VOLUNTEER
If a stroll through Moritani Preserve seems a little sunnier these days, well, it’s not just that summer is finally here.
Strategic thinning of over-dense stands of fir has opened the park to the gift of sunlight from above, and a budding of healthy new understory on the forest floor.
“When you look out, you can see spacing between the trees. Sunlight is filtering in through the canopy,” said Lydia Roush, Park Superintendent for Bainbridge Metro Parks. “There’s tons of new sword ferns regenerating, tons of new osoberry (Indian plumb) coming up already. It’s exactly what we want to see. It’s beautiful.”
Park District staff and volunteers replanted the preserve’s southeast entrance in June, supported by a grant from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation.
Ferns, Oregon grape, bitter cherry, red flowering currant, mock orange, dogwood and kinnikinnick now line the entry path, along with a tumble of granite boulders. The path refresh […]
Rain means nothing to rowers. They are, they’re glad to remind you, out on the water five days a week, come what may from the skies above.
“The only time practice would be canceled is if there’s whitecaps or really extreme weather,” says Hayley Ransom, a junior in her third year with Bainbridge Island Rowing.
Adds junior Bennett Hay: “But then we’d just go inside (the boathouse) and work out. We’re out here no matter what.”
No surprise then that a contingent some 60 strong turned out for the club’s latest ParksCorps volunteer stewardship event at Waterfront Park – under soggy winter skies, and on Super Bowl Sunday at that. Not to row, but to steward the park.
Site of the new Stan Pocock Rowing Center, Waterfront Park is home ground for the rowers. The club has adopted the park environs in turn, and 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 […]
There’s a full slate of winter work parties in Bainbridge Island parks and trails ahead. Sign up today!
Conservation Work Party
Where: Blakley Harbor Park, NE Country Club Road
When: Saturday, Feb. 10 and March 9 (2nd Saturdays), 10:00a-12:00p
What: Join the Park District, IslandWood, and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation every second Saturday this winter in the ongoing restoration of Blakley Harbor Park! Thousands of volunteer hours have already been logged, helping transform the site of the former largest mill in the world. Volunteers will help remove invasive species, spread mulch to discourage regrowth, and plant native species where invasives have been controlled.
Well suited for children ages six and up who are comfortable using small hand tools and walking off trail on uneven surfaces.
REGISTER HERE
Trails Work Party
Where: Fort Ward Park (Upper Parking Lot), Fort Ward Hill Road
When: Saturday, Jan. 20, Feb. 17, March 16 (3rd Saturdays), 10:00a-12:00p
What: Join the […]
Where: Strawberry Hill Park, 7666 Highschool Road NE
When: Saturday, Oct. 14 (2nd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p
What: Join the Park District, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Gear Grinders, and the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation this fall, preparing the site of the future mountain bike park for new trails and features. Projects will include removing invasive species, building habitats, and planting native plants.
Well-suited for children ages six and up who are comfortable using small hand tools and walking off trail on uneven surfaces.
REGISTER HERE
Trails Work Party
Where: Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve
When: Saturday, Oct. 21 (3rd Saturday), 10:00a-12:00p
What: Join the Park District’s trails team, the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation at Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve this fall, maintaining trail surfacing, improving trail drainage, and closing social trails in sensitive wildlife habitat.
These work parties are well suited for children ages eight and up who are comfortable using some small hand tools and […]
As you see colorful wildflowers shooting up around Battle Point ballfields this summer, you have Montessori Country School to thank.
Montessori students recently spread hundreds of “seed bombs” near the ballfields – handmade balls of powdered clay, compost, wildflower seeds like Lupin and yarrow, and water. No planting required – just throw them around, and nature does the rest.
“They have all the things they need to germinate inside the ball,” says Morgan Houk of the Park District. “They ‘explode’ out into wildflowers.”
The flowers will add color and healthy pollinator habitat to the park.
Montessori Country School is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and wanted to involve students in a community service project for that milestone, says Dorothy Mak Thompson, communications and development manager for the school.
“Our students enjoy Battle Point park regularly, often on Fridays for outdoor education, so we are excited to collaborate with the Park District on this project,” […]
Thanks to Island Cooperative Preschool for helping put in new native plants at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial at Pritchard Park.
Youngsters (with a little help from parents, teachers and community volunteers) installed more than 150 sword ferns, salal, nootka roses, Oregon grape and salmonberry around the memorial site, and spread mulch over the newly planted beds.
Ellen Carleson, Island Cooperative Preschool teacher and director, said the school wants its children to know that even as youngsters, they can make important things happen for the environment.
“In teaching environmental education, we so often want to jump into problem-solving the crises of the world,” Carleson said. “What the studies have found is, with young children, you just have to have them fall in love with the earth and care about the earth. Once they are in love with the earth and care about […]
Thank you to the more than 130 islanders who turned out to support community and civil rights at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial volunteer work day, Feb. 19.
Volunteers cleaned the winding memorial wall, trimmed and weeded the grounds, and cleared the ornamental pond of reeds.
It was the biggest-ever turnout for this annual stewardship day.
The event marked the 80th year observance of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which set in motion the forced exclusion of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island for wartime incarceration.
From Clarence Moriwaki, Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community: “Thanks to the Parks Foundation for partnering and getting people out. It’s all about that, isn’t it? It’s all about partnerships. It’s all about community. This is really fantastic.”
On March 30, BIJAC will host “80 Years of Healing,” the annual observance of the forced exclusion, with an hour-long program. […]
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 […]
