CO-PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

On Labor Day, my husband Neal and I took a leisurely walk through Discovery Park. It was a beautiful day. Mt. Rainier came in view from north of the sand dunes. There were kite flyers, picnickers and walkers -some alone, others in small groups and whole families. A few were out for a slow stroll. Others were intent on getting their daily exercise. All were taking advantage of the myriad of paths, views, flora and fauna of Discovery Park. Readers occupied the benches. One man was entering data on his lap computer. If you have to work on such a beautiful day -why not in such a beautiful setting?

A pileated woodpecker flew to a tree near the bluff path. The late afternoon sun set his brilliant red crest ablaze. Seeing a rare pileated woodpecker was a new experience for several hikers.

The beauty made me think how prophetic the words are in the park master plan: "In the years to come there will be almost irresistible pressure to carve out areas of the park in order to provide sites for various civic structures or spaces for special activities."

Everyone wants a piece of the park. With all that open land, they reason, surely there is room for soccer fields, off-leash areas, a golf course, an even bigger sewer plant, major events unrelated to an open space park and a seven story building two and one-half times as large as a football field. They would like to fence off areas for special uses and destroy habitat areas. The Park plan says: "This park should not be asked to serve too many function. It will be serve this city if it is permitted to serve one primary function and serve that function well." The Friends of Discovery Park constantly defend the purposes and philosophy of the Park's Master Plan.

I would like to tell you about my background. My education is in biology, aquatic plants and water resources. I have been a lab. Tech., a university academic advisor and a residential real estate salesperson. My interest in the environment and my knowledge of real estate helped me get involved with the Friends. I helped the Friends save the Kiwanis Ravine by volunteering to place values on the vacant lots in the ravine. Once involved, one thing led to another and all of a sudden I am co-president.

My other interests include the Madrones on the boulevard. I head the "Save Magnolia Madrones" effort and helped establish a vegetation plan for the boulevard.

The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation's (UIATF) proposal to build a development of expansive size has required extensive time and effort. We have hired an attorney to take us through all the requirements and documents. He will help us "scale" down the size and impacts or move it to a more appropriate site.

It you have time to volunteer to help any of these projects, please call Co-President Patricia Stambor (206-285-5349) or me at (206-283-8643.

Valerie Cholvin
Co-President FODP

ANNUAL MEETING

The Annual Meeting of the Friends of Discovery Park was scheduled for Wednesday October 14, 1998, at 7PM in the Discovery Park Visitor Center.

The election of officers for the Friends takes place at the annual meeting. A full program of entertainment was prepared by Gayle Podrabsky, annual meeting chairperson.

The EXPLORER will carry a story on the event in the Winter edition.

"A revolution has to take place in people's minds. They've got to see that we must drop this notion of man being king of nature. No, we're part of nature. And we have to live in harmony with it."
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (1933-)

SAVE DISCOVERY PARK FUND

The issue of the United Indians of All Tribe's (UIAT) People's Lodge and the need to defend West Point from a second expansion requires a defense fund.

We have received excellent responses from our mailings. But we need more funds for legal aid and more informational mailings. Checks go to the "Save Discovery Park" fund 3801 W. Government Way, Seattle 98199-1014. For information call 283-8643; 285-5349 or 285-6862.

Check your address label. If you need to send in your dues, that will help the cause.

PEOPLE'S LODGE EIS IS DUE OUT MID-OCTOBER

By Patricia Stambor, Co-President Friends of Discovery Park

The City of Seattle has informed us that the preliminary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed People's Lodge in Discovery Park will not be available until mid-October. (We understand that this could mean anywhere from mid-October to sometime in November).

Friends has joined with the Magnolia Community Club and Lawton Wood Neighborhood association to from a coalition with the specific purpose of raising funds for legal fees to oppose this project. Through our collective efforts, we have been able to retain Brent Carson (from the law firm Buck and Gordon) as legal counsel. Brent is an established and well-known land-use attorney in Seattle. We are pleased to be working with him.

We would like to thank all the members for their generous donations to the "Save Discovery Park Fund." Equally important are your letters to the Mayor and public officials on this issue. If you have not already done so, please send a letter. We would appreciate a copy of your letter for our records.

