Getting in touch with nature here a cinch

Several local organizations host activities, volunteer opportunities

Like bird watching and getting in touch with nature? The Tahoma Audubon Society has you covered. /FLICKR.com

Tahoma Audubon Society

The mission of the Tahoma Audubon is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity, while also working to affect public policy at the city, county and state level to achieve its conservation goals.

The society boasts a membership of 1,900 in Pierce County, and in 1999, relocated to University Place upon receiving the 2.5-acre Adriana Hess Wetland Park and an adjacent building. Volunteers run the office six days a week from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The organization publishes a monthly newsletter, runs education programs, hosts field trips and monthly membership forums and mobilizes and organizes volunteers.

The organization also strives to involve children, families, and seniors in the discovery and protection of native habitat throughout Pierce County. It develops and offers year-round, family-based, nature education programming at the Tacoma Nature Center, the Adriana Hess Audubon Center and at the Morse Wildlife Preserve in Graham.

Tacoma Nature Center

The Tacoma Nature Center (1919 S Tyler St.,Tacoma, 253-591-6439) features a 70-acre wetland habitat in the heart of the city. The preserve includes 66 parkland acres, five maintained acres, nearly two miles of soft surface trails and a 1.5-mile outdoor access route for wheelchairs.

Visitors have the chance to see Canada geese, wood ducks, red foxes, raccoons, great blue heron or other wildlife.

The visitor center offers a self-guiding booklet to help educate visitors about the natural and human history of the area while walking the paths. Visitors can also discover animals close-up in the center's exhibit area.

The center is also in the midst of opening up Discovery Pond, a natural play area for children designed to inspire creative play and environmental learning.

The pond will have unconventional play features including a tree house, boulder scramble, a slide inside a hollow log, snag climb, a pond with waterfalls and a log crossing, walking trails and rain gardens.

Set to open Sept. 10, the play area will provide a natural environment where young children can be immersed in nature exploration that supplements the programming of the adjacent Nature Center.

The Tacoma Nature Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Stream Team

A program within the Pierce County Conservation District, Steam Team began as a one-year grant funded project in 1994 that's grown into a countywide, multi-activity program that has worked with thousands of volunteers to improve local water quality and stream habitat. Through hands-on activities and educational efforts, Stream Team helps individuals achieve a sense of stewardship for our local streams, forests and wildlife. Volunteers and public participation are the backbone of the Stream Team organization, and people of all ages can get involved in a variety of ways, from water quality monitoring to planting native vegetation along streams.

For more information, visit www.piercecountycd.org/team.html.

Comments for "Getting in touch with nature here a cinch" (1)

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Douglas Tooley said on Aug. 27, 2010 at 1:20pm

Snake Lake, rightly, is dog free - but there is an alternative, very close by - China Lake. The Park is signed, but otherwise undeveloped save for a network of user trails along the pond shores and forested drumlin. It isn't an official dog park but local neighbors have made it de facto so, a status that deserves to be formalized.

Puget Creek is a worthwhile detour from a Ruston Way walk. If you are lucky you will sight the rare truly cantankerous environmentalist Scott Hansen.

Swan Creek, along the Eastern border of Tacoma, has been a project of the Veteran's Conservation Corps, as well as the Pierce County Stream Team.

Chamber's Creek, the **creek**, not the golf course, is worth a check out upstream from the popular swim spot at the mouth or downstream from the much quieter Koyabashi park of University Place.

Tragically undeveloped is the Mashel Falls area near Eatonville, likewise the Mashel Gorge up the tracks a mile or two on the main fork.

Fort Lewis itself has some pristine areas, most commonly the training range maintained South Puget Sound Prairie, but also marshes, and, uniquely, the only Ponderosa grove west of the Cascades.

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