Earth Corps Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

EarthCorps chips in at Exclusion Memorial, Pritchard Park

EarthCorps chips in at Exclusion Memorial, Pritchard Park

When EarthCorps geared up on Bainbridge Island last spring, Daisy Torres built trails on Blakely Hill and rooted out blackberries at Blakely Harbor.

When she returned this week with an all-new crew, Torres looked forward to more of the same – especially the trail building, which she quite enjoyed. The heavy equipment was fun.

The new assignment, though, came as a surprise, and a welcome one: restoration work at the Exclusion Memorial at Pritchard Park, on the eve of the 80-year observance of the forced wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.

“I’d been wanting to come to this place, and I didn’t think we’d actually be working here,” Torres said. “It feels really meaningful and purposeful to be doing this right before the 80th anniversary, and being a small part of that for people.”

The Parks Foundation is partnering with the Bainbridge Island Japanese American […]

EarthCorps chips in at Exclusion Memorial, Pritchard ParkDouglas2022-02-17T20:19:09-08:00

Volunteers boost restoration at Blakely Harbor Park

Volunteers boost restoration at Blakely Harbor Park

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 […]

Volunteers boost restoration at Blakely Harbor ParkDouglas2021-12-22T11:09:07-08:00

Volunteer for new Conservation Work Parties in island parks

Volunteer for new Conservation Work Parties in island parks

The Park District has launched a new Conservation Work Parties series, tackling the creeping scourge of ivy and other invasive species.

Second Saturdays monthly, volunteers will visit a different park and bring down nuisance vines, uproot Scotch broom, and perform other ecological restoration.

The conservation events are being held in partnership with Weed Warriors, a longstanding advocacy and action group that brings expertise on spurge laurel and other lesser-known problem weeds.

“People are coming because they’re interested in learning more, and applying it to their own properties,” the Park District’s Morgan Houk says. “It’s a learning opportunity as much as a ‘get out and know your parks and volunteer’ opportunity.”

Conservation Work Parties mark a welcome return — and expansion — of volunteer activity in island parks, after a year lost to the pandemic.

The district’s popular monthly Trails Work Parties are […]

Volunteer for new Conservation Work Parties in island parksDouglas2021-08-24T12:05:44-07:00

Earth Corps working wonders at Blakely Harbor

Earth Corps working wonders at Blakely Harbor

It’s been more than a year since the last volunteer work day in a Bainbridge Island park. The pandemic frustrated stewardship efforts, with two Earth Days, an MLK Day of Service and a dozen trail work parties lost.

One thing COVID didn’t slow: noxious weeds. Ivy, holly, blackberry and other nuisance plants kept right on crawling across the landscape.

Fortunately, we still had Earth Corps. Work crews from the Seattle-based nonprofit will soon complete their fourth full week in Bainbridge parks since November, keeping invasive plants in check even as the island’s volunteer stewards have been sidelined.

An Earth Corps team led by Ethan East has been grubbing out vines and Scotch broom along the loop trail at Blakely Harbor Park, picking up where he and another team left off last fall.

“It’s especially good coming back and seeing, ‘Wow, the work we did stuck,’” East says. “The first chunk of the sweep where we […]

Earth Corps working wonders at Blakely HarborDouglas2021-04-16T07:46:03-07:00