LYNNWOOD—For the last 40-years Lynnwood’s Scriber Lake Boardwalk Trail floated through peatlands, providing access to nature for generations but over time its infrastructure began to deteriorate and fail. At that time the City of Lynnwood was presented with a difficult decision: Either close the trail permanently or completely replace it.
Choosing the latter, the City’s Parks and Recreation Department embarked on an ambitious plan that many stakeholders didn’t believe was possible. To receive crucial Washington Recreation and Conservation (RCO) funding, for example, the team needed to bring the project to 60% completion in just six months. It was a plan so ambitious that at the time Henry Smith, with the RCO, denied the grant request.
“When this project applied, we were dealing with COVID, we were dealing with escalated costs, and changing regulatory environments,” said Smith. “[But] ultimately the project is done and of all the projects that applied in 2022 this is the only project that can say its complete.”
The RCO did eventually fund the project in the amount of $2,500,000 – a large portion of the project’s $5.5 million price tag – but not without the “mad dash,” as Monica Thomspon, Planning Superintendent put it, to get it to that completion mark.
“They [the team] all brought their A-game,” said Monica Thompson, Planning Superintendent. “This really was the best team we could have had on this project.”
That decision proved fruitful Wednesday, June 4, when the City of Lynnwood cut the ribbon on the trail’s completion, which adds a new 8-foot-wide elevated boardwalk with steel pin-piles and fiberglass mesh decking, providing year-round, ADA compliant, access to a beautiful greenspace less than a mile away from Lynnwood’s City Center.
Other funding included a City Council-approved, $2 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds, $30,000 from Snohomish County Partnership Projects, $2,500 from Lynnwood Parks Foundation, and over $1 million in local funds. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) were pivotal in securing the federal funding.
“Lynnwood is home to some of the region’s most beautiful public parks and Scriber Lake is an amazing gem right in the middle of our bustling city,” said Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell. “The trail can envelope you and if you stand silent, for just a brief moment or two, maybe you’ll feel like you’re on a trail in the Cascades.”
The trail also adds two open water viewpoints as well as several “bump outs” (seating areas), in addition to interpretative signage, restrooms, a water fountain, and wetland enhancements which will increase the lake’s stormwater storage capacity.
Scriber Lake Park’s original wood-chip trail was built on fill material–including pressure treated timbers, classic Geotech style fabric, and woodchips, said Joel Faber, Lynnwood Parks and Rec Director, Wednesday.
“Our mission is to create a healthy community through people, parks, programs, and partnerships and really it all starts with the people,” said Faber. “It just makes me so excited to come to work each and every day to work with an amazing staff and then be able to share their amazing work with the entire community.”
Lynnwood City Council President, and parks enthusiast, Nick Coelho spoke Wednesday sharing his memories of walking Scriber Lake Park with his former dogs, enjoying a cup of coffee on a bench, and volunteering to plant trees.
“Memories like these are priceless and I will carry these for the rest of my life. I know this is true for countless other neighbors and I know this will continue to be true going into the future for the countless new residents who will be joining us in the decades to come,” said Coelho.
Also in attendance were Lynnwood City Council members Derica Escamilla, George Hurst, David Parshall, Joshua Binda, Robert Leutwyler, Lynnwood Police Chief Cole Langdon, and former Lynnwood City staff Sarah Olsen and Lynn Sordel.
The project improves connections to a floating dock, updates the parking and the route from the parking lot to the boardwalk and adds three new benches.
With 24 acres of wetlands, a lake, streams, trails, forest and hillsides, Scriber Lake Park is home to a variety of waterfowl, osprey, largemouth bass, perch, river otter and a resident beaver.
Scriber Lake Park has nearly 25 acres of wetlands, lake, ponds, streams, trails, forest and hillsides, providing a haven for wildlife, and a respite from the urban environment for visitors.
The Boardwalk Trail project adds approximately 1,100 linear feet of elevated boardwalk trail and two viewpoints over water. This is key to providing year-round recreation while removing all 40 identified ADA barriers to the City’s only lake.
The project could also not have been possible without Herrera Environmental Consulting, the City said Wednesday.
In 2020, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act that authorized $900 million annually for permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation fund which supports projects like Lynnwood’s Scriber Lake Boardwalk Trail by protecting the environment and improving access to parks.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
