Dozens of Tahoma High sophomores tromped through the damp woods of Cedar Creek Park March 7 with shovels, saws and other tools in hand to work on a trail.
The teenagers, who are in the school’s Outdoor Academy, can often be found out working on such projects but typically they are outside of the city. This time, the students got to help build a trail which can be accessed from Cedar Downs, a neighborhood off Witte Road in Maple Valley.
It’s a chance for the teens to be stewards of the environment as well as apply what they’ve learned in science class. Dan Nist, an Outdoor Academy student, said there is a significant community service element to the class which is team taught by three educators in health and fitness, science and English.
“This is a great example of how we’re helping out the community by building a trail,” Nist said. “It’s great to give back. It definitely feels good. You feel really productive. You feel like you’ve accomplished something.”
Plus, the trail they worked on clearing March 7 had examples of soil and plant life they studied in the classroom.
“With the soils, the really mushy soil … we’ve learned about that in science,” Nist said. “So, we want to clear that top layer off so it doesn’t get muddy and we can get to the mineral layer.”
Jack Anderson, a classmate of Nist’s in Outdoor Academy, explained how they’ve learned about endangered plant life as well as endangered species in school. Anderson said he could recognize the different plants they’d talked about in Cedar Creek Park as they worked.
“It’s nice that we get experience out here instead of just sitting in a class and looking at pictures,” Anderson said. “It’s really cool. I’m going to take my parents here and show them that I worked on this.”
Outdoor Academy’s work on the trail is a bit of a change compared to the service the students have done for the class previously.
“It’s really cool because when we do the work out at Log Cabin Reach we don’t see the impact right away,” Anderson said. “But this will be something people in Maple Valley will be able to use right away. This will be awesome.”
It was also exciting for Lisa Parsons, executive director of the Middle Green River Coalition, which has worked to preserve the 115-acre property for future development as a regional trail connection between Maple Valley and Covington. A portion of the park is in unincorporated King County while a chunk of it is in Covington. It also can be accessed from the Tall Timbers and Timberlane neighborhoods in Covington.
In recent years the space had become a playground for owners of all terrain vehicles. Cedar Creek Park also suffered in January 2012 when the snow and ice storms the area experienced brought down so many limbs of the mature growth forest that sections of trail were nearly impassable, Parsons told the Reporter in April 2012.
Parsons approached the city of Covington first to begin work to repair the damage done by ATVs and winter storms. Covington staff supported the coalition’s efforts and put up barriers at the park entrance, posted signs and worked to deter off-road vehicle use.
When Parsons first moved to southeast King County years ago she saw the potential. Now she hopes the coalition can make the most of the potential of Cedar Creek Park. It starts with the efforts of work parties such as the students from Tahoma High’s Outdoor Academy.
“It was a great day for me to see the vision finally becoming a reality,” Parsons wrote in an email interview. “I realized today that most of those kids were not even born when I started the work of conserving the area. I think it really made me realize how important the work is to future generations. There aren’t many forests like that left in the Puget Sound region. People will be able to take their kids there to learn about what forest should look like.”
