Stewardship Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

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

Join the Moritani Preserve Advisory Committee

Join the Moritani Preserve Advisory Committee

Bainbridge Metro Parks and the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation are looking for new Friends of Moritani Committee members. This volunteer position allows you to be at the heart of helping plan and care for the stewardship of this beautiful place. Review the criteria and complete the survey today!

MORITANI ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPLICATION

Join the Moritani Preserve Advisory CommitteeDouglas2021-12-08T08:13:23-08:00

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

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new ones

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new ones

Such is the breadth of the Bainbridge park system that five young adults who mostly grew up on the island, and made full use of its abundant trails as kids, could still find themselves on unfamiliar ground.

Running, mountain biking, or just walking the family dog, all trails in their youth seemed to lead elsewhere. Then, Summer Trails Crew led them to Manzanita Park.

“I’ve never been to this park, but it’s nice,” Benjamin Logan mused, raking gravel across a dusty hollow deep within the 120-acre park off Day Road West. “Grand Forest is usually a lot more busy. If you need somewhere that’s not busy, come out here. You may see horse poo, but you can walk around that.”

Logan and colleagues Erin Thackray, Megan Boulware, Jack Harbour and Will Gleason – all, improbably, new to the park – spent much of the week […]

Summer Trails Crew blazing old trails, and a few new onesDouglas2021-07-16T14:37:23-07:00

Volunteer for parks throughout July

Volunteer for parks throughout July

Get involved in Bainbridge Island parks – there’s plenty of great volunteer activities through the month of July, hosted by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.

July 10 – Conservation Work Party

Where: Fay Bainbridge Park, 15446 Sunrise Dr NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
When: Saturday, July 10 (2nd Saturday), 10-noon
What: Help care for our woods, meadows, beaches and open space. At this month’s Conservation Work Party we’ll be working on removing invasive scotchbroom from the nearshore area of the beach at Fay Bainbridge Park.

REGISTER HERE, Activity #580001-01

July 13 – Red Pine Park Work Party

Where: Red Pine Park, 418 Wood Ave SW, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
When: Tuesday, July 13 (2nd Tuesday), 10-noon
What: Maintain garden beds, an historic fruit orchard, edible perennials, and other historic plantings in this former homestead in the heart of downtown.

REGISTER HERE, Activity #530001-01

July 21 – Hannah’s Garden Work Party

Where: Rotary Park (Owen’s […]

Volunteer for parks throughout JulyDouglas2021-07-14T14:31:35-07:00

Podcast: Creating a Climate-Resilient Forest at Moritani Preserve

Podcast: Creating a Climate-Resilient Forest at Moritani Preserve

Barb Trafton, Executive Director of the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation, leads a group of inspired experts to discuss the new management plan for the Moritani Preserve in this episode of What’s Up Bainbridge.

Maryann Kirkby, landscape designer and chair of the Friends of Moritani Preserve, Malloree Weinheimer, CEO of Chickadee Forestry, and Jay Kinney, Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Recreation District commissioner, discuss the Moritani Preserve “pocket forest,” including its history and goals of the new management plan and community engagement, supporting a climate-resilient forest in this beloved Winslow open-space.

This podcast is part of the community conversation for the Associated Bainbridge Communities 2021 Environmental Conference: The Future of Our Forests, Bainbridge island and the Climate Crisis, Sundays in March.

Podcast credits: BCB host, Barb Trafton; audio editor, Keith Doughty; and publisher, Bob Ross. Register for the Environmental Conference

Podcast: Creating a Climate-Resilient Forest at Moritani PreserveDouglas2021-04-22T09:27:03-07:00

STO becoming the island’s ‘linear park’

STO becoming the island’s ‘linear park’

Nobody knows the Sound To Olympics Trail like Don Willott, and even he was surprised by the root mass of a fallen Douglas fir lying just off the path, one he must have walked past a thousand times.

“I thought there was just some not-very-attractive, root-looking stuff sticking up in the air” through the underbrush, Willott says.

That was until workers hacking vines and briars along the shoulder exposed the tremendous roots, which once supported a giant maybe 80 or 100 years old when it fell.

“When you come and see it,” Willott said, “it’s huge.”

Bainbridge Island’s newest roadside attraction – make that, trail-side attraction – came to light last week during enhancements to the STO greenway. The STO’s first leg, from Winslow Way to High School Road, is enjoying an extensive restoration this summer through the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation’s Friends of the STO Trail Fund.

Four days a week, island landscaper Bart […]

STO becoming the island’s ‘linear park’Douglas2021-04-22T09:30:19-07:00

Nonprofits Helping Parks: fundraising through stewardship

Nonprofits Helping Parks: fundraising through stewardship

Bainbridge Island Ultimate was looking for a fundraiser to support the frisbee club’s events and activities. At Moritani Preserve in Winslow, the west end of the park was choking under the weight of English ivy as invasive weeds overtook the native vegetation.

Opportunity met need one afternoon in February, when about 30 frisbee club members turned out for an afternoon of stewardship at the Preserve.

The club put in two hours of vigorous weed pulling, grubbing out bushels of the noxious plants for haulaway.

For its work, the club received a $600 donation from the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation.

“This model yielded a triple win,” says Elinor Fanning, Bainbridge Island Ultimate board member. “The student athletes earned community service credits and funds for their frisbee club, the Park District got a truck load of ivy and holly removed, and the entire community will benefit […]

Nonprofits Helping Parks: fundraising through stewardshipDouglas2021-04-23T11:56:53-07:00

Blakely Harbor Park: building an environmental success

Blakely Harbor Park: building an environmental success

Blakely Harbor Park is rich in stories and lore.

Once the site of a traditional Suquamish winter village on its south shore, European settlement brought construction of Port Blakely town and its massive sawmill, when the bay was filled with tall ships and the roar of saws echoed across the water.

More recently slated for an intense development – in the early 1990s, the Port Blakely Mill Co. wanted to build 900 homes, a ferry terminal and a restaurant here – the historic log pond and surrounding land was saved through public purchase in 1999, and christened Blakely Harbor Park under the stewardship of the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.

Frank Stowell, who lives up the road in one of the former mill houses, has enjoyed the harbor for years – since before it was a park – fishing the quiet waters alongside eagles and ospreys. He’s watched as the now […]

Blakely Harbor Park: building an environmental successDouglas2025-01-09T15:28:04-08:00