Sustainable Saturday will be like an eco-daycation at two University Place sites.

From 9 to 1 p.m. this Saturday (July 18) volunteers will build a compost bin, install rain barrels and get the lowdown on how to identify and assassinate invasive plant species.

Participants can choose their site to match the skills they want to learn.

At Adriana Hess Wetlands Park, 2917 Morrison Rd. W., they'll build a compost bin and install rain barrels. There will likely be time for a briefing on weeds.

At the 3200 block of 67th Ave., near the Fircrest Golf Course, they'll concentrate on rousting the invader weeds to make room for native plants.

Want to play? Dress for mess, and bring work gloves and water.

Audubon's Together Green Volunteer Days are part of a national program that's organized 200 projects in 30-plus cities. Toyota helps bankroll the national effort. UP's Sustainable Saturday is co-sponsored by Tahom Audubon Society and University Place's Volunteer Center.

Need info? Call Julie Kerrigan at (253)-223-0039 or log in to one of the sponsors' sites: TogetherGreen at www.togethergreen.org; Tahoma Audubon Society at www.TahomaAudubon.or, or University Place Volunteer Center at www.upvolunteers.org.
The event

This coming weekend is the second of three fee-free weekends for visitors to Mount Rainier National Park.

All park entrance fees, including commercial tour entrance fees, will be waived Saturday and Sunday.

The fee-free weekend applies to all national parks.

In addition to supporting affordable vacations for families, the free weekend is aimed at giving small shot in the arm to businesses in the area. Mount Rainier National Park tourism dollars contributed $50.7 million into the local economy last year, according to park officials.

This summer’s high number of park visitors combined with spectacular weekend weather has led to significant parking problems in the Paradise and Longmire areas, according to Mount Rainier National Park Acting Superintendent Randy King.

The result, he said, is frustration for drivers and safety hazards along the roadway as drivers attempt to park cars on narrow roads.
King said he strongly encourages visitors to use the free shuttle bus that operates between Longmire and Paradise on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Visitors can board the bus at the historic Longmire Gas Station and makes stops at Cougar Rock and Narada Falls on the uphill run, and at Comet Falls and Cougar Rock on the downhill run.

On Saturdays and Sunday only, visitors can board the bus in Ashford at Whittaker Mountaineering and connect with the Paradise Shuttle in Longmire.

Since parking at Paradise is very limited this summer due to
construction work on the lower parking area adjacent to the old Jackson
Visitor Center, an additional shuttle will transport visitors to and from the Paradise Valley Road, where there is overflow parking.

For shuttle schedules and other park information, check the park’s Web page at www.nps.gov/mora.

Tacoma public utilities director William Gaines told the city council Tuesday that he wants to sell three small chunks of property the utility no longer needs.

The three are:

– one-third acre at North 18th and Orchard,
– 0.2 acres at S. 35th and S. J Street,
– 0.15 acres at S. 45th and S. Warner.

The first lot is about two building lots. The others are single building lots. They are among nine that the utility had wanted to sell but stopped to gauge whether there was interest in the community to use them for public purposes.

TPU chief Gaines told the council there was no community interest in these three parcels.

City Councilwoman Lauren Walker said she had heard concerns from the Warner Street neighbors about the lack of green space in the area due to apartment and townhouse construction. Perhaps, she wondered, it could be used for a small park.

Gaines said the utility was open to discussion.