Park Projects

There are many projects on the agenda for Moran State Park.  Some projects are maintenance some are improvements, but all need volunteer help. Here are some of the current projects call us or email us for details, project time lines and how you can get involved:

Hatchery

The newly designed window at the Fish Hatchery building gives visitors a glimpse of the Kokanee fry. They are still a little wary of human faces so they may dart for a shady corner in the tank when you first look in, but give them a minute to venture back. See if you can find any albino Kokanee. We had 5 albino Kokanee last year. (Albino Kokanee are a beautiful opalescent pearl color.)

Historic Stone Tower

Rolf Eriksen is our Board Historian and a life time member of Friends of Moran. Rolf leads the annual Stone Tower maintenance which is typically conducted near the end of summer.  We always need painters, cleaners, and finishers. We plan to repair the mortar and stem a failure in the parapet wall as well as refinish the summit house, the window jams, etc. and a few other items that need a little TLC. If you have any of the above listed talents and time, please contact us if you’d like to put some volunteer time in on the historic tower.

This project is a costly but worthwhile project.  We are extremely grateful for the OICF grant money received in 2009.  It went along way along with other significant contributions to making sure the stone Tower survives all that mother nature blows over the 2,409 foot summit.  Annual funding for this project is always a top priority. Help us prepare for 2010 by marking your donation for the stone tower. Your donation is tax deductible and greatly appreciated.

Interpretive Center at the Summit

With the change from analog to digital broadcasting, KVOS no longer required the use of the building located  at the Summit.  The Jones family and KVOS  leave behind quite a legacy which Friends hopes to  honor in the interpretive center along with information relative to the natural and human history at the summit. 

With volunteer help and park staff we have fixed minor repairs and have recently had the building insulated.  Now comes the building ambiance and interpetive display component.  We hope to open the building as an intepretive center this summer. 

It’s more important now than ever that Friends can draw in funds and awareness to help the park create a much needed interpretive center. One prospective funding mechanism is the involvement of Friends in the Scenic Byways organization; however those funds may be far off in the future. 

Roofing and painting the ELC buildings

It is important to maintain our park and our volunteers add a lot of assistance. Building maintenance is just as important. The park staff will be working on new roofs and painting projects in the Environmental Learning Center.

Bat Housing

Have you noticed something that looks like a water tower going up behind the park manager’s office?  Orcas high school science teacher Greg Books is building a “Missouri style” bat house for the rare Long-eared Myotis bats living in the attic of the CCC-era office cabin, and can use a few extra, reasonably skilled hands to pound nails and do painting and finishing.  The new bat house is specially designed for a maternity colony — a group of females that pup and nurse as a group together each year in the same place.  Most places that people see bats are just day roosts for one or more bats.  Hundreds or thousands of bats may depend on a single maternity colony, however, which is why it is so important to protect them.  And once the new bat house at the park is completed, Russel Barsh of the Lopez-based conservation laboratory KWIAHT is going to install an infrared video camera for research and public viewing! Come spend a saturday helping paint, hammer or clean up.