A stolen owl leaves a hole on Shinglemill Trail

Published 2:50 pm Tuesday, June 16, 2026

This hand-made mosaic owl, crafted by Clare Dohna, was installed in a snag on Shinglemill Trail in honor of Piro Kramar and her love of nature in general and of the Shinglemill Creek trail in particular.

Clare and Piro got to know each other through volunteering with Vashon Island Pet Protectors, so when Piro passed, Clare was honored to have Piro’s family and friends ask her to create this piece of art.

A lot of thought and a few tears went into the tiles and mortar of this piece.

Then, just last week, it was gone, stolen from the snag with only a bent steel rod that once held the owl high remaining. Theft is a crime, and, in this case, the crime is against the members of the Vashon community who enjoy the beauty and serenity of hiking the Shinglemill Creek trail.

The owl was installed as a symbol of that beauty erected in honor of Piro, a long-time resident of Vashon and a regular hiker and runner of the trail. Piro was probably best known on the island as a co-founder of Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP), but her love of nature and animals knew no bounds.

It was a love fostered in her native Hungary, skiing in the mountains, but that environment came to an abrupt halt for her when her family had to flee Hungary’s Communist Occupation when Piro was about 10.

Her love of nature stayed with her when she moved to the states and eventually to Oregon, Seattle then Vashon. She was a world-renowned hiker and was chosen to be in the first group of women to summit Annapurna in Nepal, the 10th highest mountain in the world, and extremely difficult to summit.

Piro’s history as a hiker is legendary and at the end of her life, she found solace and joy on daily hikes along the Singlemill Creek trail. In taking away this memorial to her in a place that she considered sacred only adds to the injustice of the theft.

Some may want to consider this theft as a commentary on the times, or whatever “rationale” you choose.

We choose to focus on reinstalling this one-of-a-kind, $1000 piece of art in a place that was sacred to Piro and to hundreds of others who walk this beautiful trail.

If you have information about this owl, please contact the Land Trust at (206) 463-2644, info@vashonlandtrust.org or P.O. Box 2031, Vashon, WA 98070.

Clare Dohna is a Vashon mosaic tile artist; Terri Fletcher was a hiking companion of Piro’s and she and Geoff Fletcher forged a close friendship with Piro while working together at VIPP.