Crews spent part of summer clearing damage from wooded area between Hanna and Thomas parks

Legion Park is seen Tuesday in Marion. Many of the park’s trees have been cleared out due to damage sustained during the August 2020 derecho. (Gage Miskimen/The Gazette)

MARION — Just over two years after the 2020 derecho devastated the area’s tree canopy, cleanup at Legion Park in Marion has been completed.

The park, which is connected to Thomas Park at 343 Marion Blvd., features a few dozen acres of woodlands with trails and an 18-hole disc golf course. It has been partly out of commission since the destructive storm swept through Eastern Iowa on Aug. 10, 2020.

Crews have spent a portion of this summer cleaning up the area and removing hazardous trees from the woods.

The disc golf course now is partially open, with the back nine holes available to use and the front nine still closed.

Marion Parks and Recreation Director Seth Staashelm recently spoke with The Gazette about the cleanup project that took place in July and into August.

Seth Staashelm, Marion parks and recreation director, delivers remarks in August 2021 at Thomas Park in Marion during an event to mark the anniversary of the derecho. (The Gazette)

Question: How much damage was done within Legion Park?

Answer: There’s around 20 acres of woodland and much like a lot of the areas the derecho hit, we saw more than 40 to 50 percent of canopy loss. Unfortunately, a lot of the cleanup we had to do was hazard mitigation. The trees that were there didn’t really have the best chance of success.

We worked closely with the city arborist and the cleanup crew to figure out what the best options were for removal of hazardous material to give us the best chance for reforestation and our future for the area, too.

Q: What kind of work needed to be done?

A: There was the large removal of hazardous trees. There was a lot of logging equipment coming back and forth and obviously, with any residences, you don’t want anybody to just come through the area where trees were being taken down, especially large trees being taken out or…