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 millefolium), serviceberry (Achillea millefolium), and Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium).
Final metrics for the day: 15 yards of wood chips spread for weed suppression and native plant health; 125 wildflowers planted; 25-plus yards of ivy, blackberry and holly removed; four large bags of trash collected.
The event was hosted by Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District, and co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, IslandWood and Sustainable Bainbridge.
“The reverence and love for this park is always so apparent,” said Mary Meier, Parks & Trails Foundation executive director. “The community has been eager to get back here for an MLK Day event, and it shows in the turnout, the enthusiasm and all the great work that’s been done.”
One of the hallmarks of the MLK Day events is the number of organized groups that turn out.
On this day, a 5-person crew from the Washington Conservation Corps came to the island from Belfair. The Americorps program for ages 18-25 and military veterans has about 350 members, who deployed about the state for the service day.
Quillan Halverson said his crew primarily works in trail building and maintenance on Green Mountain and Tahuya State Forest. But they’re no strangers to restoration, having recently cleared a 5 acres of Scotch broom near Dewatto and replanted with some 1,500 trees.
“This is a time for us to come in and get our service hours, and also engage in community,” Halverson said.
Sue Wilmot of Bainbridge Island and Cassy Wolle of Port Orchard were among four volunteers from United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 3000, representing Kitsap County grocery and healthcare workers.
The union incentivizes the “day on” with a comp day for participants.
“We’re celebrating MLK Day with some backbreaking work,” Wilmot said, “but it’s worth it. This park is wonderful, and it benefits everybody.”
