John Burke walks through Burton Acres Park every day with hedge shears in his hands and his puppy-like 17-year-old dog, Lola, bouncing along the trail in front of him. For 10 years, Burke has been part of a small band of volunteer trail-keepers who keep this park safe and accessible for walkers. They keep English ivy off native trees and trim what Burke calls “ankle-biting vines” off the trails. They also spread woodchips on slick spots in winter and work with the Vashon Park District to make sure trees downed by southwesterly storm winds don’t endanger walkers.
Most people know Burke as the Vashon High School shop teacher. Over the years, several of his students have worked on benches and signs for the park. Recently, they installed two handsome trailhead shelters which house carved wooden maps at either end of the park. Burke platted the maps using GPS coordinates and Google Earth. Some of the trails follow the route of streets originally laid out in 1915 for a housing development on Burton Peninsula, which, thankfully, never materialized.
But Burke is not the only volunteer trail-keeper on Vashon. When the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust acquired the 60-acre Frog Holler Forest last year, it also secured a beautiful network of trails maintained primarily by island equestrian Marie Bradley for walkers and riders in the neighborhood. It was once part of a vast network of horse trials maintained by volunteers. The trail started at Island Center Forest, ran south to Paradise Ridge, through Misty Isle Farms and Frog Holler then looped between Camp Sealth and Lost Lake. Patches of the trail still exist interrupted by private property. Land Trust Executive Director Tom Dean envisions one day stitching together the historic route as part of a broader trail plan that includes pedestrian only paths in Judd Creek and a trail connecting the Judd and Shinglemill Creek trails, which would enable hikers to cross Vashon unimpeded between Quartermaster Harbor and Fern Cove. Plans are also afoot to construct a trail accessible to people in wheelchairs connecting the Vashon Community Care facility to neighboring Land Trust-owned property.
This summer, Land Trust staff and interns have been improving and maintaining several existing trails. They’ve constructed a new boardwalk structure at the Christensen Pond Preserve (see photo below) and repaired trails at the Judd Creek, Fisher Pond and Shinglemill Creek preserves.
On the public front, King County Parks is finalizing plans to connect trails between Dockton Forest and the Maury Island Marine Park, which would tie together more than 750 acres of public land. They plan to start work on a trail from the Marine Park overlook sometime this fall using crews from the Washington Trails Association and local volunteers.
Sept. 30 is National Public Lands Day, during which you can hike any federally owned public trail across the U.S. and all the Washington State Parks trails for free. That’s great, but the trails criss-crossing Vashon and Maury Island are free every day. For that we owe a big thank you to all our of volunteer trail-keepers.
