Environment Archives | Page 3 of 9 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry Hill

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry Hill

Even a skinny tree makes quite a WHUMP when it hits the ground.

As we are there to hear it, an age-old philosophical question remains unsettled. In any case there are the echoes, reverberating through the misty morning and across the island to herald that forest thinning at Strawberry Hill Park has, in fact, begun.

WHUMP.

“It’s a shocking sound for such a small tree, isn’t it?,” reflects Lydia Roush, Parks Superintendent for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “But they’re so dense, and Douglas fir is heavy.”

It’s a first-of-its-kind project on the island: restoring an overdense, profoundly unhealthy forest through aggressive thinning and strategic replanting, while at the same time carving out chute-like paths for the new bike trails that soon will criss-cross down the hillside.

About 40 percent of the trees are coming out. In the shadow of those […]

Forest thinning underway at Strawberry HillDouglas2024-03-05T07:51:43-08:00

Thanks for an inspiring MLK event Blakely Harbor

Thanks for an inspiring MLK event Blakely Harbor

Tremendous thanks to all who made MLK Day of Service at Blakely Harbor Park a grand success!

Much mulch was spread, many nasty weeds tugged out of the frozen ground as together we made it a wholesome and spirited Day On, not a Day Off for volunteer service and park stewardship.

Who turned out? Tim Burke and son Beckham:

“We live up the street and use this park all the time, so we wanted to give a little bit of our time to help out the park that we frequent,” Tim Burke said. “Our family runs here, we play on the beach, we swim in the water. It’s a special place.”

And Liz Springer:

“It’s one of my New Year’s resolutions, to volunteer in parks more, because I use the trails,” she said. “And I really hate invasives. I have them in my […]

Thanks for an inspiring MLK event Blakely HarborDouglas2024-01-25T16:59:58-08:00

Sign up for Winter Work Parties

Sign up for Winter Work Parties

There’s a full slate of winter work parties in Bainbridge Island parks and trails ahead. Sign up today!

Conservation Work Party

Where: Blakley Harbor Park, NE Country Club Road

When: Saturday, Feb. 10 and March 9 (2nd Saturdays), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the Park District, IslandWood, and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation every second Saturday this winter in the ongoing restoration of Blakley Harbor Park! Thousands of volunteer hours have already been logged, helping transform the site of the former largest mill in the world. Volunteers will help remove invasive species, spread mulch to discourage regrowth, and plant native species where invasives have been controlled.

Well suited for children ages six and up who are comfortable using small hand tools and walking off trail on uneven surfaces.

REGISTER HERE

Trails Work Party

Where: Fort Ward Park (Upper Parking Lot), Fort Ward Hill Road

When: Saturday, Jan. 20, Feb. 17, March 16 (3rd Saturdays), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the […]

Sign up for Winter Work PartiesDouglas2024-02-07T10:57:50-08:00

Hyla, Madrona students do great work for parks

Hyla, Madrona students do great work for parks

Here’s a great note to close out the year: great kids doing great work in great parks.

Students from Hyla School turned out in numbers in November and December, for stewardship projects at Moritani Preserve and Halls Hill Lookout & Labyrinth.

At Moritani, kids from both Hyla School and Winslow’s Madrona School – together about 70 strong, counting teachers and a few helpful neighbors – stepped in to round up storm debris and install more than 100 new plants, after high winds scrubbed a community work party the weekend prior.

Yarrow, ocean spray, spirea, tall Oregon grape, red elderberry, vine maple and Pacific wax myrtle and other Northwest natives went in along the preserve’s east boundary, the focus of intense restoration work for the past year or more.

The work identifying and installing native plants aligned with the Hyla life science curriculum and the students’ recent studies, teacher Shelby Mann said.

Madrona School too, while […]

Hyla, Madrona students do great work for parksDouglas2024-02-07T10:55:42-08:00

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to Pacific

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to Pacific

An elevated walkway being removed from the Colman Dock ferry terminal starting this weekend is bound for re-use on the Puget Sound to Pacific trail corridor – a combination of the Olympic Discovery Trail and Sound to Olympics Trail in Kitsap, Jefferson and Clallam counties.

The temporary walkway comes down as a new, permanent pedestrian bridge has opened from the Washington State Ferries terminal to First Avenue at Marion Street.

Five of the eight segments from the old span, totaling over 350 feet, are being donated to Clallam County and facilitated by the Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative. The bridge segments will be trucked away early Saturday morning and stored near Port Angeles.

The walkway segments will eventually be re-used as multi-use bridges along the Puget Sound to Pacific corridor, a planned 200-mile multi-use trail system from the ferry terminals on Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean at LaPush.

The donation was initiated by […]

Ferry walkways to be reused on Puget Sound to PacificDouglas2023-11-06T09:51:57-08:00

Sign up for a fall work party

Sign up for a fall work party

Conservation Work Party

Where: Strawberry Hill Park, 7666 Highschool Road NE

When: Saturday, Oct. 14 (2nd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the Park District, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Gear Grinders, and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation this fall, preparing the site of the future mountain bike park for new trails and features. Projects will include removing invasive species, building habitats, and planting native plants.

Well-suited for children ages six and up who are comfortable using small hand tools and walking off trail on uneven surfaces.

REGISTER HERE

Trails Work Party

Where: Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve

When: Saturday, Oct. 21 (3rd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p

What: Join the Park District’s trails team, the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation at Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve this fall, maintaining trail surfacing, improving trail drainage, and closing social trails in sensitive wildlife habitat.

These work parties are well suited for children ages eight and up who are comfortable using some small hand tools and […]

Sign up for a fall work partyDouglas2023-10-13T15:09:47-07:00

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