Deltona and West Volusia Audubon in Partnership for Nature Park

  DELTONA, FL - 03/22/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

The City of Deltona and the West Volusia Audubon Society joined as partners by signing a “Memorandum of Understanding”, in historic Thornby Park on February 22^nd.  This “Memorandum of Understanding” will allow the City and Audubon to seek grant and foundation-gift funding for improvements to Thornby Park’s almost mile long nature trail.  The City has been planning on visitor friendly improvements to the undeveloped natural sections of Thornby Park for more than two years, working with Volusia County’s Park’s Department and the Volusia Forever organization. 

And Thornby Park is one of the top recommendations by the West Volusia Audubon Society, as one of the easily accessed bird-watching locations in central Florida, allowing birders to record their sightings of shorebirds, raptors, and songbirds that frequent the hardwood hammocks.  The approved planned improvements to the nature walking trail include adding natural mulch to the cleared walkways to stabilize the path for pedestrians, wooden handrails for specific segments of the trail to assist those visitors who may get tired, a wooden ramp where the trail path changes heights, a wooden footbridge that spans a historical irrigation canal, as well as a new boardwalk that will lead visitors from the barrier free playground to the entrance of the nature trail.  This boardwalk was agreed as necessary, as the existing dirt and grass pathway was not level and posed safety issues to visitors with physical challenges. 

In addition to the improvements of the nature walking trail, the City of Deltona will develop and build a new outdoor classroom/mini amphitheater that will also be able to accommodate visitors who have physical challenges.  The outdoor classroom will be developed on a quarter acre of land, that is mostly invasive scrub vegetation, and is also surrounded by oak and palm trees that are more than a couple of centuries old. 

Thornby Park is the site of the Thornby estate, and homestead for one of the area’s early settlers dating back to the 1800’s.  This is also the site for one of the largest and oldest middens, or shell mounds, created by early native Americans.  Archeologists have dated this shell mound to be at least three thousand years old.  The City and Audubon will immediately begin to research the availability of grants for the Thornby Park improvements.