Midway through one of the many speeches marking the opening of the Auburn Environmental Park boardwalk at the north end of Western Avenue last Thursday, some brash, noisemaking so-and-so stole the thunder.
All heads whipped to the bold upstager, just then 25 feet above — a large Canadian goose on its way out of the park, flapping its great wings and announcing its presence in an outburst of profound honks.
“A fly by,” declared a voice from somewhere in the crowd, as laughter rippled along.
Without a word, that feathered denizen of the AEP explained what the park was all about. But that didn’t stop City officials and others from trying.
“It’s an environmental park for generations to come,” Mayor Pete Lewis told the large crowd. “We know that this area is going to continue to fill up with people. The opportunities for a natural setting such as this are going to be fewer and fewer as the years go by.
“To have this great park for our children and their children to come, makes such a big difference,” Lewis added.
“It will be used for years, for education, for pleasure. It will definitely be used,” said Auburn City Councilwoman Nancy Backus.
As of the grand opening, visitors to the park will see not only the 2-year-old bird observation tower but a brand new trail of pervious concrete around it, surrounded by mulched areas. At the end of that trail, atop pin pilings and fully ADA-accessible, is the boardwalk,
Extending over the wetlands to West Main Street, about 1,200 feet in all, the boardwalk’s features include benches and picnic tables made of recycled materials, interpretive signs at heights accessible to everybody, native landscaping at both entrances, even a 21-space bike rack.
The Washington State Conservation Corps — administered by the Washington State Department of Ecology — put the boardwalk together, using the muscle, know how and determination of six teams of 18- to-24-year-old volunteers that it cycled through the swampy site every week for more than six months.
But counting all the people who wielded shovels, turned wrenches, planted plants, wheelbarrowed and mulched, hundreds of people and organizations had a hand in the project. Indeed, city estimates show volunteers put in about 700 hours.
Help came also from Parametrix, from LMI Aerospace, Inc., from Auburn High School’s DECA and Interact clubs and from every department in the City of Auburn. Huffman Construction contributed its sweat to the parking lot expansion and the pervious paved concrete.
Additional support came from the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce, The Downtown Auburn Association, the Boeing Company, the Rainier Audubon Society, the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors, Puget Sound Energy, the Auburn School District, Centrix Biosystems and every service club in the city.
Funding for the park began with a $572,000 Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program grant in 2007.
When all the speeches were done and the ribbon was cut and the last piece of cake was eaten, Marcia Garrett, director of external affairs for Washington State University’s office in Seattle, one of the City’s research partners in the wetland, strolled along the boardwalk to get her first look.
“It’s gorgeous, gorgeous!,” Garrett said. “Oh, just look at all those purples!”
