A Petition to Save Carkeek Park to Seattle City Council Members & Mayor Mike McGinn

Dear Readers of this blog, 

Below is a petition prepared by Nancy Malmgren proposing changes to the current budget cuts to Carkeek Park facilities and its public programing as suggested by the Mayor's office.

Nancy asked this petition be posted on this blog and encourages people to weigh in - be it in favor of or in opposition to - her suggested changes.

If Readers wish to join Nancy (and me) in this petition, please do so by adding a comment to this posting.

Thanks

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To Seattle City Council Members and Mayor Mike McGinn:

We, the undersigned, Friends and Neighbors of Carkeek Park, are protesting the planned closure of the Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center and proposed termination of public programming effective January 2011. 

We feel that Seattle Parks Administrators, Christopher Williams, Acting Superintendent of Parks, and Rob Courtney, Parks Director, can adjust the proposed budget which, as proposed, funds Environmental Learning Centers (ELC) at Camp Long and Discovery Park only, by eliminating two of the three education program supervisors currently assigned to those ELCs.  Those responsibilities could then be used to fund a full-time naturalist at Carkeek Park who would support the current programs and continue the many volunteer activities that help maintain the park and its ecology (see bullet list below).  These programs and volunteer activities keep our citizens informed and involved to better our environment - and they help keep Carkeek a safe place for all park users.


The proposed cuts to Carkeek Park will eliminate the current support staff - a .5 public education program supervisor and 1.0 naturalist - leaving the two buildings at Carkeek Park unoccupied (except for private rentals) and terminating all public and volunteer programs currently offered at Carkeek's ELC.  These programs include but are not limited to:

• Trail maintenance and development
• Piper’s Creek orchard care
• Beach Docent Program
• Master Foresters Program
• Salmon Stewards Program
• Demonstration gardens
• Preschool environmental environmental education programs
• Senior environmental education programs

Staff cuts are also proposed to both Camp Long and Discovery Park, but are not as sever as the cuts proposed for Carkeek Park (see below).  In addition, both Camp Long and Discovery Park would continue to employ day staff (a .5 public education program supervisor and a .5 naturalist for Camp Long; two public education program supervisors at .8 and  1.0 employment and a .75 naturalist at Discovery Park).  Buildings at Camp Long and Discovery Park will remain open.

We ask the City Council and Mayor to retain Carkeek's current Naturalist at full-time (1.0 FTE) to continue providing quality direct support programs to the public.  The Naturalist has worked at Carkeek Park for 12 years and has established and maintained many of the successful environmental programs currently operating there.  He has also trained hundreds of volunteers - whose hours total nearly 4500 for the year 2009 alone.  (Estimated volunteer hours at Carkeek for 2010 to date are 4500 plus.).  We propose that Carkeek's Naturalist continue the existing programs in partnership with a .5 time “Restore Our Waters” employee who is currently funded by Seattle Public Utilities. 

We do not want the facilities at Carkeek Park closed.  We, as a Community, have seen Viewlands Elementary School closed and severely vandalized.  Now it is being repaired and preparing for the school to be reopened in Fall 2011.

Please change staffing for the Seattle’s Environmental Learning Centers to retain our full time Naturalist for Carkeek Park.   It is common sense, in such harsh economic times, to reduce extraneous and expensive management and retain quality, less expensive direct service workers such as Carkeek's current Naturalist.

Petition prepared by Nancy Malmgren
October 23, 2010