EASLEY — Over a decade after the plans were initially unveiled, the City of Easley celebrated the opening of the Nalley Brown Nature Park with a ceremonial ribbon cutting held on Saturday.
Although the original park’s plans called for a $5 million dollar investment, withdrawn investments, delays and pulled partnerships over the years have caused a bit of restructuring. Still, that doesn’t mean the city has given up — new additions will continue to be added to the park over throughout the year including an ADA accessible loop, plant identification markers and more.
City officials said the Wetland Trail boardwalk should also be ready in next two weeks as an addition to the other two trails located at the park.
According to the City, the land came from the Nalley and Brown families, who had owned the land at the junction of SC 135 and Adger Road for more than 150 years.
The plans posted on the City’s website state a conservation easement held by Upstate Forever directs and protects any development of the site. Accordingly, the concept for Nalley Brown Nature Park was based on the premise of providing “the finest quality habitats for education and recreation in a natural, safe, and sustainable setting.”
The park boasts a unique opportunity to “provide a glimpse back in time,” as well as the chance to study Piedmont eco-types — many of which were forever altered by fire, European settlers and cotton farming, the plan states.
In a 2011 article of The Patch (Easley) by Jeff Brush, the writer said Catherine Ladnier began her mission to establish the Nalley Brown Nature Park when she read an article about a butterfly garden created by the students at West End Elementary School.
“One of the students explained how, in the past, he would pull the wings off of butterflies,” the article reads. “After his experience with the butterfly garden, he swore he would never harm another butterfly. That is what caught Ladnier’s attention.”
Brush writes that Ladnier, of Greenwich, Conn., frequented Easley to visit her mother Eva Lee Brown Ladnier.
“Eva Ladnier passed away on Mother’s Day in 2001, and since then her daughter has been working on the Nalley Brown Nature Park project to preserve her family’s land and to provide the residents of Easley with an outdoor oasis,” it reads. “Since her mother’s death, Ladnier has been slowly acquiring smaller parcels of the 38-acre property from her siblings.”
The park’s name is derived from the last names of Ladnier’s mother and grandmother’s maiden names, Nalley and Brown, he wrote.
