Environment Archives | Page 3 of 8 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

We were honored by a visit from Congressman Derek Kilmer in August, to celebrate the $16.13 million federal RAISE grant for local and regional trail design.

Kilmer walked the Sound to Olympics Sakai Pond Connector with the Parks & Trails Foundation, city and park officials, and local trail boosters to mark the amazing grant, which brings big-time dollars to Bainbridge Island to continue designing the STO north to the bridge.

Said the Congressman: “It has been said that roads segregate, and trails integrate. I like that notion, because what we’re really celebrating is connection. Connecting Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties. Connecting cities and tribes and all those points along the way. Connect recreationists to nature, people to jobs, students to schools.”

A refresher: Earlier this year, the PS2P Collaborative – an initiative led by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation with the North Kitsap Trails Association and Peninsula Trails Coalition, and […]

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connectionsDouglas2023-08-28T13:56:44-07:00

Stop weeds – brush those boots before you hike

Stop weeds – brush those boots before you hike

Brush your boots before you hike? It’s good policy, and good trail hygiene, catching the spread of invasive weeds and seeds before they’re tromped all over trails and parks.

To that end, you’ll find new boot-brush stations at two island trailheads: Gazzam Lake Preserve (Deerpath Lane) and Blakely Harbor Park (3-T Road). Two more are on the way, at Grand Forest West (Miller Road) and another at Gazzam Lake (Marshall Road trailhead, this one an Eagle Scout project and also funded by a Parks & Trails Foundation grant).

“They’re exactly like what people might on their front porch to scrape mud off their boots before they head inside,” says Morgan Houk, volunteer program manager for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “They can be used coming in and out of trail systems to catch invasive weeds – especially in the wintertime, when we tend to […]

Stop weeds – brush those boots before you hikeDouglas2023-08-25T09:19:44-07:00

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorps

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorps

Not even most volleyball players seemed to know there’s a sand court at Eagledale Park.

“My daughter’s been in volleyball for seven years, and she’s never touched this court,” admitted Megan Adcock, a Bainbridge Spartan Volleyball Boosters parent. “We had no idea.”

There is, and now they do, after a great ParksCorps volunteer event at the south-end park. More than 30 players and parent volunteers turned out to restore the court and grounds. Besides weeding and raking the court, volunteers grubbed out about 4 cubic yards of invasives and left the park looking a lot sharper.

Volunteers included a team Blackmouth Design, a Day Road design-build firm. Owner Rich Batcheller’s daughter Lola is a setter with the BHS varsity squad.

“I pulled some guys off jobs today,” Batcheller said. “It’s good to get outside and get some fresh air, get away from […]

Eagledale volleyball court revived through ParksCorpsDouglas2023-08-24T15:10:51-07:00

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forward

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forward

Twenty-plus years in the planning, the Lost Valley Trail is going to be on the map.

The Bainbridge Island City Council has unanimously OK’d the Lost Valley Trail project, a partnership between the City, the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and Bainbridge Metro Parks.

When completed, the mile-long trail will connect the Head of the Bay area with Fletcher Bay Road, through the Cooper Creek Watershed and woodland. It’s the approximate midpoint of the long-planned Cross-Island Trail route from Winslow to Gazzam Lake and Crystal Springs.

“There’s two decades of stories behind this, and we should celebrate as a community and as the City of Bainbridge Island,” said Andy Maron, Parks & Trails Foundation board member, who has worked on the project since inception. “Things get done – they take a while – but things get done when lots of organizations and people and governments work together.”

The project dates to the 1990s, […]

Lost Valley Trail takes a long stride forwardDouglas2023-06-23T11:38:07-07:00

Wildflowers coming to Battle Point, thanks to Montessori Country School

Wildflowers coming to Battle Point, thanks to Montessori Country School

As you see colorful wildflowers shooting up around Battle Point ballfields this summer, you have Montessori Country School to thank.

Montessori students recently spread hundreds of “seed bombs” near the ballfields – handmade balls of powdered clay, compost, wildflower seeds like Lupin and yarrow, and water. No planting required – just throw them around, and nature does the rest.

“They have all the things they need to germinate inside the ball,” says Morgan Houk of the Park District. “They ‘explode’ out into wildflowers.”

The flowers will add color and healthy pollinator habitat to the park.

Montessori Country School is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and wanted to involve students in a community service project for that milestone, says Dorothy Mak Thompson, communications and development manager for the school.

