Beech Street Park gets makeover

Fallbrook’s Beech Street Park is undergoing an outstanding makeover and remodeling thanks to the efforts of the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance (FBA) and its partners in town. The FBA was created as an umbrella organization to coordinate projects with other interested local groups. For this undertaking, the Village Association, Save Our Forest, Mission Resource Conservation District (RCD) and the Fallbrook Public Utility District have all come together with the FBA to make this happen. This was made possible by a $40,000 grant from the CSA-81 board.

Jackie Heyneman of Save Our Forest got the ball rolling by arranging for tree removal of a number of large trees in Beech Street Park that were overcrowding the park’s open space. Their removal provides greater space for a planned model garden. Bishop’s Tree Service and Tierra del Verde, both locally owned and operated companies, joined in as partners in this community project and volunteered to remove the most invasive trees free of charge. The employee hours expended alone would be valued at $2,300 for each company without consideration of use of equipment.

Another component at Beech Street Park will be an outdoor classroom, which will provide hands-on training for water use to the students of the Fallbrook Union Elementary District. Agricultural expert Justin Haessly of the Mission Resource Conservation District is renovating the irrigation systems at the park to raise water efficiency. “We’ll utilize the old components and add new technologies,” said Haessly. “The data we obtain from monitoring the water usage at the park will be presented to the public and incorporated into the lessons we present at our outdoor classroom.”

The San Diego County Water Authority has agreed to fund 100 percent of the costs of the irrigation project and awarded the money to the Mission Resource Conservation District for installation and implementation. The actual project has been designed and installed by Ewing Irrigation, represented by regional representative Bert Favela.

The Fallbrook Beautification Alliance arranged for the new landscape plan, created by landscape architect John Dahl. The innovative plan features native and California-friendly plants. The model outdoor classroom created by Mission RCD will also teach students and local residents about the benefits of using California native plants in their landscape plans.

The cooperative effort of the FBA, with its partners and the donation by local tree services, is a perfect example of bringing together divergent groups with a common goal: the good of the entire community.