White Deer Park

By Nancy Pardue, Editor

Photography by Jonathan Fredin

Imagination meets Mother Nature at White Deer Park in Garner, where deer wander, hawks fly and butterflies flutter.

Imagination meets science too, as the park offers sustainable living ideas for we humans to take home.

“We want to give people the opportunity to learn what it means to live in our environment without negatively affecting it,” said Steve Raper, vice president of Geo. Raper & Son Inc. of Raleigh, general contractor for the park project. “We can embrace (green living) as it becomes more available, affordable and mainstream. It has a positive impact on everybody’s life.”

The showpiece of the 96-acre park is its 2,500-square-foot Nature Center, sited to take advantage of sun and wind. Raper points out the classroom’s glass walls, which open to allow light and ventilation, and a precisely pitched roof draining rainwater to two 1,400-gallon cisterns.

Recycled wood from an old, on-site homestead became the center’s interior floor, and its outdoor learning terrace projects into the tree canopy.

The Nature Center is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council, with the intent to pursue Silver-level certification under USGBC’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.

This internationally recognized benchmark verifies that design and construction are aimed at improving performance in areas including energy savings, water efficiency, air quality and stewardship of resources.

The detailed process is expected to be complete later this year, making the Nature Center the first public LEED-certified site in Garner.

“The Nature Center is intended to focus people’s attention on environmental issues, and to be an educational experience as well as recreational,” said center architect Louis Cherry, of Cherry Huffman Architects of Raleigh. “It was important to make it easy to understand.”

Take rainwater: Here it’s recycled for plant irrigation and use in restrooms. At home, rain barrels rather than cisterns conserve water to irrigate lawn and garden.  

Raper points out additional park water systems, also available for residential use. Permeable pavers, concrete Turfstone, and the interlocking rings of Grasspave all draw water into the ground, preventing runoff and erosion. The latter two allow grass to grow through them while providing a stable surface for vehicle traffic, he says.

“It’s another level of awareness, the impact of how we deal with the whole cycle of water,” said team member Jeff Claus of OBS Landscape Architects of Raleigh.

Some municipalities now regulate the percentage of porous surfaces allowed on a site, Claus adds, leading homeowners to choose permeable systems for their yards and driveways.

Plantings are another important park facet, from wildflower meadow to arboretum to wetlands.

“It was our intent from the beginning to use North Carolina native vegetation,” Claus said. “The arboretum will showcase a variety of native species, another educational opportunity.”

At home? Use native, drought-resistant plants for a low-maintenance garden, he says.  

As part of the LEED quest, Raper says many park materials were transported from within a 500-mile radius, to save energy. And rapidly renewable resources used here, meaning those which regenerate within 10 years, include Eastern white cedar and “plyboo,” or bamboo plywood, at the Nature Center, and North Carolina-harvested rhododendron and locust wood in natural play equipment.

Mulch alongside trails is made of trees felled to create the park, and slate salvaged from the old Garner High School tops the Nature Center seat wall.
Raper proudly reports that overall, 73 percent of park construction materials were diverted from landfill to be recycled.

Inside the Nature Center, temperatures are regulated by a water-based geothermal system Cherry says is becoming popular residentially.    

The Earth’s constant temperature about 3 feet below the surface is 55 degrees, he explains. Geothermal systems heat or cool from that starting point; because the temperature gap to overcome is smaller, the systems require less energy than air-to-air units.

The sun’s at work here too: Solar energy collected via panels atop park restrooms is transferred into radiant heat through an under-floor tube system, Raper says.

“A lot of these technologies and product markets are growing, and affordable,” Cherry said. “Sustainable equates to good design — if carefully done, it’s beautiful, functional and pleasant to live in. Being environmentally responsible can enhance our way of living.

“It’s not about giving things up, just being more conscious about our decisions.”

The Town of Garner is proud owner of White Deer Park; the development team also includes Design Dimension, Stewart Engineering and Consider Design.

Parks & Recreation Director Sonya Shaw says the park, at $4.2 million, is Garner’s largest public works project to date. Funding includes a $500,000 grant from the N.C. Parks & Recreation Trust Fund.

Programming for all ages begins here in February, including Walk & Talk for families, sustainable design workshops for the home and an Earth Day celebration set for April.  

“Our hope is that the Nature Center will serve as an example of how to use sustainable features and strategies at home,” Shaw said. “Outdoors is the other side of learning, how to cohabitate with nature. It’s how all the systems work together, for us to make a smaller footprint on our environment.”