Audubon Birdloop Work Parties

Since March, 2006, BirdLoop work parties have been held on the first Saturday of the month.  More than 200 volunteers from Eastside Audubon, the community and Microsoft Day of Caring events have invested 2500+ hours of service on the BirdLoop project.

We expect our first Saturday work parties to continue for the foreseeable future. Contact Margaret Snell at masnell@comcast.net to get on our work party email list.

If you want to see what we do on our work parties and how much fun we have, go to:

• 2006 Work Parties - 1st Half
• 2006 Work Parties - 2nd Half

Work We Have Done

For three years, Glenn Eades has directed the monthly work parties to remove invasive species such as Scotch Broom and Reed Canary Grass in the meadow and along the trail, as well as blackberry vines that were choking out native trees and shrubs.

Under the guidance of Ella Elman, we also planted hundreds of native trees and plants in more than ten areas. Ella also did our wetlands survey and will continue to coordinate our planting efforts over the next few years.  .



Megan Lyden was responsible for the interpretive signs.  Five signs with lovely artwork designed by a professional artist were commissioned and installed along the BirdLoop.

Under the direction of Sunny Walter, we transformed two county transit kiosks into beautiful interpretive kiosks for the Meadow and River entrances to the BirdLoop. We also installed new display cases, and populated them with maps and posters.  The Eastside Audubon Photography group donated images for our BirdLoop bird and wildlife posters.

Tim McGruder built a new gate between the dog area and the meadow. He also headed up the installation of the new interpretive signs. He is currently directing the boardwalk extension project to keep our feet dry during the winter rains.


Finally, for our bike racks, Jim Rettig, our project manager, commissioned a beautiful sculpture showing a heron in the reeds. He also led the effort to develop two trail extensions to move the BirdLoop route further away from the off-leash dog area so our visitors can enjoy the birds in greater quiet.  He is currently working on the trail signs.

I'd like to add that most of these BirdLoop steering committee members have faithfully attended the monthly work parties over the past 3 years - what a group!

Volunteers

Over the course of the project Karen Ridlon, Therese Eby, and Margaret Snell have contacted volunteers and tracked their hours.

If you need a King County Volunteer Service Agreement, you can download one here.