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  • Home
  • PRESERVE
    • Ecology
    • Invasive Species
    • Ponds
    • Clean Ups
    • Trails
  • ENJOY
    • halloween-22
    • Photos
    • Birding >
      • greenHeron
    • Trail Maps
    • Calendar
  • B W Kids
    • Nature Detectives - the latest news
  • History
  • Who We Are
    • Chuan-Chu Chou Blog
    • Perspectives on the Park
    • MemberInfo
    • presidentReport-1Q-21
  • Shop
  • JOIN
  • biancaTemp
  • loisTemp
2019 Master Plan Survey of Residents
The Final Draft of the 2019 Town of Westfield Parks and Recreation Master can be found on the Westfield Township website.  It is a 512-page document, only a tiny fraction of which relates to Brightwood Park. A survey of Westfield residents was conducted by the ETC Institute a specialist in designing surveys that are statistically valid. (Without getting too far into the weeds, what this means is that although only 583 Westfield households completed the survey, the survey results legitimately speak for all Westfield households. 583 may seem like a small number, but ETC would have achieved statistical validity with only 400 responses, so the results are rock solid.) The ETC survey results can reasonably be regarded as the voice of Westfield.

Three charts summarize what Westfield households said about facility needs.


Facilities that are Most Important to Holdholds

Natural Areas/Natural Parks are 4 times more important to Westfield households  than  mountain biking
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Survey respondents were allowed to specify up to four items they regarded as most important.  This chart shows the percent of households including an item somewhere among their top four, broken down by the order of importance.

Need for Facilities

More than half of the households reported natural areas/nature parks as an unmet need

Fewer than 1 in 5 regard mountain bike trails as an unmet need


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The survey company combines the Importance results and the Unmet needs results to produce a single Priority rating. This makes sense. If a need was regarded as very important, but already fully met, it wouldn't be something the town would have to do much about, except protecting it from adverse effects of other actions.

The Priority Investment Rating (PIR) [click on the link for a full explanation] was developed by ETC Institute to provide governments with an objective tool for evaluating the priority that should be placed on parks and recreation investments.
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Based on the PIR in the survey, walking trails, paved biking for transportation and natural areas should be designated High Priority for Westfield and mountain biking should be considered Low Priority
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Location

Brightwood Park is on the North end of Prospect Street.  Go past Franklin School and look for the entrance on the left.

What Our Members Are Saying

"I love the work you are doing at Brightwood.  Your efforts have shone a light on the essential elements of the park that we all cherish: its natural beauty and tranquility."

"I have a deep fondness for Brightwood park and would like to see it restored, remain natural and continue to be a site of passive recreation."

"I loved growing up in Brightwood Park !"


"I found Brightwood a few years ago and it's a great place to find wildlife, fish, and enjoy nature. Nice and quiet; good place to un wind and relax. Love it!!!"

​"As a resident for almost thirty years in the Brightwood area of Westfield, I am thrilled to see what is happening to improve and preserve Brightwood park for today and future generations. "


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