This August, Golden Gardens Park celebrates one year of stewardship under the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP) and Groundswell recognizes that effort by naming it Park of the Month.  Join the Golden Gardens Reforestation and Trails (GGREAT) on the second Saturday of each month, from 9 am to 12 pm in service work parties. GGREAT meets at the off-leash area near the upper parking lot. Golden Gardens thanks its community neighbors for all their help in revitalizing this important gem of a Seattle park! Learn more and stay current with park activities at the GGREAT webpage.

August also marked the opening of the new playground at Golden Gardens, funded through the Parks and Green Spaces Levy that Groundswell helped champion, and that your support made possible. Read more about the new playground in this Ballard News Tribune article or this My Ballard post and the opening celebration on Monday, August 29.

The Golden Gardens area was originally used by Native American people for hundreds of years as a shoring station for canoes and a transfer station for freshwater boats. Harry Whitney Treat developed Golden Gardens Park as an amusement park in 1908, giving its current name at that time. Seattle purchased the park, including its woodlands, or Upper Forest, in 1923 creating Golden Gardens as we know it now.

Neighborhood groups and organizations such as EarthCorps have engaged in maintaining the park's lush vegetation since its creation. In August 2010, Rhonda Goebel and Alessandra Carreon began to serve as the park's newest forest stewards. Under their stewardship, more than 13,000 square feet of invasive plant species have been removed, hundreds of native plants have been introduced Over 600 volunteer hours so far, and they will continue their stewardship efforts because they know much more needs doing  to maintain the park's natural beauty!

Golden Gardens has suffered serious forestry issues which the stewards have given much time to address. Serious landslides in the woodlands have occurred over time.  An effective drainage system was installed in 1974 after three homes were damaged along View Avenue. More recently, a landslide brought down part of the road wall along the eastern edge of the park. In an effort to curb this erosion, forest stewards Rhonda and Alessandra have planted, mulched and stabilized park slopes. In addition, non-native species planted in the park have invaded and still cover a sizable portion of the Upper Forest footprint. However, in one year, the park has undergone significant improvement due to volunteer effort which we welcome.