Kids, adults get in ‘the woods’ for Locust Way Park work day / Community scene

By Janet Thorson-Mador • May 12, 2010 5:59 pm
It's work day at Locust Way Neighborhood Park in Bothell.
It's work day at Locust Way Neighborhood Park in Bothell.

You can pass Locust Way Neighborhood Park in Bothell and never know it’s there: that’s one of the great things about it. Tucked behind a housing development, marked by a sign so faded you can’t read it, this little park is a well-kept secret. But it deserves to be experienced and enjoyed for its woodland trails, sparkling Swamp Creek, and a variety of bird songs you can hear as you walk through it.

Some second-graders and their families from the Lockwood Elementary School PACE program (Parents Active in Cooperative Education) organized a cleanup day in the park May 8. Second-grade PACE teacher Paulette Manuel had a vision to get her students out for an environmental work day, and this park was the perfect site.

Picking up trash and pruning some branches overhanging the trail were the main activities for this first effort. Ranger Doug Dailer from Snohomish County Parks provided some tools and walked the trail with a PACE parent beforehand to plan this project and talk about possibilities for the future. Neighbors Nancy and Leonard Goodisman, who were key advocates in making this park a reality back in 2003, helped out, too. In all, 29 people participated in the work day.

The kids were excited just to be in “the woods” so close to home and just a few minutes’ walk from their school. One of the moms set up a quick breakfast of fruit and pastries on the hood of a car, and then families chose spots along the trail, or in the open space full of invasive Scotch broom and blackberries, and got to work.

Some of the adults put in several hours of labor. But after awhile, the kids discovered a rope swing in a clearing next to the creek, and, well, that was the end of their trail work! But they’ve said they want to come back. And, if they fall in love with the park as kids, maybe they will become its stewards of tomorrow.

Interested PACE parents plan to stay connected with the county in planning future work efforts. Ideas include tree-planting to help screen parts of the trial from a housing development and creating a meadow in the open space for picnics. Currently, the trial does not connect to a road, but this is also a possibility for later.