Work is beginning on a new urban wetlands park in northwest Wichita. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Saturday for the park at 29th Street and Maize Road.
The Pracht Wetlands Park will be completed in four phases at a cost of about $7.2 million. Work on the first two phases will begin this spring.
Wichita Vice Mayor Bryan Frye says the park will include a raised boardwalk with a few designated “blind areas” where visitors are immersed in nature.
"You can walk out and there and be amongst the wildlife and they not see you. That way you can observe nature in their habitat, very protected from view," Frye says.
He says the 100-acre park is home to water fowl such as ducks, egrets and pelicans.
"It’s natural wetlands water fowl habitat. There will be a raised boardwalk that’s about a third of the mile loop that gets you out into the marsh, over the lake and throughout the wetlands," Frye says.
There will also be a walking trail around the perimeter of the park with viewing areas. Construction on the first phases is expected to take about five months.
The Pracht family farmed the land for about a century. After its sale to Slawson Co., 41 acres of the parcel was donated to the City of Wichita in 2015. The city already owned land to the south, which is also being converted.
Frye says they are trying to keep the construction work from disturbing the wildlife and environment.
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