Seattle Parks and Recreation will name Carkeek Park’s Environmental Learning Center after longtime volunteer Nancy Malmgren, who has spent the last four decades helping to restore the park and Piper’s Creek watershed.
The Nancy Malmgren Environmental Center will be dedicated at 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, at 950 NW Carkeek Park Rd.
Nancy Malmgren first visited Carkeek Park in northwest Seattle in 1945 at the age of 16, and she’s maintained a strong connection to the park ever since. Ms. Malmgren’s daughter attended Carkeek Park’s annual Girl Scout Day Camp for six years and Nancy led different scout groups on expeditions throughout the park. In 1965, she began making restoration improvements to the area.
Ms. Malmgren has spent the last 40-plus years restoring Carkeek Park and the Piper’s Creek watershed. After securing funding from the Clean Water Act in 1979, Nancy and her husband Les started the Carkeek Watershed Community Action Project in partnership with Ted Mohldendorph. The watershed group organized educational, habitat restoration and outreach activities in the area and the Malmgrens often spent full work weeks reinforcing stream channels and creating sustainable paths for salmon. By the late 1980s, the couple’s efforts were repaid when hundreds of chum salmon returned to the stream.
Ms. Malmgren has received an Environmental Excellence Award and Denny Award from Seattle Parks and Recreation along with recognition from the Washington State Department of Ecology and the Washington State Ecological Commission.
The event will be part of the larger Pioneer and Garden Celebration hosted by the Carkeek Watershed Community Action Project from 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Please RSVP to Cheryl Eastberg at [email protected] or 206-386-4381.
