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Find winter peace in parks and trails

We are in the approach of the shortest day of the year, Dec. 20. The winter months can feel like a long dark tunnel through which we must pass endless hours in low light and shortened days. The moistness of the air is heavy, and the mists cling and linger in the fir and cedar branches shooting skyward.

The cloud layer is soddened and gray, and the distant memory of summer flowers feel at their very farthest. It is time to harvest the gifts hidden among the shadows in the woods and within our beautiful parks and beaches.

Drip-drip-drip go the rain droplets falling from wet branches as the breeze loosens them and they fall to the ground. The thirsty soil drinks them up and laughs a cheerful splash back to the ear. Mushrooms, rotted wood dissolving in the rains, laden covered branches with gray furry lichen, fallen leaves, evergreen huckleberry, salal, […]

Find winter peace in parks and trails2024-01-25T16:17:10-08:00

Welcoming Anika Binnendijk and Kari Siceloff to our team

We’re pleased to welcome two new team members to the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, Anika Binnendijk as our new Development Director and Kari Siceloff as Community Programs Manager.  

Anika Binnendijk’s professional path has included presidential campaign experience, appointments at the U.S. Department of Defense, State Department, and White House, and research at the RAND Corporation nonprofit. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a PhD from Tufts University. Anika serves as a volunteer coach for the Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation youth soccer program. 

Anika loves to find adventure in the parks and trails of Bainbridge Island. Recent training as a forest therapy guide and Maryland master naturalist have given her new ways to engage with the island’s natural spaces, but she mostly delights in the spontaneous wonder of an outdoor stroll with her husband and four children. 

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Welcoming Anika Binnendijk and Kari Siceloff to our team2023-11-08T10:33:04-08:00

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 Pacific2023-11-06T09:51:57-08:00

Amanda Nathan: Remembering parks in your will

Amanda Nathan

Learn more about remembering the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation in your will: LEARN MORE

Conversation with Amanda Nathan, Estate Planning Attorney 

Amanda Nathan is a Bainbridge Island parent and a partner at the law firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, where her practice focuses on estate planning, probate, and trust administration. Born and raised in Tacoma, she moved to a home near Moritani Preserve in 2020 after living abroad in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  

Since then, Amanda has leaned into her volunteer work with local parks and trails, recently as the chair of our Friends of Moritani Preserve Committee, as well as a co-founder of the Saturday morning Fort Ward parkrun. 

Amanda sat down to talk with Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation staff about her perspective on charitable gifting as a component of estate planning, as well as her passion for parks, […]

Amanda Nathan: Remembering parks in your will2023-10-26T14:41:22-07:00

A new shelter from a classic age at Pritchard Park

The golden age of design in American parks was, ironically, the Depression.

The Civilian Conservation Corps, a new federal relief program meant to put America back to work, sent 3 million displaced laborers out across the continent to restore and enhance the nation’s public lands. Some were craftsmen, recent immigrants who brought Old World skills and perspectives to the task.

Among the greatest beneficiaries: national parks, where the CCC built countless lodges, cabins, shelters, bridges, stone gateways and walls, dams, sheds, trailhead markers – proud, iconic structures, still admired and enjoyed by visitors today.

Bainbridge Island has a new park feature inspired and informed by the CCC era: a rock-and-timber bench shelter at Pritchard Park. Nestled into the bluff overlooking the mouth of Eagle Harbor and west toward the Seattle skyline – its view, eagle-eye straight to the Space Needle – the rustic shelter is crafted from local materials and wholly at one […]

A new shelter from a classic age at Pritchard Park2023-12-14T08:40:31-08:00

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 connections2023-08-28T13:56:44-07:00

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 hike2023-08-25T09:19:44-07:00

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 ParksCorps2023-08-24T15:10:51-07:00

Join us for Moritani Community Picnic, Sept. 4

Tasty gourmet picnic boxes are available for purchase at this year’s Moritani Community Picnic, 4–6 p.m. on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4 at Moritani Preserve.

Local band WHOZYAMAMA returns with their spicy brand of Cajun and Creole music for this relaxed, end-of-summer celebration for the entire family. The event is free!

New this year: Purchase a delicious, gourmet picnic box from island caterer Fig & Spice to benefit the Preserve. Each picnic box for one includes naan bites with an array of fresh, Mediterranean-style dips; an organic tabbouleh salad; salted tahini chocolate chip cookies; and choice of kombucha or premium sodas.

Picnic boxes are $40, with all proceeds benefiting the restoration and stewardship of Moritani Preserve. Pre-order is over, but a limited number of boxes will be available at the event.

Love a relaxing afternoon in the park? Kick back in the grass and enjoy live, local music at Moritani Preserve, 542 Winlsow Way […]

Join us for Moritani Community Picnic, Sept. 42023-08-31T11:40:53-07:00

Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Mail:
PO Box 11127
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Office:
The Marge Williams Center,
221 Winslow Way West, Suite #104
Phone:
206.842.4971
Email:
info@biparksfoundation.org

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Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Tax ID# 91-1855049
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