If a stroll through Moritani Preserve seems a little sunnier these days, well, it’s not just that summer is finally here.
Strategic thinning of over-dense stands of fir has opened the park to the gift of sunlight from above, and a budding of healthy new understory on the forest floor.
“When you look out, you can see spacing between the trees. Sunlight is filtering in through the canopy,” said Lydia Roush, Park Superintendent for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “There’s tons of new sword ferns regenerating, tons of new osoberry (Indian plumb) coming up already. It’s exactly what we want to see. It’s beautiful.”
Park District staff and volunteers replanted the preserve’s southeast entrance in June, supported by a grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.
Ferns, Oregon grape, bitter cherry, red flowering currant, mock orange, dogwood and kinnikinnick now line the entry path, along with a tumble of granite boulders. The path refresh is part of ongoing restoration at the Preserve, gifted to the community in 2017.
“We’ve had some interest refreshing this side of the park,” Roush said, “and we felt like with all the thinning and other things going on, it was a really great time to make it a more beautiful, native space.”
Moritani restoration work continues this summer through the monthly volunteer work party on July 18, and Student Conservation Corps in late July. Moritani Community Picnic returns Sept. 2, the Foundation’s end-of-summer celebration and fundraiser for the Preserve.