EDITOR'S CORNER

In the Discovery Park Master Plan, the planner Dan Urban Kiley lists some famous city parks of the world: "New York plus Central Park, Brooklyn plus Prospect Park, London plus Hyde Park, Paris plus Bois de Boulogne." Kiley believed that if the plan were followed faithfully we, "cannot fail to create on this site a park, which will be one of the great urban parks of the world -and a joy to this city forever."

The cities he listed are all hundreds of years old. The parks are forever identified with these cities and these cities are forever identified with these parks. Seattle is only one and a half centuries old. But if this city should last for another 300 years or more, how we handle this open space land will have much to do with the greatness of our city and respect of our stewardship by the generations yet to come.

It may be one of the most important thing we do to express our citizen's love of nature, wildness, solitude, and the exceptional beauty of the park and our city. Our bridges, buildings, home, stadiums and highways will have crumbled or been replaced in 300 years or less. But the natural beauty, quiet and tranquillity of this open space would remain. To nature, 300 years is just a blink of the eye.

All proposals including those we face today must be tested against time. We should always ask ourselves could this proposal best be sited elsewhere? Each proposal for "just a piece" of the park should be carefully assessed in the time frame of decades or centuries, not by the impulse of the moment.

Discovery Park is a people's park created by people's effort and defended by them.

   Robert Kildall

JUST BETWEEN OUR SHELVES

(Lynda: use the logo for this column)

MINI Rough Guide: Seattle by Richie Unterberger $9.95 and Rough Guide: Pacific Northwest by Tim Jepson and Phil Lee. $19.95

Excellent gifts for friends visiting Seattle as both guides give an enthusiastic treatment of Discovery Park. They call the park Seattle's hidden jewel and a true slice of wilderness. The Pacific Northwest Guide calls Discovery Park, "one of the best expanses of urban greenery in the U.S."

Richie Untermann includes a summary of the history of the park including a historical piece on the death of an Italian prisoner-of-war at old Fort Lawton.

ARMY RESERVE FUNDING FOR NEW CENTER

With the assistance of Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Slade Gorton, funds for the new Army Reserve building have been included in the defense appropriation bill.

Sen. Murray added monies to the defense bill. Sen. Gorton has followed and supported this effort for years.

We applaud the openness the Reserves have shown to the Friends in this project particularly by Mark Starr.

A natural entrance to the park is being planned. The use of helicopters will be reduced. Access by the critters in the Kiwanis Ravine will be supported and plans are to work with the city to open Texas Avenue for as a perimeter road for traffic.

POTPOURRI

• Seattle Magazine's (September 1998) article "What we love about Seattle" by J. Kinston Pierce includes two citizens praising the beauty and natural wildlife of Discovery Park.

  Martha Choe, Seattle City Council says, "It is like being out in the wilderness, and yet you're smack-dab in the middle of the city. I go there every other week, either running or walking or doing something else. The last time I was there I saw a raccoon going after a duck. I've seen a mountain beaver and a bald eagle. The running course through Discovery Park is beautiful. And it's so peaceful, despite being in the city. I just try to look the other way when dogs are running off their leashes."

  Joel Connelly, veteran correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has this to say, "I love the fact that the view out over Puget Sound from the south bluff if Discovery Park is never the same, no matter how many times I see it. The clouds and light patterns combine to make it different every time."

• Victor Koyano, our mushroom expert, writes of a new find. "It seems the outer edge (of the proposed People's Lodge site) may actually destroy a tiny spot where the rare Limacella Illinita mushroom grows." According to Dr. Joseph Ammarati, University of Washington, I brought the only specimens he's ever seen in our area. He had difficulty identifying it because he never saw the species before. . I scoured our park's north and south forests and it only occurs at that one tiny area."

• Dr. Dale Turner, (Seattle Time's columnist) offers this advice: "It is better to discuss an issue without settling it than to settle an issue without discussion."

• Henry David Thoreau in Walden (1841) gave this advice on the value of solitude and nature: "I want to go soon and live by the pond, where I shall hear only the wind whispering among the reeds. It will be a success if I shall have left myself behind. But my friends ask what I will do when I get there. Will it not be employment enough to watch the progress of the seasons?"

