Good news for admirers of a formerly emerald patch of downtown D.C. that is gradually getting back to its verdant self. A year and two days after U.S. Park Police pushed the Occupy D.C. protest encampment out of McPherson Square, the one-block park’s once-trampled landscaping is nearly fully restored and once again open to the public.

Occupy D.C.’s nearly five-month presence in McPherson Square left the park a brown, sodden mess not long after it received a $400,000 renovation paid for by the 2009 federal stimulus act. The repair job, however, cost far less.

Fences went up around McPherson Square’s grass plots last April as the National Park Service started to undo the damage created by months of soggy tents and demonstrators. Though some of the former Occupiers volunteered to help with the repairs, the Park Service said it would handle the restoration itself. Re-sodding the park was expected to cost $7,000.

And while thin bollards still surround a few flowerbeds waiting to bloom, McPherson is back to its normal, sparsely used self. The grass is regrown, and a bit shaggy in places, with yellowing splotches in places, though that could be an effect of the winter sun.

Either way, you can now run around the grass without the risk of barreling into a messy tent.