Sakai Park Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

Great turnout for the STO Sakai Pond Connector dedication and Trail Mixer! If you’ve not walked this new trail yet, check it out and discover sublime Sakai Pond for yourself – and trails leading up into Sakai Park and beyond.

Thank you to the City of Bainbridge Island for partnering on this great dedication event, and planning forward with Bainbridge Metro Parks on the trails next leg north. Together, we’re building out our island’s public trails network to connect neighborhoods, parks, commercial and service centers, and transit for a better, greener island community.

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcomeDouglas2022-02-10T22:50:43-08:00

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Let history record that the Sakai Pond Connector’s first user came not on wheel or foot, but hoof.

As crews feathered in the last of 400 feet of asphalt on the Sound To Olympics Trail’s newest leg, a black-tailed doe emerged from the woods, sampled a newly planted tree at the trailside – not to its taste, fortunately – scampered across the new trail and off into the highway lanes.

“Be smart,” one onlooker enjoined in the deer’s direction.

“Or lucky,” said another.

Highway traffic paused briefly, the doe disappeared across the far shoulder, and work went on. By the end of the day, STO Sakai was done.

Let the wheels and feet follow.

That the deer found the trailside so tantalizing owes to the aggressive planting schedule (formerly “restoration,” now “assisted natural revegetation” in the parlance) of Northwest trees and shrubs.

[…]

Building a greener urban trail on the STODouglas2022-02-10T22:51:33-08:00

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segment

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segment

Published in the Kitsap Sun, May 14, 2021

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The herd of goats sits contentedly in the sun, appetites temporarily whetted, workers taking some time off the job. Vehicles motor by on Highway 305, and the temporary residents of the nearby greenbelt tangled by blackberry vines, ivy and other greenery, bleat and shuffle around, jockeying for just the right spot. A protective dog barks from inside the fence at visitors as they stop to peer in at the unusual workforce.

The Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation brought in the goats to munch away at the northeast corner of Highway 305 and High School Road through the Vashon Island-based business Rent-a-Ruminant, which sets herds of goats on properties as an “eco-friendly, green and sustainable approach to vegetation management.”

For six days, they’re working at the site to clear the way for the newest section of the Sound to Olympics Trail. […]

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segmentDouglas2021-12-07T09:37:15-08:00

Goats will clear the way for STO Sakai Pond Connector

Goats will clear the way for STO Sakai Pond Connector

Weed-munching goats will clear the way for an extension of the Sound To Olympics Trail in mid-May.

A 100-goat herd from Vashon-based “Rent-A-Ruminant” will be turned loose in a fenced area at the northwest corner of High School Road and SR305, to “mow” the lot clear of ivy and other vegetation.

The goats will arrive May 10 or 11, and will graze for six days. Visitors are invited to watch the goats in action, mindful of nearby traffic and the electrified goat pen.

Once the goats have done their work, the City of Bainbridge Island can begin construction of the STO Sakai Pond Connector, a new non-motorized trail linking High School Road with Sakai Park to the north.

The paved, 10-foot-wide shared-used trail will be the STO Trail’s first new segment on Bainbridge Island since the Winslow Connector opened in 2018 between Winslow […]

Goats will clear the way for STO Sakai Pond ConnectorDouglas2021-04-28T15:10:45-07:00