Tanglewood Park Boardwalk

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

This is the first update since September 2010...12 years ago! Gasp! The Tanglewood Park Boardwalk continues to be well used and well loved by the Bowman community -- teachers and students and neighbors!

INTERPRETATIVE SIGNS! Yes, they were completed and installed in May 2017. Many, many thanks go to graphic artist & designer Edmar Carrillo for his excellent skills in creating the visual story of the history and habitats of this wetland and boardwalk construction in eight signs mounted along the path. None of this would have happened without Shannon Kuhn, who in her position with the Greatland Trust at that time, coordinated the contact with Edmar and later with volunteers who installed the signs, along with lots more!

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About Our Project

The Tanglewood Park Boardwalk is an all-volunteer project to build a 1,400-foot boardwalk in Tanglewood Park, a 41-acre wetlands park in south Anchorage, Ak.

Tanglewood Park, an Anchorage city park, is adjacent to Bowman Elementary School and the surrounding residential neighborhood. Great Land Trust holds the conservation easement in this park and has conducted several restortion projects to return damaged areas to wetlands characteristics. The idea for using this wetlands as an outdoor classroom originated through combined efforts of the Great Land Trust, community members and Bowman Elementary School teachers and parents.

The boardwalk provides a year-round walking path through various bog habitats for viewing plants and animals in the restored and natural areas of this park. Its use as an outdoor classroom is facilitated by construction of larger platforms along the route so teachers can gather groups of students for observations and discussion.

The boardwalk is funded through grants from the following entities:

Anchorage Park Foundation/Rasmuson Challenge Grant, $27,500 (matching funds)

Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant, $7,500
Lowe's Hero's Grant, Lowe's South Anchorage Store, $1,500
Alaska Conservation Foundation Watchable Wildlife Conservation Trust Grant, $4,000
Bowman PTA, $196

Business partners supporting this project with generous donations of materials, expertise and labor include:

Alaska Control Excavating, Peter Howlett, owner
McKinley Fence Company of Alaska
Tag-Along Trailers
Treeline Construction
Whalen Construction, Pat Whalen, owner

Construction started in fall 2008, after the grant monies were received and used to purchase building materials.

Dozens of volunteers — parents of Bowman students, their children, teachers, and interested community members — have put in hundreds of hours at various phases of construction since fall '08.

Terrence Smith organized work crews to build a section of the board walk as his Eagle Scout Project in summer 2010.

Final construction of the boardwalk was completed in October 2011.

Interpretative Signs
The last phase in this project is to place interpretative signs along the boardwalk. These signs should be in place by fall 2013.

Sign donors include:
• The Huffman/O'Malley Community Council, $100
• Board-walk-a-thon, fall 2011, by Bowman students, $1900
• Northwest Landscape, Inc., $100
• Silent auction during Bowman Math/Science night, January 2012, $2400.

The Anchorage Park's Department has provided sign frames and supports, which are being modified by parent Andy Meltzer to attach to the boardwalk.

All-weather interpretative signs should be in place by fall 2013.

You can follow progress on this boardwalk project in posts on this blog.

Tanglewood Park Boardwalk

Questions? More Information? Want to Volunteer?

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

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