FARGO — Jo Ann Miller hasn’t spent much time in the Orchard Glen nature park, but it’s easy to understand why. She and her husband John Miller loved living in the area south of Fargo city limits known for its wildlife and apple orchard. But after repeated floods along the Red River, they and others were chased out of their neighborhood.
The river hit a record high of 40.84 feet in 2009 and a top-five level of 38.81 feet in 2011, leaving the Millers and others to repeatedly patch up their homes.
What were once liabilities, however, have become assets. The Fargo Park District has turned Orchard Glen and three other flood-prone areas into nature parks over the past 10 to 20 years, continuing to make improvements and add amenities. Miller and her husband accepted a flood buyout from Cass County in 2014 and now live north of Moorhead.
As hard as it was to see her former neighborhood disappear, she’s happy Orchard Glen has a new role as a nature park. “I'm sure there are families that really enjoy the opportunity to be out there,” she said. The four nature parks exist in a 4.
5-mile stretch from around 40th Avenue South to 88th Avenue South, east of University Drive and three of them south of city limits. Lions Conservancy Park came first, more than 20 years ago, and is the only one within city limits. Orchard Glen, Forest River and Heritage Hills nature parks followed, listed from northernmost to southernmost.
Craig Bjur, executive director of the Fargo Park District Fo.