MAC Wildlife Area is owned by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) and sits adjacent to the Crystal Airport. It is operated by the City of Crystal through a lease agreement with the MAC.
The MAC Wildlife area is the premier wildlife viewing area in Crystal. It is a beautiful natural park that includes an open wetland that filters and cleans water. Numerous plants and animals that can’t be seen elsewhere can be found here. It is known for its birding opportunities, with extensive bird lists compiled since its inception nearly 50 years ago. The park provides trails and boardwalks to access this unique wildlife area.
The original trail infrastructure is well past its end of life, and walking the entire loop is difficult after a regular rain. Replacement of the boardwalk has been taking place over the past several years, with 930 linear feet of the old boardwalk on floats being replaced with a more stable accessible boardwalk on helical piers (Phase 1 and 2). Outside funding has been applied for to replace an additional 660 linear feet of boardwalk, add 550 feet of new boardwalk and improve 3,350 feet of natural surface paths (Phase 3). The goal when complete is to have a 1.1-mile ADA-compliant walking trail loop through the wildlife area.
Three Rivers Park District has been intstrumental in this project. They have an ongoing partnership with Crystal and the MAC to make improvements to the trail boardwalks. Three Rivers also hosts special programming in the park. Learn more about Three Rivers and the partnership
here.
The MAC property also features Smothers Field, a baseball diamond operated by Armstrong Cooper Youth Baseball Association (ACYBA). The field is used by both youth and adult baseball leagues, and it complements the baseball fields operated by the City of Crystal.
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