As many of you will recall there has often been a Spring Work Party to “spruce up” some of our public spaces. In past years we have worked at the Town Entry, along 92nd Ave , Sally’s Alley trail, 42nd Street Lake Access, Road End Beach, Morningside Park and Wetherill Nature Preserve. This year we have decided to focus on these two areas: Road End Beach and Morningside Park.
- Work planned for the Beach is to mulch planting areas, prune shrubs and trees and do maintenance work, replacing sand and gravel along the top of the rip rap above the beach.
- In Morningside the target is to search out and remove regrowth of ivy, Himalayan blackberry, holly, and a couple of annual weeds that are a nuisance.
Over the last twenty to thirty years ivy had overtaken much of Morningside Park, threating many trees and choking out native ground cover and trilliums that were at one time plentiful. Trilliums were almost totally wiped out by the ivy. Then a couple of years ago the Town Council approved retention of EarthCorp to bring trained crews to the Park to do comprehensive removal of ivy, holly and Himalayan blackberry. This has been a huge improvement but some ongoing maintenance will be required to prevent ivy and blackberry regrowth and to protect the ecology and the beauty of the Park.
Town staff sent out a sign-up sheet for the Work Party via email so that those of you who want to join us on April 28th from 9:00 to 12:00 can sign up for the area preferred. If you did not receive the email and you would like to join us, please call Town Hall: 425-454-6994
Note: The next project that the Park Board anticipates recommending in Morningside after the Children’s Play Area is completed is to layout and construct a loop trail in Morningside Park. We will try to get a proposed route for this loop trail flagged this spring so that ambitious walkers can “bush whack” through the Park to see what we are suggesting.
From: The Park Board – John McGlenn, Doug Waddell, Kathy Smith, Carolyn Whittlesey, Krista Fleming, Trevor Dash