Birdsong filled the air the night of May well 4 as group customers congregated in a peaceful corner of Fairhaven Park to celebrate the ribbon slicing of Recreation Northwest’s outdoor classroom native plant back garden.
The ribbon cutting signifies one particular step in a partnership among Recreation Northwest and the Metropolis of Bellingham, focused on shielding and bettering an 82-acre extend of forest commonly referred to as the Hundred Acre Wooden.
“Recreation Northwest has just devoted so significantly focus to this one spot that they’ve been capable to genuinely exemplify and manifest some advancements in a way that we under no circumstances would have been ready to do with out their support,” claimed Nicole Oliver, Bellingham Parks and Recreation Section director.
Not too long in the past, the space the place the native plant garden grows was filled with brambles of invasive blackberries, Recreation Northwest Government Director Todd Elsworth said. Now, it flourishes with young western sword ferns, snowberries and western purple cedars.
The yard ties into Recreation Northwest’s third stage of park enhancements.
In 2015, the nonprofit concluded the ADA-accessible 18th Avenue Path, connecting Fairhaven Park with the community. In 2017, it developed a 400-foot gravel route and 40-foot boardwalk to support secure wetland habitat. Most just lately, it is focused its endeavours on producing an out of doors academic area, together with the native plant back garden, benches and an predicted amphitheater and pavilion.
The do the job also connects to the city’s grasp plan for the Hundred Acre Wooden, approved by Bellingham Town Council in September 2022. Period one of the grasp program, a $650,000 project funded by the Greenways levy, will be executed this 12 months and into the adhering to calendar year.
“The master planning procedure was quite sturdy, and a single of the core elementary concepts was to defend and restore the Hundred Acre Wooden,” Oliver mentioned, adding that the metropolis ideas to target on decreasing the variety of trails and their influence on wetlands, strengthening hydrology and wayfinding, and developing alternatives for instruction.
Locals investigate the experience trail at the outside classroom. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News) The Hundred Acre Wooden is currently guarded in perpetuity by a conservation easement, Oliver reported, at present held by the Chuckanut Community Forest Park District, a tax district created in 2013 to pay off the price tag of the residence in excess of 10 decades. The metropolis has negotiated amendments to the easement with the park district, Oliver explained. Up coming, the district ought to approve the amended easement and transfer it to a new celebration.
As the metropolis and Recreation Northwest envision the long term of the forest, Elsworth mentioned functions like the ribbon chopping remind him of the significance of their collaboration.
“It just demonstrates a milestone, celebrating the function that our public/non-public partnership with Bellingham Parks has [achieved], and a way to exhibit the success that we can have doing work with each other,” he reported.