When SHARA took ownership of the Riverwoods property in October 2025, the plan it announced mentioned a fishing pier, a relocated pavilion, a kayak launch and a piece of the historic Nichols Covered Bridge. So why is a fenced dog park in the woods the first thing anyone can use there, a year later?
Dog owners raised the money for this piece themselves. The South Haven Bark Park at Riverwoods was dedicated at noon on Thursday, October 15, 2026. Its volunteer board turned in its final grant paperwork the week of October 19. The riverfront parts of the same property are on a different clock. They depend on a state grant, a bid process that starts in January and a spring 2027 construction target. For the next several months, the dog park is the finished part of Riverwoods. The rest is still being planned.
A property with rules attached
Riverwoods is a site of about 50 acres in South Haven Township, along the Black River and the Kal-Haven Trail. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources bought it in 2012. Over the years it has been a peach orchard and the site of a residential development that was never finished. The South Haven Area Recreation Authority started working with the DNR in 2023 and bought the land for 25 percent of its fair market value. The deal keeps the property permanently deed-restricted to outdoor recreation.
SHARA board chair Ross Stein said the authority had "taken a site with a complex past and secured its future as a recreational space for the community," in the acquisition announcement Visit South Haven published.
That outdoor-recreation-only rule is what made room for the dog park. The ribbon-cutting announcement on the project's Patronicity page explains that the DNR set the requirement while the purchase was being negotiated. Early in those talks, a five-acre dog park in a stand of woods on the property was proposed and made a priority, on one condition: area dog lovers would have to raise the money for it.
How dog owners got there first
Before Riverwoods, South Haven's dog park was the members-only Eighth Avenue Dog Park. A small group of its members started meeting in late 2024 with a different goal: a park at Riverwoods that would be free to the public and open to everyone.
They set out with a target of $150,000 to $180,000, and the money came in faster and bigger than that. They reached out to dog park members, to dog license holders in the city and nearby townships, and to members of the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce.
| Funding piece | Amount | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Original project estimate | $150,000 to $180,000 | Set when fundraising began, late 2025 |
| Cash gifts raised | More than $200,000 | November 2025 to July 2026 |
| Included in that cash: MEDC crowdfunding match | $50,000 | Patronicity campaign ended July 17, 2026 |
| In-kind gifts from area contractors and businesses | More than $50,000 | During construction |
| Seed gift to a Bark Park endowment at the South Haven Area Community Foundation | $50,000 | Announced October 2026 |
Before the dedication, project director Robert Linstrom told Moody on the Market that the original goal was a minimum $150,000 project that would get the fence up and the park enclosed. "But we've gone beyond that now to a project worth a quarter million with many of the amenities that we had dreamed of," he said.
Construction moved just as quickly. The campaign closed in mid-July. By August 24, the volunteer board reported that the perimeter fence and the divider between the large and small dog areas were finished, the airlock entry gates were in and the water stations were working. Because the park was fenced and usable, it was already in a soft opening. When the ribbon was cut in October, people had been bringing their dogs for weeks.
What's inside the airlock gates
Visit South Haven's directory gives the address as the southeast corner of Blue Star Highway and the Kal-Haven Trail. The entrance and parking are on the east side of Blue Star Highway, south of the Black River. Admission is free.
- Two fenced areas. A one-acre area for smaller dogs and a four-acre area for larger dogs.
- A pavilion over the fence line. It was built in late September so it straddles the fence between the two areas.
- Water. Two dog water stations, fed by a connection to the city water system.
- A perimeter path. It is mulched with wood chips and follows the fence line, so owners can walk the whole loop with their dogs.
- Benches and bag stations. About a dozen benches throughout the park, plus stations stocked with waste bags.
- Parking. Crushed-concrete parking for about 15 vehicles along the roadside.
The trees are the main feature. "The stand of woods that comprises the dog park is in and of itself our best amenity," Linstrom told Moody on the Market. "It's just gorgeous."
Park rules are posted at the entrance. A brochure at the gate lists ways to volunteer and give, including memorial bricks for the entrance walkway and gifts to the endowment fund. For questions, the project page lists Robert Linstrom at (269) 906-0532.
The river side, on a grant's clock
Walk toward the Black River from the dog park and you reach the part of Riverwoods that was supposed to come first. A boardwalk there once connected the Kal-Haven Trail with fishing areas along the river. SHARA took it out in fall 2025.
"The old boardwalk wasn't functional anymore," SHARA Director Chris Van Hekken told COSY Classic Hits 103.7 in August. "It was failing in a lot of areas. It was unsafe. Even the staircase and walkway down to the actual boardwalk had been closed over a year ago, and so it was unable to be used."
He told the station the boardwalk was popular with local anglers and with kayakers who stopped there for a break. Replacing it is a bigger project than the dog park, and the money comes from different places:
- A $400,000 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, awarded by the state and combined with a local match.
- A $100,000 contribution offered by Visit South Haven.
- Bids in January 2027. That is when SHARA plans to seek them.
- Construction targeted for spring 2027. The work includes a new kayak launch in the park, off Blue Star Highway and next to the Kal-Haven Trail.
The South Haven Tribune's late-September council roundup gives the same window, reporting that construction on a new fishing pier and boardwalk was expected to begin next April. These are targets, not dates on a contract. Bids come first, and the schedule depends on what they bring back.
The Nichols Covered Bridge has no date yet. Visit South Haven saved a section of the historic bridge and has committed to paying for its move to Riverwoods. SHARA's plan is to install it as the centerpiece of the park's trail system. When SHARA first acquired the land, Moody on the Market reported that the bridge was meant to serve as an entryway from the Riverwoods property to the Kal-Haven Trail.
What the dog park's head start means this winter
Seen together, the two halves of Riverwoods were built on very different models. The dog park was a volunteer campaign. People with a direct stake in it gave their own money, and they finished in less than a year. Cash gifts came in between November 2025 and July 2026, and the park was fenced and usable by late August 2026. The boardwalk, kayak launch and fishing pier are going through the usual public process of grant award, local match, bidding and a construction season. That process is slower by design, and it is why the river side will look much the same this winter as it did last spring.
So for the next few months, a visit to Riverwoods starts and ends at the airlock gates. The woods inside the fence are what's finished. The pavilion over the fence line and the wood-chip loop are where you can spend time there now. The Kal-Haven Trail runs along the property's northern edge, so dog owners already walking the trail have a fenced place to let a dog off leash.
The dog park will keep running after its opening too. The $50,000 endowment seed gift at the South Haven Area Community Foundation is there so the volunteer board has money for upkeep in future years, not just the money it took to build. Linstrom told Moody on the Market the endowment is meant to keep the park well maintained into the future.
If SHARA's January bids and spring construction stay on schedule, 2027 is when the rest of Riverwoods starts to fill in around the park that opened first.
At Michigan Homes & Cottages, we keep track of how places like Riverwoods change over time, because the park around the corner is part of how a South Haven home gets described to the next owner. If your South Haven home is close to the Kal-Haven Trail or the Black River and you're thinking about what comes next, request your complimentary lakeshore marketing plan and we'll show you how we would present it.
