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Salem’s historic parks get a fresh look and plans for future work

Pam Wasson is the executive director of Lord & Schryver Conservancy. Members of her group maintain the historic gardens at Deepwood Museum and Gardens. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

This time next year a plan is expected to be ready to guide the city of Salem in making decisions about how to protect the cultural landscapes of Bush’s Pasture Park and the nearby Deepwood Museum and Gardens.

Neither of the properties owned by the city has a management outline in place.

“We are beginning a Bush and Deepwood Cultural Landscape Plan for a few reasons,” said Patricia Farrell, the city’s parks and natural resources planning manager.

“The plan will help define culturally and historically significant features of the areas, which will then lead to ways to manage or restore those features,” she said. “It will also help to define what the public wants in the future for these sites.”

Another reason prompting the study Farrell said is that the city continually receives requests to add or remove items on the two properties. Having a management plan will allow the city to more easily determine whether proposals are appropriate.

The scope of the plan doesn’t cover the Bush or Deepwood museums.

Twenty-five stakeholders have been identified as having an interest in the properties so they are being asked to provide comments, and other citizens will be invited to take part. Because of COVID-19, the city is looking into hosting “virtual” open houses.

To keep people informed, information will appear on Facebook, be sent to neighborhood association leaders, go out on social media, and get posted in the park. Progress will updated on the parks planning website.

The city hired GreenWorks to develop the plan. The Portland company is leading a team of landscape architects, landscape historians and public engagement and cultural resources experts.

The cost to facilitate the project with GreenWorks is $225,840 to be paid for by parks system development charges.

Initially, the firm will map the history of the sites using photographs and staff will consult other documents.

Both properties are within the Gaiety Hill/Bush Park National Register Historic District so legal agreements associated with the properties must be considered, Farrell said.

Projects include protecting the Oregon white oak stand thought to be hundreds of years old, adding perhaps Ponderosa pine to that area to maintain or expand the canopy to reduce the affects of climate change, maintaining or expanding acorn and camas protection in areas linked to the Kalapuya Indians, and protecting or increasing floodplains to mitigate climate change.

The Bush House Museum is a stakeholder picked to help with developing the management plan.

Bush Museum Director Ross Sutherland is glad to see a proposal taking shape.

He said the city’s foresight in acquiring the 90-acre Bush’s Pasture Park and the five-acre Deepwood gardens “will enhance these historic parks to find a balance between public use and preserving what makes these two parks so special.”

Yvonne Putze, the executive director of Friends of Deepwood, the non-profit that manages Deepwood museum and the gardens, also is looking forward to getting a plan in place.

“Lots of research has been done over the years and this provides a chance for a different depth of interpretation,” she said. “I hope through the project we can learn about the Native American influence.”

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, the Siletz and Warm Springs also are stakeholders.

Pam Wasson, the executive director of the stakeholder Lord & Schryver Conservancy, which maintains the Deepwood gardens, said the gardens “help make Salem unique and if lost are not easily replaced.”

She said such historic gardens require careful planning “to ensure that they are properly restored, preserved and maintained.”

Another stakeholder is the Mission Street Parks Conservancy, which works with the city to “preserve, maintain, enhance and interpret city parks for current and future generations.”

Christine Chute, president of the conservancy board, noted, “It’s exciting to talk to the people of Salem about what a park should look like to preserve areas of historical significance.”

The Bush’s Pasture Park property belonged to the Asahel Bush family before becoming a public park. He had the house built in 1878 on the David Leslie Donation Land Claim.

The Deepwood house was built in 1894 for Dr. Luke Port. The Bingham family bought the house in 1895 followed by the Brown family in 1924.

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