Crosstown Ponds
The Crosstown Ponds are located at Crosstown Parkway between South Park Street and South Rose Street.  Several beautification activities have occurred at the Ponds.  The Vine Neighborhood Association planted and maintains the beautiful serpentine garden and gazebo.  The City of Kalamazoo recently installed four fountains in the ponds and reshaped and stabilized the south pond bank.  Proposed projects include an overlook, pathway, and a drinking fountain.  Stay tuned for future projects.

Axtell Creek Park
Axtell Creek Park is a hidden treasure in Vine Neighborhood.  The park is located between Pioneer Street and West Crosstown Parkway.  It is easily accessed from Pioneer.  Axtell Creek runs along the park towards the Crosstown Ponds.  Located in the park is a small playground and a trail way.  A committee is working to improve the playground and seating area.  If you are interested or would like more information, contact VINE at 349-8463.

Dutton Street Tot Lot
The Tot Lot is a recent addition to Vine Neighborhood.   After several years of planning a new Tot Lot was built on W. Dutton Street in 2000.  The park has a large green space and a small playground for young children.   Dutton Street Tot Lot is located between S. Park Street and S. Rose Street.

Davis Street Park
Located at 901 Davis Street, this park is a wonderful neighborhood asset.  In 2004, neighborhood youth joined together to paint an “Under the Sea” mural on the retaining wall on the northern boundary of the park.  In addition, a large playground attracts many children to the park.  Nearby residents help maintain the park and plant flowers annually.  The park is the perfect escape during the summer with its large shade trees, playground, and amazing flowerbeds.

South Westnedge Park
A beautiful historic park located in the historic Vine Neighborhood. South Westnedge Park is located at 1101 S. Westnedge between Ranney and Park Place.  Residents living along the park have adopted it and plant hundreds of flowers every spring.  In addition, many neighborhood events have occurred in the park over the years, including dinners and art fairs.

Axtell Creek Renaissance Project
Over the past 5 years volunteers from the Vine Neighborhood Association, wild Ones, Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts, Kalamazoo Conservation District, and Kalamazoo Greenspaces have worked with the City of Kalamazoo and property owners along Axtell Creek to improve water quality, manage storm water, create wildlife habitat, and beautify the riparian corridor.  The primary component of this effort is the creation of a naturalized buffer strip along the creek and the storm water retention ponds through which the creek flows.  A great deal of work has already been completed by hundreds of volunteers.  Well over 5,000 native wildflowers, grasses, sedges, shrubs, and trees have been planted along the banks of the creek from its headwaters (artesian springs in the City of Kalamazoo well field at the corner of Maple Street and Crosstown Parkway) to the first of three shallow retention ponds (popularly known as the Crosstown Ponds).  This is the first phase of a long-term project that will create and maintain naturalized buffer strips along the entire 1.5 mile length of Axtell Creek until it empties into Portage Creek (which itself empties into the Kalamazoo River not far from its confluence with Axtell Creek).  This buffer strip is only one aspect of an overall effort to more effectively manage the vast quantities of storm water that enter Axtell Creek (and all other urban waterways).  Storm water can cause bank erosion, raise water temperatures, deposit sediments, and carry with it a whole slew of contaminants (like asbestos, gasoline, heavy metals, and pesticides, just to name a few) that can ruin or severely impair water quality and habitat for insects, plants, and animals. 

Axtell Creek is a small part of the larger portage/Arcadia Creek watershed (all the land that drains into a creek, river, lake, or wetland), which is itself a part of the larger Kalamazoo River watershed.  The Portage/Arcadia Creek watershed is the subject of a federally funded 319 watershed management plan, which identifies impairments to water quality and strategies to mitigate or eliminate the pollutants and practices causing them.  The Axtell Creek sub watershed encompasses 1,519 acres, lies entirely inside of the City of Kalamazoo, and includes the areas surrounding Pikes Pond, Kleinstuck Marsh, Whites Lake and Woods Lake.

More information on this management plan is available at www.kalamazooriver.net. All projects along Axtell Creek are undertaken with goals and objectives of this management plan in mind.

The Axtell Creek Renaissance Project has benefited from the cooperation and support of Crosstown Parkway Apartments, the law offices of Benefiel, Farrer & Glista, the Montessori School, Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts, and National City bank.  Volunteers, including many 7th and 8th grade students at Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts, have helped remove invasive plant species such as glossy buckthorn, honeysuckle, purple loosestrife, and garlic mustard.  Removing these invasive plants helps restore a more natural balance along the creek and gives native plants (and the insects and animals that depend on them) a chance to establish and thrive.

Already we are seeing the benefit of naturalized buffer strips on wildlife!  Residents have spotted an American bittern stalking the banks of the creek in front of Crosstown Parkway Apartments, a blue heron or two in the creek and at the first retention pond, and a whole lot of frogs, ducks, swallows, red wing blackbirds, and bats!  As the diversity of plants in the buffer strips increases, so will the diversity of the insects, birds, and other animals that find food and shelter there.

Vine Neighborhood Association is committed to the continued naturalization, education, and stewardship efforts along Axtell Creek so that future generations of Vine residents can enjoy this unique natural resource.  Our vision of a thriving, beautiful Axtell Creek includes additional educational signage, observation decks, and a nature trail.

Be a friend of Axtell Creek! Volunteer today!  The Vine Neighborhood Association conducts regular trash and debris clean-up days and there are always opportunities to help plant a tree, shrub, or wildflower.