At a Glance
Emergent and floating wetlands add habitat, beauty, and new outdoor experiences to Utah’s oldest public park.
Project Description
Utah’s oldest and most prominent park, Liberty Park has been a popular retreat for Salt Lake City’s people, providing critical green space in the city for more than 130 years. Liberty Lake occupies nearly a quarter of the Park’s 100 acres. In 2010, while the lake served as a catchment basin for Red Butte Creek, it suffered severe impacts from an oil pipeline spill in the creek.
Biohabitats helped the Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Department restore vitality to the degraded lake by establishing a native, emergent wetland and willow shrubland around its edge, creating floating wetlands, and improving the vegetative composition of an existing island.
Community input, gathered through a series of public meetings, informed the restoration design to ensure compatibility with visitor usage. The project also featured interpretive signage created in collaboration with the nearby Tracy Aviary. Biohabitats developed concept renderings and a full bid set including construction drawings and specifications. We also assisted the City during construction by providing construction oversight services.
Construction and plant installation was completed in the summer of 2014. The new wetland system not only adds wildlife habitat and helps clean water in this important urban park; it also provides visitors with a new way to experience and enjoy Liberty Lake.