Maintaining the park and water is a priority

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The Green Lake Park Alliance is another recent, non-profit effort to increase stewardship of the park and bolster citizen input. Martin Muller, secretary/treasurer of the alliance, said the group's activities have included planting 52 trees in November to replace the park's dying trees, some planted in the 1930s. The group hopes to raise money to hire experts for the development of a Green Lake Park master plan -- something that does not currently exist.

Muller, who emigrated from Holland and has lived in Green Lake since 1983, is in some ways a typical Green Lake resident. He makes the most of the lake path and Green Lake Community Center -- the park's recreational headquarters -- by swimming, running, Rollerblading, bicycling and bird-watching. He has identified 160 species of birds at Green Lake, and calls it "an old lake, a living, breathing ecosystem" that is also nature's "classroom."

Like many, Muller identifies the lake's water quality as a No. 1 issue among residents -- one that has not been resolved despite Parks Department treatments with alum (aluminum sulfate) designed to kill off algae.

Although many residents cite improvements from the alum, nothing so far has created permanent lake clarity or given residents a lasting reprieve from the sulfurous smell of decaying algae washed up on shore.

David Takami, spokesman for Seattle Parks Department, said alum will not be used in the foreseeable future; it is not in the city's budget. But he said other city actions since 1992, such as storm drainage improvements to keep pollutants from the lake, and an ongoing effort to remove milfoil, have enhanced water quality.

The Path. That is another item that can rankle or delight locals. When the first of three construction phases began last September on the 2.8-mile path, a fence went up that separated the lake's north end from merchants and park users. Business was hurt but "survivable," said merchants who were grateful when the fence came down Dec. 20 and the north section of the path reopened.

Continued:

• Residents, business coexist in this recreational mecca
• It appeals to everyone -- and that has its price
• Lake is the community's center, but not its heart
• Merchants contribute to neighborhood's health