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Players may have already been enjoying the Wildcat Woods Disc Golf Course, and once-per-week league action is already pretty well developed — but the official ribbon cutting event last weekend was still a celebration.  Morning rain showers didn’t deter a crowd that gathered for the opening of the volunteer-built and community backed course.  The course has baskets for the discs  to land in, concrete tee-pads to throw from, hole numbers and a parking area, which is accessed from the gravel drive to the compost site.  The layout  includes woods and prairie vistas.  It is cleared and mowed, and fortunately it wasn’t much of a burden to haul away the organic debris, because the property is a hundred feet from the regional compost site.  

A few chores remain, but Jeremy Kollmann and Joel Notaro, representing the North Branch Disc Golf Association, noted at the ribbon-cutting there were  2,500 known hours put in by 30-plus association members.  The group “is very mindful” of the value of its volunteers as the backbone behind getting this into action, Kollmann added.

The group also proposes a hiking trail on the perimeter of the course which is still in progress.  The concept is for walkers and birders and even snowshoe enthusiasts, for example,  to be able to make use of the site, alongside the main disc golfer activity.  

Kollmann told a reporter the long term plan is to have Chisago Lakes School District Community Education get involved and offer disc golf programming and instruction at Wildcat Woods.  The North Branch Disc Golf Association formed around activity at the citizen-built Harder Park course, east of downtown North Branch.  The Facebook page is up-dated regularly with info about course conditions, competitions, and more.  Kollmann and Joel Notaro, also with the association, physically cut the ribbon for Wildcat Woods.  (See photo.). 

Notaro thanked all the hole (baskets), bench and T-pad sponsors, and the sewer commission for realizing the value in this project and letting disc golfers use a “beautiful piece of property.”  He thanked the local civic organizations and Brandi Peterson and John Santi, who also put in a lot of effort.  Wildcat Woods went from being an idea proposed to the sewer commission to the ribbon cutting stage in a little under one year.

The Chisago Lakes Joint Sewage Treatment Commission approved the use of the surplus acreage after a review of potential for expansion of the treatment plan calculating future growth capacity needs.  The disc golf course and the sewer commission can sever the agreement any time the activity isn’t working for either entity.  The 18-hole course layout is outside of the wastewater facility boundaries. The multi-community compost site entry is also able to be secured from golfing intrusion when it is not open. 

Notaro commented that disc golf is so popular now because it is free, for one thing. Equipment can be relatively inexpensive and it offers “parallel play” so professionals and first timers can play together and still have fun.

He also thanked the state for  a “No Child Left Inside” grant that gave the project a big boost.  No Child Left Inside is a program from the 2019 state legislative session created to enhance opportunities to get Minnesota youth outdoors and active.

 

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