Neff's Grove

SANDY — A wetland in the middle of a commercial district? It seems impossible. But that's exactly what Sandy City has done.

The city has taken what used to be an unusable area, right in the midst of two of the city's major shopping centers, and is turning it into an authentic wetland.

A few years ago city officials noticed that a heavily wooded area called Neff's Grove, located just north of the South Towne Mall, was so full of trash, paper and cans that it was no longer usable. People couldn't even walk through it.

City officials put together a plan to see if it would be possible to restore water to the grove. Dry Creek, which runs the entire length of Dimple Dell Park, used to flow through the grove but had since ceased doing so. Crews came in and manually dug a channel, so water could once again flow through the 2.3-acre grove.

In addition, the city also reintroduced native plant species, added two bridges that cross over the creek and created a walking path.

"It's a soft surface trail so if Scout leaders or others want to come in and talk about bridges or wetland, they can," said Scott Earl, assistant director of parks and recreation for Sandy city. "Reintroducing water in the middle of the city is a neat thing."

Earl said that the way the water is diverted and brought into the grove is typical of what water does when it goes into a pond and this acts as a cleansing agent, reducing the level of sediment. This will help improve water quality in the park. Water quality isn't a current concern, but this will prevent it from becoming so, said Nick Duerksen, Sandy city assistant community development director and public information officer.

Duerksen says the project is especially significant because it took cooperation between federal, state and local governments to complete. U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett helped the city procure a $196,760 grant to help fund the project. The grant came through Bennett's office and was administered through the National Resource Conservation Service.

"It's a grant that allows us to do restoration for environmental purposes. That's what the grant was set aside in Congress specifically for," Duerksen said.

Earl explained that federal cooperation came from the government seeing a priority and helping Sandy procure funding so those living in an urban setting could experience a wetland.