Many hands make a healthy lake

Gayle Garman put her back into it, giving her rake enough heft to lift a dripping wad of milfoil out of the water and heave it up on the banks.

A crew of eight volunteers turned out Sunday afternoon to grub leaves and milfoil, an invasive weed, out of the shoreline at Green Lake on the northeast shore, where they can be an unsightly mess.

Don Allen, maintenance crew chief at the lake for the Seattle Parks Department, provided tools, boots and encouragement for community residents willing to help care for a place they each had come to love in their way.

Green Lake is one of the most heavily used parks in the state. People flock to it from all over to get a bit of respite in the heart of the city. On Sunday afternoon the path around the lake was thronged with people on foot, bikers and in-line skaters, many of them with a dog or stroller along.

"This is a good place; it's got good vibes," said Garman, who ought to know. She met her husband walking here. When they decided to marry, Green Lake was the natural place for the ceremony.

Picking up the shoreline was his way of giving back to an old friend he has known since 1951, said Richard Fleming, Garman's husband.

"It's a statement that we are in this together," Fleming said of his neighbors. "If we want a nice recreational site, we all have to help take care of it. Many hands make light work."

Karen Schurr decided to get involved back in 2003, when she took her grandson to the Green Lake swimming beach, only to see it shut down soon after they arrived because of water-quality problems. A busload of kids from a local day-care center, lunches and swimsuits in hand, also were turned away.

"I thought, this is not right. I kept waiting for the young people to do something about it," she said. "Then I thought, well, I guess I better do something."

A water-resources employee at the U.S. Geological Survey, Schurr tried to discern the health of the lake, only to find out no one was monitoring it. So she got her own equipment, slung it off the dock by the community center and started keeping records.

Numbers in hand, Schurr helped gather some 2,000 signatures to persuade the city to treat the lake to improve water quality. Treatment with aluminum sulfate in 2004 clarified the water, which still sparkles today.

"The lake today is good, and it's still improving," Schurr said.

As founder of Friends of Green Lake, she knows the value of the lake to the community:

"I see people walking with their heads down, thinking through a big problem. All those people walking and skating and jogging, it provides mental and physical health."

The park is also an oasis for wildlife. With the turn of the season the wigeons were back, joining blue herons, mallards, coots, hooded mergansers and even a cormorant. The trees that ring the shore glowed in their autumn finery.

The work contributed by the volunteers will save two days of staff work, Allen estimated. Allen, who lives only a block or so away, said he and his neighbors take pride in their work caring for the park.

"It's not just a job," he said. "It's Green Lake."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com