About 50 members of the Tuscaloosa community rallied at Harry Pritchett Running Park on Sunday against its closure to the public. The University announced last week the trails would be permanently reserved to athletes at the beginning of April.
“I have no idea how many miles I’ve walked here over the years,” said Claire Lewis Evans, a Tuscaloosa resident and University alum. “Honestly, it’s kept me sane during the 24 years that I’ve lived here and have worked here.”
The University of Alabama Arboretum will remain open to the public. The running park is near the arboretum but not located inside it. Fences will be installed to keep the public from entering the trail’s parking lot while still allowing cars to continue on to the arboretum.
“For those looking for alternative places for walking or running, Tuscaloosa offers many beautiful outdoor trails a short distance from campus,” the UA News Center said.
In an email to organizer Billy Field, obtained by The Crimson White, Harry “Sonny” Pritchett III, grandson of Pritchett Sr., the park’s namesake, said he hopes the decision will be reversed.
“For years, this running park has been exactly that: a place where people from all walks of life can come to walk, run, reflect, and reconnect—with nature and with one another,” he wrote. “Its lakes, its open fields, and its quiet paths offer something rare and meaningful, especially so close to the heart of our city. To limit public access now would not only change how this space is used— it would change what it represents.”
Shompa Datta, a professor of English at Stillman College, said that when her brother died in 2023, going to the trail helped her cope.
“Coming to this park with my dogs and having an hour or so in peace and in the green surroundings made me calm down,” she said. “I think I owe a lot to nature and this park for that.”
Carsen Register, a teacher at Myrtlewood Elementary School, said she comes to the park with her son because it’s a safe open area for him to ride his bike and for her to decompress after teaching.
A petition has also been started to keep the trail open to the public. It has since amassed over 1,300 signatures as of publication.
“Our family firmly believes that this park should remain open and accessible to the public in the same spirit in which it has been enjoyed for years, continuing to reflect the values my grandfather lived by,” Pritchett wrote. “This Park is more than land. It is a shared refuge. A gathering place. A reminder that nature and community are strongest when they are inclusive.”
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