• Columnist Steve Kelly (Times 9-13-98) relates a story where high ranked golfer Patty Sheehan says to the young sensation of the women's tour, Se Ri Pak, "have you seen the mountain today?" Pak responded, "What mountain?" "What mountain? How about that 14,000-foot mural that stands to the east of the ninth fairway. Wait until we get up on eight and nine," Sheehan said. "I'll show you the mountain."

As Sheehan and Pak walked down the hill on the ninth fairway, Sheehan put an arm around Pak and pointed to the east. "There were three trees in our way, but we kept walking and kept walking and finally the mountain came into view." Said Sheehan. Se Ri went, "Oooh, it looks like a picture."

Sheehan said, "It really kind of took her breath away and I was kidding her, because I said that sometimes it's nice to look above the green and see some beauty. You have to take time to do that every once in awhile."

Discovery Park can't challenge the splendor of Mount Rainier but it can share impressive natural beauty with us on those rainy and cloudy days when the Mountain is out of sight.

WHAT VISITORS ARE SAYING

Editor's Note: We want our elected officials to realize how important the beauty, quiet and solitude of Discovery Park is in preserving sanity and renewal for citizens in a modern city like Seattle.

The park was created by citizens' efforts, not by politicians. Before allowing an over-sized Peoples' Lodge to be built or a sewage treatment plant to expand again, it would be well for these leaders to appreciate the precious open space and natural values of this park. Too many parks were ruined because governments chose not to defend the people's property they held in trust.

Here are comments from Seattle citizens and visitors from all over the World. Nature and natural parks can be understood and treasured by everyone.

"I visit Discovery Park on every visit to Seattle and marvel at its beauty, naturalness and the experience with nature that it offers."-New York City
"Very beautiful. Full of life. I can't wait to come back."-Seattle WA
"What a view."-Munchenstein, Switzerland
"I love it."-Taiwan, ROC
"Glad to see it go back to Nature."-Indian Head Park, IL
"The beach, lighthouse, awesome."-Brooklyn, NY
"Seal pup on the beach. Awesome."-Pittsfield, MA
"Like a rainforest! It rules."-Ann Arbor, MI
"The wildflowers are breathtaking."-San Francisco
"We saw an osprey over the South beach yesterday."-Seattle
"Splendid and lovely park."-Lindfield, Australia
"The way it should be!"-Fort Lee, NJ
"Absolutely great. My daughter loved it."-Beverly Hills CA
"A great escape for the kids."--Seattle
"Enjoy a totally different environment."-Tucson AZ
"I loved the lighthouse."-West Seattle
"It's gorgeous here!"-Seabrook, MD
"I photoed a baby seal."--Seattle
"A treasureland!"-Camano Island, WA
"Endless walking!! Great nature."-Chicago IL
"Went on bird watching tour this morning and loved it?"-Seattle
"Nice to see tax $'s doing some good"--Seattle
"Loop trail not well marked."-Las Vegas, NV
"Suggest dog walkers carry poop-scoops and plastic bags." -Haw River NC
"Still one of the best places to run."--Colorado
"Great park. Great visitor's center. Please John Olmsted's name is spelled wrong."-Seattle
"Difficult to stay on the loop trail. Nice!"-Boulder, CO
"Wonderful, friendly. Thanks." Iran
"Beautiful place."-Johnson City, TN
"Very interesting."-London, UK
"Nice artwork by children."--Seattle
"Great walking. Beautiful,"-Salem, OR
"Nice walk in the park."--Chicago
"We enjoyed the nature park."-New York NY
"Hard to find."-Bristol England
Hard to find."-Hartland WI
"Great preserve."-Ocean City, NJ
"Great city, great park."-New York City
"Beautiful building"-Little Rock AR
"Nice but nothing to drink."-Mexico
"Great."-Zeewolde, The Netherlands
"Delightful."-London, England
"Great park."-Boston MA
"Beautiful."--Scotland
"It's beautiful."-Colorado
"Pretty."-Coon Rapids, MN
"Lovely beach."-Seattle
"Great place!"-Fresno, CA
"Great."-Portland, MA

"Landscapes move us in a manner more nearly analogous to action of music than to anything
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)