The New River Land Trust and the Town of Blacksburg began work on a Nature Play Space in Heritage Park this summer. As you will see from the photos below, the lot was an entirely overgrown and untouched. Back to Nature Landscaping & Construction is excited to be part of this community project and looks forward to seeing the finished project in future phases.

Located in a corner of the Town of Blacksburg’s Heritage Park, the Nature Play Space begins with an entrance that leads to a meeting space made of natural stone and logs. Back to Nature Landscaping helped design the front entrance, fence, meeting area, and play area. Phase one of the projected involved clearing the space and building the meeting area, which includes natural stone and log seating and natural stone chalkboards. Back to Nature Landscaping donated labor and building supplies to the project. The Nature Play Space will have additional features installed in the next phase of project. Be sure to visit Heritage Park this fall and see the progress for yourself.

The Nature Play Space will include activities for “nature play” including: digging in dirt, cloud watching, tree climbing, catching bugs, and wading. The goal of the space is to promote unstructured free time outside. “Nature play” is simply unstructured free time outside, whether it is in the backyard, woods, on a farm, or even an empty field or lot. Due to increasingly scheduled and busy lifestyles along with societal fear, children are playing outside an average of 30 minutes a week. Studies have shown that unstructured outdoor play is more likely to produce adult conservationists than any other environmental education.