenance of the whole park since the 1930's when the WPA (The Works Progress Administration) were the tenders. Not much had been done since then....Trails needed clearing and restoring. Abandoned car shells from different decades lay about, and a overwhelming amount of invasive plant species had overtaken the whole park.
Since 2004 we have cleared / restored trails using water bars and rolling dips for better drainage, removed cars, rebuilt stream banks, designed two major entrances to park (plants and entrance views), built rock walls, recycled unwanted concrete waste from stream into a drainage water fall, cleared tons of invasive species, and planted thousands of native trees, shrubs and plant (wild flowers and ferns).
We have also over the years inspired other groups to start, following in the footsteps of our vision, love and unselfish commitment to the park and all of its denizens! Since our inception, over 2,400 volunteers have met us at the historic guardhouse over the course of 300 volunteer events, totaling more than 12,500 person hours of work to improve the park.
