ST. CLOUD-- Two parks in St. Cloud just got a little bit bigger.

St. Cloud State University and the city of St. Cloud opened expansions for George Friedrich and Riverside Park on Thursday.

The celebration took place at the Talahi Woods site where St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis and St. Cloud State President Robbyn Wacker cut the ribbon and opened up the fence for the first time.

Kleis says the Talahi Woods site has a lot to offer.

For the first time we'll be able to take the fence down and allow people to go into it. It's beautiful. There's some trails there through this park. You'll also see some trails get down by the Mississippi River and extension beautiful view of the Beaver Islands.

He also says the plan is to keep the park natural.

It's natural. It's a beautiful, natural piece of woods, the additional 25 acres here. Beautiful trees. You've got some areas along the river where potentially you could see some prairie restoration.

Park expansions between the two sites total more than 53 acres. This was made possible by funds from the 18 acre Heritage Park sale to Costco earlier this year.

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