Category: forests
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Eagle Eyes: 3 Tips for Better Birding
On a sunny, crisp morning at Marymoor Park, a dozen bird enthusiasts gathered for a workshop offered by Eastside Audubon and South Sound Nature School. The group made their way around the Birdloop Trail, which winds its way through over 300 acres of protected conservation area that offers views of wooded brush and marshy wetland…
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Two Taylor Mountain trail bridges checked off the ‘To Do’ list
Last week, King County Parks wrapped up construction on the project to install two new trail bridges at Taylor Mountain Forest. Part of our effort to improve trail sustainability and protect the forest and salmon habitat, this work replaced old, undersized culverts along gravel maintenance roads that make up part of the park’s trail system.…
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Construction update: Taylor Mountain Trails
Pardon our dust, we’re building 2 new bridges! If you’ve been to Taylor recently, you might’ve noticed some things happening in the parking lot and along Road A and some other trails. That’s because construction is underway to install two new bridges that will replace old, undersized culverts on the gravel road system. Once this…
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The Forest Next Door
Mike and Donna Brathovde are uniquely situated to experience King County Parks’ forest stewardship activities. Since 1976, they’ve lived next to what is now known as Ravensdale Retreat Natural Area, a 145-acre forested park near Maple Valley and Black Diamond in south King County. But we’ll get to Mike and Donna in a moment. Ravensdale…
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Another Planting Season in the Bag
Three King County Parks programs are making great progress towards our county-wide goal to plant One Million Trees by 2020. King County Parks Volunteer and Restoration Program and our many community partners planted 41,076 conifers and 10,967 deciduous trees in 2018 for a whopping total of 52,043. Since the start of the 2019 planting season,…
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705,840!
King County Parks enjoyed some quality time with County Executive Dow Constantine in Big Finn Hill Park today to celebrate progress toward the county’s admittedly audacious goal to plant One Million Trees by 2020. Together with 80 partnering organizations, we’ve planted 705,840 trees in King County. We are SO close! The Executive wholeheartedly encouraged anyone who…
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Your Big Backyard is Getting Bigger
King County Parks had a busy year making good on the levy promise to bring 2,700 acres into the King County system by 2020. By the time 2019 rolls around, Parks will be on the lookout for a mere 500 more acres to reach the goal. As an added bonus, scooping up lands happens to…
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Forest Stewardship 101
While your own yard might benefit from a simple raking, King County’s forests require a little bit more attention. Why not let nature take its course? Many of the 26,000 acres of forestland owned by King County Parks used to be timber plantations and weren’t managed to be forest habitat. These forests tend to be…
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Ring around Ring Hill Forest
Sweater weather. Wool sweater weather. I pulled on my woolliest sweater and headed for the woods psyched because I’m a newbie at King County Parks and knew there’d be something among the trees about which to Plog. The week before, I met the field crew who takes care of the parks in northeastern area of…
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Where does one go to get yelled at by frogs? Why, Frog Holler Forest, of course!
Frog Holler Forest is our newest park, a 60-acre forest on the southern part of Vashon Island. Frog Holler is actually the name of the neighborhood where the park is located, named as such for the chorus of tree frogs in the area. Acquired in December 2016 with the help of the Vashon Maury Island…
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2017 Green Globe awards: Honoring Our Partners
This morning, King County hosted the Green Globes, an awards ceremony honoring local businesses, cities, community groups and individuals for the work they’re doing to protect and improve our environment. We were delighted that several Parks partners were recognized for their dedication to our parks and open space. Recognized as Leader in Community Stewardship, the…
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Random Photo Post: Shy Bear Trail, Cougar Mountain
Every year for the holidays, anonymous elves decorate a tree in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park. Thank you, elves, for making our holidays a little brighter (and for leaving no trace when it’s over)!
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Taking care of our forests: Black Diamond, Ravensdale Retreat and Henry’s Ridge
King County Parks estimates that about 25,000 of our 28,000 acres of open space are covered by forests. In some places, our forests are vast canopies of big ol’ evergreens, loads of ferns, and happy critters all around. Many times, however, our forests have had a checkered past. They became “ours” because the land had…