Park Projects

Washington State Parks is working on many projects for Moran State Parks. Many of them need volunteers to help. Here are some of the current projects:

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.)

KVOS Tower

The KVOS Tower was removed by a private contractor Rolf Ericksen. Rolf also happens to be our Board Historian and a life time member of Friends of Moran. Rolf will lead the annual Stone Tower maintenance this summer. We will need painters, cleaners, and finishers and cheer leaders as well as some to direct foot and/or vehicle traffic. We plan to try and 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.

Interpretive Center at the Summit

KVOS will have moved out of the building on the summit by the end of June 2009. A class of architect students from Evergreen State College has been working up some possible plans for the new interpretive center. Ranger Doss and Parks Interpretive Specialist, Linda Sheridan, are overseeing that aspect of the project.

The center was originally slated for completion by 2013 as the final Centennial Project at Moran; however, with the current budget situation, it’s more important now than ever that Friends can focus on fundraising efforts to help the park create a much needed interpretive center. One prospective funding mechanism is the involvement of Friends in the Scenic Byways organization. We hope to secure some funding for the interpretive center through coordinated grant efforts. Through Scenic Byways we are also attempting to secure funding for new guardrails along the road up to the Summit. Read more. . . .

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.