Chesterton Tribune

 

 

County parks encourages residents to visit and fish at Brookdale Park in Liberty Township

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Gone fishing: Brookdale County Park in Liberty Township has opened to the public for fishing and tranquil enjoyment of the vanishing rural landscape of north Porter County. The park is located just north of the Liberty Recreation softball field and the Liberty Township Fire Station on County Road 50 West. (Photo provided)

 

Porter County Parks & Recreation welcomes visitors to explore Brookdale Park at 919 N. County Road 50 West in Liberty Township.

The park is open to the public from dawn to dusk free of charge.

Drive-in trails begin on the southwest corner--just north of the CSX tracks--and lead to the east and north, where visitors will find a large fishing pond.

The catch-and-release pond is home to large mouth bass, crappies, blue gill, and carp.

Porter County Parks & Recreation has hosted kids’ fishing programs at the pond, and plans to do so again in the future.

Brookdale Park is a work in progress. Porter County Parks & Recreation recently acquired funding through a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cost-sharing program to add native pollinator plants around the edge of the pond, to stabilize the banks and discourage geese.

In the autumn, the Porter County Parks & Recreation archery deer hunting program maintains a stand along the southern edge of the property.

The 5-Year Master Plan calls for upgrades to the park’s entryway and parking lot.

Improved signage, benches and picnic tables will be added soon.

Meanwhile, to fund operations and protect the land from invasive species, the county continues to lease the bulk of the acreage to a farmer for crop production.

Brookdale Park was originally Brookdale Farm, owned by the Michaels family. Porter County Parks & Recreation acquired the land in 2010 from Barney Michaels, a purchase partially funded by a grant from the Lake Michigan Coastal Program, a program of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The 66.44 acre park extends from 50 West to Meridian Road along the north side of the CSX railroad tracks. The Swanson-Lamport legal ditch runs through the park and acts as a rough northern boundary.

For information about Brookdale Park, contact Porter County Parks Communication Director Darlene McCarty Cohn at (219) 548-0219.

 

Posted 7/7/2017

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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