Not unlike the rest of us, Blakely Harbor Park came out of lockdown ready to reconnect with friends.
Bainbridge park usage soared during COVID’s first year – how long ago that now seems, but who didn’t want to get outside? But the pandemic also curbed stewardship programs that overlay the Park District’s regular maintenance work to help keep parks healthy and smart.
As the clouds of pandemic cleared a bit this past year, volunteers safely returned to the field and island parks came out the better – perhaps none more than Blakely Harbor.
There, a concentrated, months-long effort by Bainbridge Metro Parks, supported by the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation and the City of Bainbridge Island, paid off with a newly restored meadow and shoreline.
It began in spring with blackberry and ivy pulls, tough work that continued through the summer months. By fall, with noxious vines tugged and tamped, the Park District brought in a staggering 550 cubic yards of mulch to prepare beds for replanting.
Volunteers capped the effort this month, putting in more than 600 new maples, currants, ocean spray, Indian plum and other Northwest natives.
Is it too soon to look ahead to a beautiful, flowering spring? Not at Blakely Harbor Park.
“This would have been an overwhelming task without the help of more than 200 volunteers,” said Morgan Houk, volunteer coordinator for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “Connecting with folks of all ages on a forward-looking project like this one, is just the dose of positivity we all need right now.”
A tapestry of programs old and new brought hundreds of hours of stewardship to Bainbridge parks in 2021. Let’s celebrate:
Earth Corps: With volunteer events still dampered by COVID, the Parks Foundation in March funded 10 days of restoration work by Earth Corps. A six-person crew from the Seattle-based environmental works program started at the Blakely Harbor jetty and worked their way around the north trail, tackling blackberry and ivy as they went. It was Earth Corps’ third stint on the island during the pandemic.
“Earth Corps held the line against invasives until volunteers programs could safely get back out there,” said Mary Meier, Parks Foundation executive director. “They’ve been unsung heroes in our parks over the past couple of years, and we have our donors to thank for supporting their work with their gifts.”
Student Conservation Corps: Returning after a year-long COVID layoff, the SCoCo service-learning program put six high school-age students into the field at Blakely Harbor over four weeks in July and August. Their very first challenge: taming a sprawling blackberry patch north of the Blakely meadow, an area targeted for replanting.
“At the end of the first day, they were like, ‘Is it really going to be like this the whole time?’” Houk recalled. “I reassured them that it would not be so ‘pokey.’ We got a lot of the blackberry out, and the more plants we can get in here shading them out, the better. But there were a lot of thorns in this particular region of the park.”
It wasn’t easy work, but the high schoolers tackled it with aplomb. Joked one SCoCo member: “I used to like picking blackberries with my family. Now they give me PTSD.”
Volunteer Work Parties: Blakely Harbor didn’t get all the love. As volunteers returned midyear – with masks or proof of vaccination required – the Park District hosted monthly stewardship events at Moritani Preserve and Red Pine Park in Winslow. New Conservation Work Parties rotated among other parks including the Grand Forest, Waypoint Woods, Blakely Harbor, Fay Bainbridge and Manzanita. Monthly trails work parties also ramped up, with events at Blakely Hill Trails, Gazzam Lake and the soon-to-open Country Club to Bolero Trail. The Parks Foundation held volunteer events of its own at Halls Hill Lookout & Labyrinth.
Nonprofits Helping Parks: A late-year restart, this Parks Foundation program pays local nonprofits to organize their own volunteer events. Bainbridge Island Cross Country turned out more than 50 volunteers for an October ivy pull at Pritchard Park, while Bainbridge Island Rowing and Bainbridge Water Polo held events at Blakely Harbor in December. The hundreds of new trees and shrubs at Blakely were funded by mitigation dollars from the City of Bainbridge Island.
Looking ahead to 2022
Bainbridge park stewardship takes on new urgency in the face of observable climate change that hastens the spread of invasive weeds on public lands.
Fast-spreading ivy creates wind-sails that bring down established trees and chokes the trunks of smaller trees, stunting and preventing normal growth. Noxious vines also threaten birds and wildlife, as ivy covers the foliage of trees and creates “ivy deserts” in the understory.
The Park District is developing an even more vigorous restoration program in 2022, to train a cadre of certified “Park Stewards” to lead volunteer events in parks islandwide.
The district hopes to bring on 30 new stewards, offering training in trail maintenance, invasive weed management and more, to help care for the island’s 1,600 acres of park land and more than 42 miles of trails.
“This new stewardship program has been a vision for many of our staff and volunteers,” Houk said. “I’m excited to be able to bring all of our ideas together into a new opportunity to engage further with your favorite park or trail.”
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LOVE YOUR PARKS IN 2022: Support year-round stewardship of parks and trails with a gift to the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation, through One Call For All or directly to the Foundation. All gifts made through Dec. 31 will be matched up to $100,000.
To find out more about Park District stewardship events and opportunities, see www.biparks.org/volunteer, or email morganhouk@biparks.org. Upcoming volunteer events can be found at www.biparksfoundation.org/events.
