On Saturday May 12th Middle Green River Coalition (MGRC) and King County organized a volunteer event at Cedar Creek Park.

Cedar Creek Park is located between Covington to the west, Maple Valley to the east, and the Pipe Lake neighborhood to the south.

Not only did we luck out on beautiful weather on Saturday May 12th but we had 40 hardworking volunteers show up to get a major portion of the trail work on the main trail finished.  Duane Evans, King County Park Maintenance Coordinator, said that basically we finished taking care of the major drainage issues and the removal of the large debris off the trail.

Volunteers also rerouted areas of trail that were in low spots with poor drainage to higher ground.

This work has made the main trail at Cedar Creek Park a great place to take a walk.  In fact we ran into two groups of young kids taking a walk on the trail.

Sixteen students from Institute for Community Leadership came out.  Many who live near the park.  Fifteen hard workers from Washington Trails Association’s youth program participated.

Courtney Feeney, The park’s King County ambassador, and Lisa Parsons, executive director of MGRC, were very pleased with the turnout and support for this relatively unknown park.  All the new visitors were surprised that this kind of forest exists so close to the urban area.

The Smith family, who lives on the west end of the park, hikes in the park frequently and were enthusiastic about giving back to the trails and participating in making the park into a draw for the greater community.

The next step is to develop a stewardship committee to work with King County on developing a stewardship plan for the park and provide input into how the park is developed for future use.

If you are interested in participating in the committee please contact Lisa Parsons at: mgrc@mgrc.org

MGRC would like to thank the Cedar Downs and Timberlane Homeowners Associations for their support along with King County Parks, Recreational Equipment Inc, Washington Trails Association, and the Institute for Community Leadership.

For photos from both events visit: http://photobucket.com/ccp2012

Stay tuned for more trail work volunteer events and tours of the park.  For more information about the park visitt: www.mgrc.org

Lisa Parsons,

Enumclaw