Cookeville To Implement “Food Forest” At 2 Parks

Cookeville will join forces with the Cookeville Junior Women’s Club to create “Food Forests” and “Foraging Trails” at Cane Creek Park and West End Park.

Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said the Women’s Club spearheaded the idea and secured a $250,000 grant. He said three to five acres of newly-purchased property at Cane Creek Park will be transformed into a trail network filled with plants that produce fruits, vegetables, and tree sap.

“It gives us the opportunity to add interest to the parks,” Woods said. “It give us educational opportunities, and also special event opportunities with food forests. The grant pays for the design of these areas, it pays for the tree purchases.”

Woods said the city already had plans to add trees to the new area of Cane Creek Park and now will not have to pick up the tab. He said the grant specifies that some 80 percent of the vegetation included must produce something edible or otherwise consumable.

“We would have two or three of these areas and they could be themed,” Woods said. “They could be a variety. One could be for kids.”

He said a landscaping architect will design the forests with community input. He said the grant will also cover the first four years of maintenance. Council Member Chad Gilbert said this is a good deal.

“This is $250,000 over four years to go do things that we were going to do a measure of anyways,” Gilbert said.