Next stewards meeting is the 20th of June. Work party the 20th of June. Rummage Sale June 8th!

Quack Quack

I think my ducks all sank last year. Perhaps your duck swam off toward Phinny Bay instead of the finish line and you did not win the grand prize, it's OK, you are still a winner. Today the Rotary Club of Silverdale donated $2100.00 in Duck Bucks toward the construction of the first wildlife viewing platform on the heritage wetland and the boardwalk on Bird Meadow. Rotary conducts an annual fund raiser duck race at the Silverdale Whaling Days event and profits from this event are used to fund many community and national service projects. The viewing platform and boardwalk are on the stewards 2013 work plan and they are anxious to get started. With these funds in hand, materials can be purchased and construction will get underway in earnest. Much preliminary work has been done and the list of community support for our park is long. Tom Coleman (relentlessly promoting our work) AES Consultants (site plans and elevations) MTV Home Repair (code compliant design and drawings), KC Parks Ric Catron (DCD building permit). If you did not buy a duck last year, you will get another chance soon. I think the yellow ones are the fastest. Thank you Silverdale Rotary!

Wayfinding

For a new trail map with mileages. click on PARK MAP icon under Useful Links

2013 Work Plan Progress

Stewards scheduled an extra April work party to get some preliminary work done on the new boardwalk going in on Bird Meadow trail, and since the equipment was there they took advantage of the opportunity and addressed the Laydown Area construction and car removal. JD, back with his new hip, Mr. Coleman and student volunteers worked on the Children's Forest trail tread and puncheon.

This old "Tuna Boat" has been alongside park trails for so long it has become a landmark for some park patrons, but it is no more. The last car hulk was loaded up and carted off on Saturday the 13th of April. It is the last of five cars that were dumped in the park before the gates prevented vehicle access to the parks interior. There are more cars in the south end of the park that will need to be removed, but they are in a stream that we are not allowed to work in without a Hydraulic Permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. These cars will be addressed as part of a riparian enhancement plan in the future. Special thanks to COPS (Citizens On Patrol) for help with the affidavit of title process.

The area that stewards hope to make into a native plant nursery and to store materials for projects was marked off for county approval. This area will be used to stage all the winter blowdown for use as fire wood for needy families (project through KCR), and our salvaged cedar logs prior to milling into lumber for park projects as well as other materials such as culverts and rock.

Traffic along this popular trail compacts duff and organic material in this wetland slightly reducing its hydraulic functions. To prevent this, a boardwalk is slated for construction over the water, and WSU stream stewards will "fluff the duff" this summer once the hydroperiod has ended, and the boardwalk constructed. A load of "One Man Rock" was trailerd down to the old DNR gravel pit and staged alongside the trail for use in constructing wing walls for the boardwalk. When completed, this boardwalk will prevent traffic on Bird Meadow trail from going around the wetland and damaging vegetation and wetland functions. The wingwalls will reduce the overall span of the boardwalk limiting the need for several pairs of footings that would need to be placed in the water.

Green STEM Water Quality

What is happening to the Coho? Is there too much copper in that runoff? Where does the copper come from? These and other questions will have to be answered if we are going to bring this fish population back from threatened status. Recent science indicates it may not be copper, but there is something in the water that is disorienting the fish. Some copper is required for life, but too much is fatal to fish. County employees from SSWM (Renee and Mauro) had done a lot of planning prior to today, but research into parking lot runoff from Klahowya began in earnest on 20 March.

Hard to believe we were held up because we didn't have enough rain, but that was the case. We needed a good rain to get the schools extensive storm water runoff collection system flowing. Students collected water samples from the schools parking lots, and retention ponds to look for metals and other contaminants in the runoff. They have been learning about the three watersheds that are found within the park and how they function in flood reduction and runoff retention. They made field measurements for Ph,and temperature. Teams collected samples for professional lab analysis at DOE for Copper and Hardness. Funding for analysis was provided as part of the STEM grant. Special thanks to environmental science students, Mauro and Renee from SSWM and Ms Turk.

County Provides Signs

After five years, at last there is a sign that directs people to the parking area near the "K". There is a sign for traffic approaching from the west or the east that directs people to the parking area in the N250. We hope to have a proper parking area behind CKFR Station 56 in the future.

Riparian Enhancement Trees Trees Trees

KSS Environmental science students were back again for more tree planting. This time they planted about 200 Western Red Cedar saplings provided by Washington State University, and SSWM. The Washington State DNR nursery gave the saplings a good start and they are about 2 feet tall. Students planted the trees in a significant Laminated Root Rot (Phellinus weirii) disease pocket near Deer Fern Trail. Second growth Douglas fir trees are especially susceptible to this disease, and this area has a high mortality rate . The Western redcedar is resistant to this disease, which remains in the soil for many years and slowly spreads through root contact with adjacent trees. Planting immune or resistant species is the recommended way to limit this disease. WSU Stream Stewards came in on Monday the 25th and planted about 600 on the flood plain of Little Anderson Creek at Anderson Landing County Park (our sister park). On the 26th Stream Stewards planted 400 more in Newberry Hill along the riparian slopes adjacent to Strange Days. Saplings were planted from the trail down to the channel of the unnamed stream that begins to form just above the KRRC. Stream Stewards returned on the first of March, planting 500 saplings under Scotch Broom along the edge of the park nearest the schools track. In an ironic twist, the Scotch Broom will be used to shade the young trees through their first summer helping them get established. This brings the total to over 1000 trees. Weather permitting planting will continue for the next few weeks. Special thanks to Arno Bergstrom for taking the lead on this.

Children's Forest Update

This large project is just quietly moving along with a lot of help from the community and teachers at Klahowya Secondary School. A group of dedicated teachers has been involved in the planning phase and hope to have their high school students act as guides for third graders from throughout the school district. These mentors will assist the third graders in environmental science projects beginning next spring. We all know how sunny our weather is around here, but just in case, included in the planning is a shelter, where students, mentors and teachers can gather out of the weather to issue instructions and keep the paperwork dry. The schools Advanced CAD class has been involved with the design of a simple 24' by 24' open air structure. The plans have been drawn and a licensed architect has critiqued their work. Math students will construct a 3-D balsa model of the structure, and students in remedial English class will prepare documents to submit to Kitsap County Parks (the land owner) and Kitsap Department of Community Development for permits. Science students in grade 7, and stewards, are clearing the area where the structure will be built. Sound Construction has donated excavator time to building the loop trail, KC Parks sent in an arborist to help drop dangerous trees, and stewards have been assisting with trail tread work. The project is partially funded from a STEM grant that the CK School District received from the Department of Defense. Team members include Jodie Woolf, Jon Lindberg, Wendy Kraft, Danyell Laughlin, Maureen McNulty, and Tom Coleman.

The most important feature of this park is you, our volunteers and stewards.