An Urban Escape: The East-West Greenwayby John Deviny Special to the Green Pages Thurston County in the next century - can you envision Olympia and the South Sound in the future? Imagine that some of our downtown buildings have risen to the height of the Capitol Building, the streets have widened to allow for the increased traffic that growth brings. Growth management has made efforts to preserve the character of the community, but increased density was inevitable. Our parks and open areas are preserved but tend to be playfields and picnic grounds; little of the natural flavor remains. Now picture an oasis of nature in this scene, an open space of forest and hills and clean air. A small stream wanders at your side as you follow a path into this welcomed refuge. Bicycle commuters greet you as you walk along under a canopy of native plants. Though the traffic and activity of the city surround you, the trees and shrubs reduce the noise, and you feel at ease as you pass small parks and viewing areas. Connections to each neighborhood interlace the woods and are part of a trail network allowing uninterrupted nonmotorized travel from one end of the county to the other. You've chosen the soft-surfaced walkway for today's stroll, but on other days you and your friends and family can bicycle, jog or rollerblade on the accessible paved corridor. Up ahead you see the footpath that ascends the bluff to an overlook that was built and maintained by one of the adjoining neighborhoods. From here you can enjoy views of Olympia and see the forested corridor you have just traveled, a wide green centerpiece uniting the city from within. The above vision of a linear park and open space through the heart of Olympia is the dream of the East-West Greenway Association, a nonprofit all-volunteer group that has been working since 1991 to create, develop and preserve a natural corridor from Capitol Lake to the Lacey-Olympia border. When completed, users arriving at Tumwater Historical Park will be able to start a journey that could take them all the way to Yelm, as the county trail system becomes complete. The stated mission of the Greenway Association is to establish and maintain a publicly owned trail while preserving a wildlife corridor and adjacent natural areas and native landscapes. The City of Olympia Parks Department, with critical help from the East-West Greenway Association, has brought their Olympia Woodland Trail project to the Master Plan stage. The focus of this project is more limited in size, diversity and character compared to the Greenway vision, but obviously at this time is the defining feature. The public's input on the Master Plan later this year (it is hoped) will be important to move the paved trail forward. All the while, the Greenway Board of Directors is hard at work advocating and planning for the addition of what we see as essential amenities and the promotion of the Greenway vision that addresses the following issues: The Corridor and Adjacent Areas. The route of the East-West Greenway/Olympia Woodland Trail parallels the south side of Interstate 5 from Capitol Lake, proceeding under Capitol Boulevard, traversing below the Hillside neighborhood to Henderson Boulevard. After crossing Henderson, the trail will border Watershed Park to Eastside Street, then proceed east along the abandoned Burlington Northern rail line all the way to Fones Road and the Chehalis-Western Trail in Lacey. The Olympia City Council gave the Parks planning staff authority to purchase and develop a corridor along this route of 30-100 feet wide. Though acquisitions by the Parks Department are not yet complete, in at least one section the trail appears likely to be little more than an extra wide paved sidewalk next to a city street. In addition, Parks staff is unable to include properties they have no authorization to purchase and must collaborate with developers as they purchase property. The Greenway Association has more flexibility, less money, and a bigger dream. The Association wants the corridor to be wide enough to provide a natural experience to users, to avoid becoming a trail between backyard fences. Where the City's corridor is narrow, the board can contact landowners, raise money, and buy property. So the entrepreneurial spirit of the Greenway Association tugs at the often-ponderous planning machine of the City. And the corridor slowly takes shape. Protection of a Wildlife Corridor. Depending on whom you talk to, wildlife corridors in an urban environment are either a wasteful luxury, essential to maintaining a human connection with the earth, or a scientific impossibility. Currently, deer, fox, raccoon, and other animals travel and live in the corridor from Chambers Lake to Capitol Lake. Until recently, an easily recognizable four-point buck made observation of the deer's movements easy to track. The buck seems to have disappeared, yet perhaps a dozen or more deer remain. Creation of the urban trail alone does wildlife no favors. The Greenway Association is attempting to respond to the needs of wildlife with long-term plans to acquire areas along the trail corridor as safe havens for wildlife. The areas will have no trails and enable wildlife to forage and reproduce in relative peace. But first, a human-oriented trail corridor must be completed, for it is use by humans that fuels the interest, commitment and 'money machine' behind the whole effort. Trail Surfaces. The original Park Department plan for the corridor called for a 10-foot-wide paved trail. The majority of users expect a paved trail: bicyclists, rollerbladers, runners and walkers, families with strollers. Yet within the Greenway Association, paving has always been controversial. Establishing a separate, soft-surfaced trail responds to needs voiced by a third of the future trail users, according to survey of over 200 potential users conducted in November of 1996. The Greenway Association now seeks to establish a separate, soft-surfaced trail in addition to the paved trail being planned by Olympia Parks. The Eastside Street trail into Watershed Park is the Greenway's first effort, accomplished in collaboration with the South Puget Sound Rotary and many other volunteers. The Greenway Association has begun negotiations on another 1/4-mile segment that will have similar results. Meanwhile, the City, an expert at establishing paved surfaces, continues to plan the paved trail for the majority of trail users. Native Landscaping. Consider how many trees, shrubs and ferns are in Olympia's Watershed Park. Now imagine Watershed as a long, thin ribbon and the planting challenge of the Greenway Association becomes clear. The ongoing efforts of a few volunteers and occasional events with students and teachers have resulted in thousands of trees being planted between Boulevard Road and Fones Road. There are many possible revegetation strategies - from simulating nature's own recovery methods to beginning with the larger climax species then progressively filling in the understory. Several of our volunteers are experts at revegetation, and we continue to devise a script for returning the corridor and adjacent lands to a natural state attractive to both humans and wildlife. Recreating an ecosystem is a challenge, as we await the master plan and tolerate hungry deer, replantation loss, and dry spells, the forest which has begun with seedling plantings over the past years is beginning to take hold - the forest between Boulevard and Fones continues to grow. Getting the Trail Built. In 1991, when the East-West Greenway effort started, people asked, "So where is the trail?" Six years later, the same question receives the same response: "We are waiting for the city to finish buying property and to complete its master plan." Both of those activities have been proceeding over the years and will eventually be completed, but delays have been the rule, so target dates have lost meaning. It is difficult to keep interest and raise money for a project that shows little visible result. Tension between action-oriented Greenway Association volunteers and process-oriented city staff can be uncomfortable at times. Yet few dispute the need to have a plan prior to taking action. The State Department of Transportation must approve the completed master plan if the City of Olympia is going to be eligible for state and federal grant monies. DOT has given the City extensive standards for the plan. Feasibility studies for several sections of trail have raised the cost of the plan and lengthened the timeline considerably. So when will there be a trail from Capitol Lake to Lacey? Planning for construction must follow the master plan, which is not yet complete. The Greenway Association keeps the project visible to increase its priority within the City and searches for pieces of the larger corridor where action can produce visible results. Our volunteers are keeping the dream alive of one day strapping on the rollerblades, or the walking shoes, or climbing aboard the bicycle for a quiet journey into this urban escape. In the meantime, check out the new Watershed Park entrance on Eastside St. near Wheeler, and walk the abandoned rail line from Eastside to Dayton Avenue. Contact the East-West Greenway Association at 786-9233 if you would like to participate in revegetation or trail building efforts, assist in buying land, or other tasks. Tax deductible contributions are gladly accepted and memberships welcomed at P. O. Box 7067, Olympia, WA 98507. John Deviny is the Public Relations Chair of the East-West Greenway Association.
Back to Home page. |
