Our Plans
Planning for the Smith farm is still in its infancy. The Howard County Department of Parks and Recreation has developed a concept plan for a regional park, with an emphasis on active recreation. The Thunder Hill Park Alliance, using the services of an internationally known landscape designer, has developed an alternate plan that emphasizes preservation of te natural environment and interaction with nature.
Thunder Hill Nature Park
The Smith property is a legacy. The plan for its development must recognize its wealth of natural assets and historic value for this generation, for its children and grandchildren and their children and grandchildren down through the ages.
The concept plan for Thunder Hill Park takes into the account the unique character of the property and the need to preserve and protect it for now and the future. The 300 acres of the property have the power to transform the adjacent residential communities, become a catalyst for beautification and enhancement, and provide pleasure and job for people of all ages.
Illustrative Plan
The Thunder Hill Park Alliance, with funding from The Horizon Foundation, sponsored a residency here January 17-21, 2005, by designer Herb Schaal of EDAW, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm. Schaal designed the world-famous Hershey Children’s Garden in the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and his four-day visit resulted in an illustrative plan for the Smith property that would:
• Preserve the natural landscape throughout the property
• Restore the woodlands and grasslands as a perfect setting for the existing buildings
• Preserve and restore the existing alee approach to the house
• Preserve the existing farm buildings
• Include a Nature Center/Exhibit Center/Visitors Center
• Include a Nature Art Area with an amphitheater
• Feature an 8-acre Children’s Nature Adventure with restored woodlands, ponds and marshes
• House an environmental science laboratory to support the Howard County Public School System and Howard Community College science curriculum
• Include Youth Community Gardens and greenhouses near Oakland Mills High School for older children to grow plants, vegetables and herbs and perhaps sell their products as has been done elsewhere.
• Provide Outdoors Skills areas for rock climbing and a canopy rope course.
• Connect miles of interpretive nature walking trails and paths to the pathways and open space in Columbia
• Create a destination point from all the pathways in Columbia
Children’s Nature Adventure
During a residency in Columbia in early 2005, award-winning landscape architect Herb Schaal, who designed the world famous Hershey Children’s Garden, visited the Smith property and developed concept plans that maximized the natural assets of the site.
Among the highpoints of the Schaal’s illustrative plan for Thunder Hill Park is a special area designed to bring little children into active contact with the wonders of the natural world and the pleasures of life in the outdoors.
Schaal envisioned an 8-acre parcel as the Children’s Nature Adventure and included such attractions as a secret pond, a cave, treehouses, an Indian camp, a tower, log bridge and canopy walk, as well as spots for watching turtles, climbing rocks, digging and boating. Natural landscape elements include pond, stream, peat bog, and meadow. It is a place for dreaming, playing and learning.
“Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depend upon it.”
— from “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv