Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › RANT: Camp Long TREE benches
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September 21, 2008 at 12:04 am #588122
grrParticipantok..I know..it’s woodsy and all that, but while at Camp Long the other day, I noticed a LOT of newly made ‘benches’, which are basically just a tree cut down and sawed in half to make somewhere to sit. (around the campfires, in front of the cabins, etc..
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I counted rings on one of them…153… :(((( Would it not be a better example for young kids to have benches made of recycled plastics or something??? SURELY someone has a product that would still ‘look’ like a tree and serve the purpose of the communal bench…without it being such an inefficient use of wood???
September 21, 2008 at 3:34 am #640350
hopeyParticipantUh wow. I take it you didn’t read about the hard-working volunteers who cleaned up Camp Long. https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=10648
Maybe the folks putting in the hard work to clean up Camp Long got permission to cut down some half-dead or already fallen trees to make those benches. Maybe someone else (the owner of the pickup in the picture?) donated fallen logs for the benches.
Recycled plastic benches COST MONEY. Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and pay for the benches you think should be there? Are you even willing to show up and break a sweat at the next cleanup event, rain or shine?
It’s pretty rude to sit on the sidelines and criticize what others have gone through a lot of effort and planning to accomplish.
September 21, 2008 at 8:48 am #640351
JanSParticipanta thought…maybe the trees were already down, say, in a storm? Or they may have been dying, and needed to come down for safety? Maybe a quick question sent off to the Parks dept. would clear it up…just an idea..
September 21, 2008 at 7:13 pm #640352
KenParticipantI remember the city claiming a lot of trees from the windstorm of 06 when I was out snagging free firewood in the weeks after. An arborist I talked to said some of the big ones were to be recycled at parks and city property.
The huge fir that came down at the High Point library was one I asked about and would have made dozens of benches.
Highpoint has several arches, gateways and arty stuff that seem to be made from trees removed during phase one construction.
Also note, Camp long has enough trees to lose several per year to natural processes and the high power line that runs down the ridge both east and west needed a lot of trees trimmed and removed in last falls power line cleanup project.
September 21, 2008 at 8:15 pm #640353
grrParticipantno need to be an ass, hopey. I didn’t see the previous article. If indeed the case is that these were fallen trees, then fine (tho..it still seems like a very ineffecient use of them). How many additional things could the wood be used for if they were milled into 2×4’s, etc., instead of one big slab?
I won’t dignify your snarky comments about money/volunteering. You have no idea what I do or don’t do, and who/what I contribute/donate my $$ to.
I do, however, appreciate those who do this type of clean up work and support them wholeheartedly.
September 22, 2008 at 3:22 am #640354
barkMemberIt was a great thread grr to start and I can see where your heart was in the initial comments.
Thank you for addressing the ass, snark, money and volunteering too.
September 22, 2008 at 4:42 am #640355
WSBKeymasterI have a note out to Camp Long to inquire as to the source of the bench logs. They had such a huge amount of blowdown in recent years’ storms (as did other WS parks such as Lincoln and Schmitz), I would be shocked if that doesn’t turn out to be the source. Will report back when I hear back … TR
September 22, 2008 at 5:33 am #640356
grrParticipantthanks TR. Indeed…blow down trees are a fine source, BUT, let’s remember..the forest DOES need these blowdowns as ‘nurse logs’ for future growth as well.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_log
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and..fwiw, I do love Camp Long. It’s a wonderful ‘secret’ WS treasure.
September 22, 2008 at 6:25 am #640357
hopeyParticipantYou know, call it ass or snark if you want, but I get really tired of people armchair quarterbacking other peoples’ perfectly valid decisions. If you wanted to be part of those decisions, you could have participated. You could have also not assumed that healthy, living trees were used to make the benches.
I also get tired of people claiming that plastics are somehow better than natural materials — and yes, that is my own personal bias, currently being borne out by all the reports of Bisphenol-A toxicity — and claiming <insert cause here> is “better for the children.”
Lastly, it is still true that purchased materials cost more than found or donated materials. I don’t think Camp Long needs to use their funds to purchase plastic benches when there is such an abundance of natural materials at their disposal.
I thought the initial post was rude and made a lot of assumptions. If that’s snark, well I guess I’m snarky then.
September 22, 2008 at 6:34 am #640358
BonnieParticipantPersonally I think the benches fit perfectly in Camp Long. Why would they want plastics?
September 22, 2008 at 5:46 pm #640359
grrParticipant_Perhaps_ some signage at Camp Long describing the recent projects, with explanations for the park users about how downed tress were recycled and reused, along with posted credit to the volunteers, etc., MIGHT have left me (and many others) to _NOT_ make some ‘assumptions’.
I went to the park. Saw a whole bunch of new benches. Saw that some were really old trees. Didn’t see anything else explaining anything about them. Obvious assumptions could easily be made.
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If you’re gonna be that proud of the the achievement, let the public know all the details, AND use that signage to educate park goers. Not everyone reads every line of a blog to see what’s going on.
September 22, 2008 at 5:53 pm #640360
GenHillOneParticipantOne upside I guess, grr…we can make a point of showing kids – or ourselves! – the benches and use them as a teaching tool about the rings and how they relate to the age of a tree. Kind of cool for lifelong city dwellers.
September 22, 2008 at 8:31 pm #640361
acemotelParticipantThere are staff ppl on hand at Camp Long who would be VERY HAPPY to talk about anything and everything. It might be a good idea to direct these type of questions to them.
September 22, 2008 at 11:32 pm #640362
barkMemberIt was an excellent question to post to the blog really. On first blush it would be shocking to see trees that are now benches. Signage and communication to the public should be a big part of public spaces such as these.
September 23, 2008 at 3:01 am #640363
slysideMemberSeptember 23, 2008 at 6:55 am #640364
grrParticipantgood point. I’m more of a ‘pave the planet’ kinda person anyway. More road for more motorcycles and SUV’s. My neighbors good ol’ boy pickup gets significantly crappier milage than any SUV I know.
September 23, 2008 at 9:20 pm #640365
WSBKeymasterI got an answer from Sheila Brown at Camp Long. May summarize it on the home page too but the day’s wave of news is finally starting to roll in so in the meantime, here you go:
>>The logs came from Shelton and were donated by the NAIOP group. The logs come from a managed forest used to create cedar for building purposes and were approximately 40 years in age.
Parks mostly leaves snags or blow down logs on site for decomposition and habitat value. In addition, parks chips its own blow down wood and debris for on-site mulching. Camp Long uses some blow down trees and logs for fire wood as well, especially when they fall on lawns and trails.
Hope that answers the question you posed.<<
NAIOP is the group that had the humongous work party on Saturday, as per the link earlier in this thread to our home-page report about it.
-TR
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