By Dan Groebner

The Federal government may be shut down as this is being written, and the Town of Pinetop Lakeside may be undergoing some changes in personnel lately, but the Woodland Lake Park-focused organization, “Save Our Park” has been consistently meeting and accomplishing objectives with many of the original board members and some new enthusiastic participants.

The volunteer 501(c)(3) group Save Our Park (SOP) was previously known for bringing awareness to the risk of Woodland Lake Park being bought by developers and turned into housing and also for raising funds to purchase the Park so it could be donated to the Town of Pinetop/Lakeside and maintained as a community park. Fortunately for our community and visitors to the area, the Salter Family Foundation purchased the southern portion of the park with the lake and ball fields and donated it to the town.

The same generous benefactors have also offered to purchase and donate the rest of the park (minus the Big Springs Environmental Study Area because of its importance to local Native American tribes and its ecological significance). Federal actions that are this significant always take more time than expected, but slow progress on this latest gift was being made prior to the shutdown, and no unexpected hiccups have cropped up yet. Some typical steps in the process of a land transfer still need to be accomplished.

Immediately after the transfer from the Forest Service to the Town of the initial 100+ acres, Town park managers jumped right in with many improvements, including the paved and widened path around the lake, additional ramadas and parking, weed treatment in the lake, and vegetation management intended to reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire torching the Park and destroying all of this work.  

Since the entire cost of the land transfer from the federal to the town government was covered by the couple’s gift, some of the Save Our Park Funds are being used to help defray the increased maintenance costs of the new acquisition for the town. This includes the purchase of over $300,000 in equipment.

SOP is also kicking off a new fundraising program that allows people to help maintain a small piece of the Park through an “Adopt An Acre” opportunity to help ensure the Park is around for generations to come. After the New Year, you’ll be able to pick out your favorite acre or acres in the Park and “adopt” it by helping pay for the management costs of that acre and others in the Park.  

SOP presented the Adopt An Acre concept to the Pinetop/Lakeside Town Council on September 18 to show community support for the town’s acceptance of the generous gift by the Salter Family Foundation. The organization clearly recognizes the need to raise funds for the proper maintenance of the newly acquired acres without impacting current programs and services. Ongoing maintenance needs include basic things such as trail work and trash removal, police and EMS coverage, and vegetation management to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.  

The Adopt An Acre program will start with the developed southern portion of the Park currently managed by the Town. The additional 400+ acres of the Park that the generous foundation has also offered to purchase and transfer ownership to the Town is still in the works, so cannot be included yet.

Even though Park supporters can “adopt” an acre, they cannot actually make any changes to their acre as the adoption “rights” only include the opportunity to help pay for its maintenance. So no camping, fires, monuments, signs, or any other alterations to the acres will be allowed. Adopters can obviously visit their acres, but making new trails will not be allowed.

The hope is that if people can feel a sense of stewardship for a particular piece of land; they are more likely to support it long term. Donations will be set at $50, $200, and $500 per year, depending on the location and cost to maintain an acre. Multiple acres can be adopted for multiple years through a newly developed secure sign-up page on the SOP website after the New Year. Sponsorships will also be developed with businesses, organizations, and institutions.

An online map, as well as posters at the Park on large kiosks, will display the available acres for adoption and the names of people who have already adopted acres and their location, with permission of course. Adopters will also receive a certificate documenting their acre within the Park.  

Adoption and sponsorship donations will be maintained in a restricted Adopt An Acre account at SOP to be used solely for park maintenance. SOP has committed to annual evaluations of the programs and transparent reporting.

The Save Our Park organization is also actively involved in helping make improvements within the park through regular volunteer work days. The past work day event, organized by Jeff Stearns and Cathy Purvis on September 20, installed and maintained trail signage, removed a few cinder blocks from an abandoned platform, made trails more user friendly, and located the submerged Big Springs outlet within the flooded beaver pond. Additional workdays will be planned.

So, if you adopt an acre of Woodland Lake Park, are you responsible for keeping it full? Of course not, as Mother Nature has the most impact on lake levels. The lake is again at very low levels because of the lack of moisture and runoff that normally fills and sometimes floods the system that fills the lake. The local irrigation district owns the lake water and originally built and maintained the dam, but in past years, they could fill the lake and still provide water to residents who have water rights. In addition, the Town of Pinetop/Lakeside helped increase the capacity of the lake by removing some of the bottom sediment about four years ago when the lake had to be drained to make repairs on the head-gate valves.

SOP is interested in helping maintain water levels in Woodland Lake as much as possible, but there is only so much that can be done with limited rainfall and snowpack.



If the Woodland Lake Park Adopt An Acre program is successful, there will be no need to draw maintenance costs from current Town of Pinetop/Lakeside budgets. Normal, expected services will not have to be reduced, and additional revenue-generating ventures, like a currently hypothetical campground, will not have to be developed to cover any additional costs. 

Anybody wanting to learn more and possibly lend a helping hand can check out the Save Our Park website to get the latest information at “WoodlandLakePark.org.” You can also contact 

Save Our Park President, Eric Kramer, at erickramer102@gmail.com or (201)230-3457.