“Our students enjoy Battle Point park regularly, often on Fridays for outdoor education, so we are excited to collaborate with the Park District on this project,” […]

Wildflowers coming to Battle Point, thanks to Montessori Country SchoolDouglas2023-05-25T11:32:53-07:00

Goats munch their way through the weeds at Blakely Harbor

Goats munch their way through the weeds at Blakely Harbor

What’s the cutest way to get rid of some really baaaaaaaaaad weeds? Goats!

Goats visited Blakely Harbor Park this past week, charming islanders while clearing invasive blackberry, ivy and more. Thanks to a grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, Tammy Dunakin and her nearly 100 goats helped in the continued restoration of Blakely Harbor Park, once the site of the largest mill in the world.

Blakely Harbor Park is no stranger to goats. In 2018, a large herd visited to clear blackberry and other invasive weeds from areas of the park that are now replanted with thriving native vegetation. However, the work isn’t done yet. Thanks to Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation funding, the goats were able to return, working through a dense patch of over an acre of blackberry and ivy off Country Club Road.

Once above-ground vegetation is cleared, the Park District’s Student Conservation Corps, volunteers, and contractors, […]

Goats munch their way through the weeds at Blakely HarborDouglas2023-04-20T13:54:41-07:00

Celebrate Earth Month all month in April

Celebrate Earth Month all month in April

April is Celebrate Trees! Earth Month Bainbridge Island

April is Earth Month on Bainbridge Island! Celebrating with activities and events for all ages for Earth Day and Arbor Day during the entire month of April and beyond. Everyone can take action and join activities to support, celebrate, and learn more about our environment and beautiful planet Earth.

Sustainable Bainbridge, in partnership with the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and many other Bainbridge Island nonprofits, is hosting an incredible variety of opportunities, including weed pulls and work parties, Earth Day celebrations, nature talks, free invasive weed disposal, and nature walks. Take action every day as an individual, a family, or a group.

Tell us about your month. Take pictures and share your Earth Month actions and projects with us. Use the hashtag #EarthMonthBI when posting on social media for Earth Month on Bainbridge Island. Join us in celebrating with activities and events for […]

Celebrate Earth Month all month in AprilDouglas2023-03-22T18:06:13-07:00

Madeline Ostrander brings climate change home

Madeline Ostrander brings climate change home

If you’re feeling a little down watching the world you grew up with evanesce around you – forests burning here, glaciers melting there, our once reliably gorgeous Northwest summers now blighted by heat and smoke – there’s a word for that: solastalgia.

The term describes a sense of loss or homesickness, as Madeline Ostrander has it, “from watching one’s environment unravel.”

So, you’re not alone. The question is, how you respond.

“I think in this part of the world, where people are experiencing wildfires, there is a sense of unease about what is this place we’re living in now, and what is it becoming,” says Ostrander, science journalist and author of “At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth” (2022). “Some people feel it in a way that is very front of mind and they can talk […]

Madeline Ostrander brings climate change homeDouglas2023-03-10T15:27:56-08:00

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridor

The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is one of three organizations in the new Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative, bringing communities together to plan and build a 200-mile multi-use trail from the ferry docks on Bainbridge Island, Kingston and Port Townsend to the Pacific Coast at La Push.

The PS2P Collaborative also includes the North Kitsap Trails Association, and the Peninsula Trails Coalition.

The Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) trail network would be bookended by the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Sound to Olympics Trail, linking communities and local connecting trails along the route.

Far more than a recreational trail, PS2P would be the spine of an “active transportation” corridor and greenway that shifts short commutes away from automobiles to human-scaled and people-powered travel modes like walking and bicycling. It aligns with transportation and climate goals and policies at every level of state and local government.

“One hundred miles are already complete, after 35 years of hard work by […]

New Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative plans for 200-mile trail corridorDouglas2023-06-13T16:55:55-07:00

MLK Day makes welcome return to Blakely

MLK Day makes welcome return to Blakely

About 175 volunteers made it “a day on, not a day off,” as MLK Day of Service returned to Blakely Harbor Park after a three-year Covid layoff.

Effort was concentrated around the park’s south boundary near Country Club Road. Volunteers uprooted swaths of ivy that had taken hold since the last big restoration event and replanted Northwest natives.

“It needs a lot of love,” Lydia Roush, Natural Resources Manager for Bainbridge Metro Parks, said of the park’s southwest quadrant. “It’s the same methodology that continues to ring true. You pull ‘em out, you come back and monitor and continue to pull, and eventually they’re eradicated.

“We fill in with as much native vegetation as we can to help shade out and keep invasives from taking hold. Volunteers are really critical in helping us achieve our goals.”

Northwest natives introduced included yarrow (Achillea […]

MLK Day makes welcome return to BlakelyDouglas2023-02-01T09:25:00-08:00