Gratitude for all who turned out for the annual Day of Remembrance volunteer stewardship day at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial on Feb. 19, in community with our Japanese American neighbors and in support of Bainbridge Island’s monument to civil rights at Pritchard Park.
A volunteer force 230 strong made it “A Day On, Not A Day Off” at the annual MLK Jr. Day of Service at Blakely Harbor Park, Jan. 20.
It was the largest-ever turnout for the annual stewardship day at the park.
How about these impressive numbers across the board:
Blackberry, ivy and other invasive weeds (25 yards) tugged and hauled off to TILZ for composting. New native shrubs and trees (400 total) put into the winter soil, blanketed by yards and yards (50) of fresh mulch. Trash (10 gallons) picked up from nearby roadsides. Even pinecone bird feeders (dozens) crafted by small hands, to support our avian neighbors.
Here’s another great number: $200,000 – that’s the funding granted by the Parks & Trails Foundation to support Blakely Harbor Park restoration since 2014.
That number is multiplied many times over by the outstanding work […]
The Day of Remembrance was one to remember.
The annual stewardship event brought more than 100 volunteers from the island, Seattle and beyond to tidy up the grounds of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial at Pritchard Park. It marked the 82-year anniversary of federal Executive Order 9066, which on Feb. 19, 1942, authorized the wartime incarceration of citizens of Japanese ancestry.
The stewardship event – a prelude to the March 30 Exclusion Day observance – was hosted by the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association, and co-sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.
Ellen Sato Faust, BIJAEMA executive director, thanked all for their participation.
“Young and old, rain or shine, volunteers play a crucial role in furthering our mission and ensuring that the stories and experience of those affected by the […]
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 […]
What’s the cutest way to get rid of some really baaaaaaaaaad weeds? Goats!
Goats visited Blakely Harbor Park this past week, charming islanders while clearing invasive blackberry, ivy and more. Thanks to a grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation, Tammy Dunakin and her nearly 100 goats helped in the continued restoration of Blakely Harbor Park, once the site of the largest mill in the world.
Blakely Harbor Park is no stranger to goats. In 2018, a large herd visited to clear blackberry and other invasive weeds from areas of the park that are now replanted with thriving native vegetation. However, the work isn’t done yet. Thanks to Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation funding, the goats were able to return, working through a dense patch of over an acre of blackberry and ivy off Country Club Road.
Once above-ground vegetation is cleared, the Park District’s Student Conservation Corps, volunteers, and contractors, […]
It’s all about positive impacts.
Read the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation’s 2021 Annual Report, out now. From KidsUp! Playground to the STO Sakai Connector, Blakely Harbor Park restoration to a $1 million donation to expand Strawberry Hill Park, together we did great things for our parks and trails.
We’re grateful for the swelling ranks of generous donors and volunteers who make all of our accomplishments possible. Thank you!
Student Conservation Corps didn’t find their new crew leader so much as he found his way back to them.
Since graduating from Bainbridge High School in 2008, Ian Shiach had earned two environmental science degrees, taught leaf transpiration to high schoolers and phenology – that’s the study of seasonal phenomena in the life cycles of animals and plants – to undergrads, and led youth conservation groups in the field. Now back on the island, he’d started volunteering in island parks.
Run SCoCo, the Park District’s summer youth stewardship program? Yes, he could do that.
“When we hired him, I made them promise they wouldn’t replace me,” joked Morgan Houk, Volunteer Program Manager for Bainbridge Metro Parks and a fellow 2008 BHS alum. “He’s incredibly qualified to do what he’s doing, and he’s been an awesome addition.
“He brings a knowledge of plants and biology that’s really unique, and I think the kids really enjoy […]
Everybody has a favorite park – that one with great features, a special memory attached, or just the one down the street.
For Pete Jones, it’s the park right next door.
A resident of the historic Victorian Lane condominiums – built around 1910, as officers quarters for a then-remote Coast Artillery Corps post at “Bean Point” – Jones has only to step outside, cross a green threshold and lose himself in the 137 acres of Fort Ward Park.
“One of the reasons we moved in was because of the park,” says Jones, who relocated to the island from California’s Carmel Valley three years ago. “I’ve been hiking in this park since day one, almost every single day.”
No surprise that Fort Ward Park is Jones’ “absolute” pick as a founding volunteer with Park Stewards, a new program of the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & […]
It wasn’t so long ago that the Scotch broom at Hilltop meadow grew this tall. Use your imagination to picture just how tall this is, and it was taller than that.
Restoration of the 5-acre meadow, bridging Grand Forest east and west, has been an ongoing challenge since it was preserved a decade ago. Keeping the noxious broom at bay is central to that effort.
“The restoration is rather fresh, in ecological terms,” says Morgan Houk, volunteer coordinator for Bainbridge Metro Parks.
Windermere’s Bainbridge Island office took up the cause this month, through the ParksCorps program of the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.
Nine Windermere agents put in a morning of service at the Hilltop meadow’s west edge, combing the tall grass to root out Scotch broom starts before they can flower and […]
Join us for Pritchard Park Volunteer Work Day, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 19, the Day of Remembrance.
Help beautify Pritchard Park in advance of 80 Years of Healing, March 30, 2022 observance of the forced wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island.
Please pre-register for this event
Feb. 19 is the annual Day of Remembrance for Executive Order 9066, which authorized the wartime exclusion. The Bainbridge community is invited to refresh and replant the Exclusion Memorial grounds and surrounding park. Pre-register for that event here.
What to bring: We suggest volunteers wear sturdy, close-toed shoes, long pants, work gloves and your favorite tools. Please also bring your own water bottle if you’d like one.
We will email you before the event with additional information, including the work plan and tasks.
COVID-19 Requirements
• All participants must respond to a COVID questionnaire prior to participating in the event
• Proof of vaccination and […]
