Dorris Ranch gets nature-inspired playground in Springfield

Dorris Ranch is getting a nature playground that is meant to feel like part of the park, not an add-on to it. The project would bring new play areas, concrete paving, a compacted gravel path and a paved ADA parking space to the 268-acre site south of downtown Springfield, giving families a more child-friendly stop inside one of Lane County’s most distinctive parks.

That location matters. Dorris Ranch is not a blank recreational field. It is the first commercial filbert orchard in the United States, started in 1892, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More than half of the commercial filbert trees now growing in the U.S. trace back to Dorris Ranch nursery stock, and the park still carries miles of gravel, paved and natural-surface trails through riparian woodland and oak prairie. It also serves as the western access point for the paved, 4-mile Middle Fork Path to Clearwater Park.

For families, the new playground could make Dorris Ranch easier to use as a place to stay awhile instead of just pass through. The bid materials describe a children’s nature playground with custom play features and premanufactured equipment, along with landscaping and associated site work. That mix suggests a play space that is designed to match the park’s natural setting, with enough structure to serve children while still fitting beside trails, orchard rows and habitat areas.

The playground is being planned in a park that is actively managed, not frozen in time. Willamalane has used controlled ecological burns and pile burning in the oak prairie to restore rare habitat and reduce wildfire risk. In November 2024, the district removed roughly 40 acres of filbert trees because of Eastern Filbert Blight, then planted 3,500 blight-resistant trees in January 2025. The Living History program ended in spring 2025, and Singing Creek Educational Center now offers field trips, special events and other educational and culture-based programming at Dorris Ranch.

Willamalane posted the bid solicitation for the Dorris Ranch Nature Playground under bid number S-R20810-00016848. The district held a pre-bid conference on May 14, 2026, made the project available May 18, and opened bids May 27. The work is now moving through the same kind of public process that has shaped other park upgrades in Springfield.

Tyson Park is also slated for major construction from June through October 2026, including a new playground, basketball court, soccer open-play area, sidewalks, a wood-chip running path, a covered picnic shelter, a drinking fountain and a community garden. At Dorris Ranch, the new playground would extend that family-focused investment into a park where history, ecology and recreation already share the same ground.