News from Lake Forest Park Stewardship Foundation

Welcome to our first on-line newsletter! In an effort to save resources - trees, money, volunteer time - the Stewardship Foundation is moving toward an emailed, rather than a regular USPS mailed, newsletter.

In each edition we will include articles about local enviromental concerns, calendar items and volunteer opportunities.

We promise not to inundate you with email, but rather to keep you up to date on environmental issues of interest to Lake Forest Park residents.

We'd like to know what you think. Send us your comments to info@lfpsf.org.

On behalf of the Stewardship Foundation Board of Directors,

Steve Plusch, President

Trail Building at Grace Cole Nature Park

Trail building is well under way and continues each Saturday from 9 AM to 2:30 at Grace Cole Nature Park.

Volunteers for Outdoor Washington (VOW) have scoped out the trail routes based upon terrain and soil stability and have provided the expertise, developed from years of experience in National Parks and Forests of Washington.

The trail building effort has been augmented by a Senior from Shorecrest High School, Rahel Semere, who chose to adopt an 80-foot section of the trail as a Senior Culminating Project. With the leadership of VOW and the invaluable help from volunteer schoolmates who Rahel recruited from Shorecrest, she has now completed the hand-grading and graveling of that section. Rahel's interest in the environment was piqued by her experience with the North Cascades Wild outdoor program last summer.

Ten to twelve Students from Shorecrest HS have been sponsored for the North Cascades Wild program by the LFP Stewardship Foundation each summer since 2006. Your contributions to the Foundation help to sponsor students to participate in this amazing educational program.

Another trail section was prepared as an Eagle Scout Project by a young scout and his troop from Seattle.

You may volunteer to help with trail building by calling Mamie at 206-364-4410 or simply show up on a Saturday morning at 9 AM. Bring a lunch if you wish to stay for the whole day and please dress for the weather. Minors please have a signed release slip from your parents, available at your school.

We'd love to have your help with this project.

Board Update

We are thrilled to welcome our new Board Member Kim Josund.

Kim's connection to nature began as a child camping and hiking with her family, as she grew up surrounded by the rolling Palouse hills of eastern Washington. After moving to the Puget Sound for college, she fell in love with the green-ness of the forested landscape.

Kim earned a degree in Zoology from the University of Washington and has worked in many areas of science, from genetics research to forest ecology, wildlife rehabilitation, environmental policy and lobbying. Past employers include the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Wilderness Society and the Washington Environmental Council.

Always active in volunteering, Kim has brought her passion for animals and science to local elementary schools by helping with salmon rearing projects and organizing PTA science fairs and after school science classes.

Kim first began volunteering with LFPSF when she moved with her husband and two daughters to Lake Forest Park from Seattle in 2001. Preserving and restoring the natural features of our small town on the edge of the big city is important to her. She recently completed a Certificate in Natural Science Illustration at the UW, wrote the grant and helped paint the salmon mural in the entryway of Brookside Elementary (funded in part by LFPSF).

Kim looks forward to increased involvement on the Stewardship Foundation Board and we are lucky to have her in our ranks.

Bird Banding - Ongoing PSBO Urban Bird Study in LFP and Shoreline

Are you interested in learning more about the songbirds in our area and how our urban Puget Sound landscape supports those that spend the winter here?

The Puget Sound Bird Observatory, with support from the LFP Stewardship Foundation, started banding birds last winter at 2 sites in our area: one at the Fienes' in LFP and one in the Briarcrest neighborhood just above Grace Cole Nature Park. This year they have added two more sites: one at Shoreline Community College and one at the Rusts' house in Richmond Beach. Each banding site hosts two banding sessions a month from October through April.

The data that we gather through these studies is providing better understanding of our bird populations and their needs. With sound data we can encourage good decisions about land use to minimize our footprint and preserve wild places and their birds..

We also hope to have native plant landscapers document birds' use of fruits and berries in their yards and to involve school kids in sighting and reporting color-banded birds.

If you'd like to learn more about this project, take a bird monitoring training class, report sighted birds or be involved with the bandings, please go to the PSBO website: www.pugetsoundbirds.org/PSBO/ or call Libby Fiene at 206-365-8867.

The LFP banding sessions take place on the 2nd and 4th Sunday mornings through April.

Developments @ Whisper Creek

The latest development at the Whisper Creek Project has been the removal of 830 square feet of asphalt road from the buffer of the creek. This road was formerly a one-lane extension of 20th Ave. NE northward from NE 190th Street and crossing Whisper Creek. When the weather turns a bit dryer, volunteers will rototill compost into the soil and begin planting native plants to fill the buffer of the creek.

The Whisper Creek restoration project, which was begun with a National Wildlife Federation (NWF) grant funded by a King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks WaterWorks Grant, then augmented by a Boeing Company Grant to the NWF, is being carried forward by a Wild Places in Public Spaces Grant from the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks.

Volunteers carry these projects through. You may call Mamie Bolender 206-364-4410 if you'd like to be included on the list to be notified to help with plantings at Whisper Creek. Students may earn Community Service Hours by helping out.

The LFP Stewardship Foundation Newsletter is committed to keeping you informed about environmental concerns and opportunities in LFP WITHOUT inundating your inbox.

Save the Date	LFP Stewardship Foundation will be holding its annual meeting on Wed. January 20, 2010 in the LFP City Council Chambers. Please join us. Our featured speaker will be: *Dennis DePape* *The Importance of Stewardship* Refreshements will be served. All ages are welcome.