Ask Alex McKinney, Washington County’s new parks director, to rank the county’s parks against one another – and he’ll politely decline the request.
“I can’t pick a favorite,” said McKinney, who was named to the position in June after serving as interim parks director since March. “But I can give a shout out to a few of them.”
Somewhere near the top of the list would be Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park, a 515-acre space that features hills and heavily wooded ravines with occasional clearings of old field and prairie. “You’re in Cottage Grove, and you turn in the park, and you go down this steep ravine, and there’s this beautiful lake at the bottom,” he said. “You’re surrounded by these oak/maple forests and, in the fall, it’s absolutely beautiful.”
The 2,165-acre Lake Elmo Park Reserve is “one of the gemstones” of the county parks system, according to McKinney. “It’s mostly quiet, and the recreational opportunities there range from camping to archery to skiing, you name it,” he said.
In the winter, it’s hard to beat cross-country skiing on the five miles of trails at Pine Point Regional Park, north of Stillwater, McKinney said. “It’s one that not as many people go to. It’s a little more rustic in nature, but you ski through these pine plantations, and there are great trails.”
McKinney, 41, of Coon Rapids, grew up on a 110-acre ginseng farm in Elroy, Wis., where he says he fell in love with the outdoors and learned how important it is to protect the land. “If you talk to farmers, they care so much about soils and the crops and what’s going on, so that got instilled in me at an early age,” he said.
Ginseng, which is used to boost energy and reduce inflammation, is popular in Asian markets, McKinney said. More than 90 percent of the cultivated ginseng grown in the United States is grown in Wisconsin, according to University of Wisconsin Extension.
Ginseng is a shade crop, “so we had to cover the fields with black tarps every season to keep the sun off,” McKinney said. “It takes four years to grow before you can harvest it. Harvesting included using potato diggers to dig the roots up, and then we hand picked them and cleaned them prior to sale. … As much as I enjoyed growing up on a farm, I knew farming was not my future. It’s tough work.”
McKinney’s passion for the outdoors has been a full-time job since he graduated in 2004 from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a bachelor’s degree in recreation management. He also has a master’s degree in parks and recreation administration from the University of Minnesota, where he served as a member of the adjunct faculty from 2013 to 2020.
Park goals
McKinney worked as a trail guide for Wilderness Inquiry and as a recreation supervisor for the Three Rivers Park District before joining Washington County in August 2018 as its parks manager. When Parks Director Sandy Breuer retired in March, McKinney was named interim parks director. He directs and leads the work activities and functions of the county parks’ maintenance, natural resource, facility and program staff, including 26 full-time and about 120 seasonal staff. He also directs and manages the department’s $4.5 million operating budget and $5 million capital improvement budget.
One of McKinney’s main goals as parks director is getting underrepresented populations interested in and involved in the parks.
“When we look at demographics in Washington County versus the demographics of those who use the parks, there’s a gap there,” he said. “How can we make the parks more accessible? If we can continue to diversify our user base and introduce these other groups into the parks, that would be one great goal.”
Connecting the park system also is a major goal, especially through the expansion of trails, he said.
“As the Twin Cities continue to grow, the regional trail system is going to be so critical to what we do,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised in the future if there comes a point when there are more people on trails than in parks themselves. We want to develop the trail system to the point where residents can hop on a bike or take a walk and get to a park reserve or regional park.”
Another goal: the acquisition and preservation of park land and fulfilling master plans that have been set, he said.
McKinney and his wife, Christy, have two children: Hunter, 13, and Brooke, 10.