Blue Heron sign to be highlighted with kiosk

MOSES LAKE — A sign at Blue Heron Park will become a little more visible soon.

The Moses Lake Trails Planning Team has purchased lumber for a kiosk to go over a sign showing the native plants on the Joseph K. Gavinski Trail that runs between Blue Heron Park and the Cove West neighborhood, team member Louis Logan wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. Erik Nielson’s wood shop class at Vanguard Academy will build the kiosk, he added.

The Trails Planning Team installed the sign itself, Logan said.

“We're always looking for ways to try and encourage people to use our activity trails,” Logan said. “And I happen to be very interested in native plants. So I just happened to be on that trail … years back, and I thought, ‘I bet you a lot of people don't know that some of these plants are native.’ And so the committee said, ‘OK, we'll give you some money so we can have a sign about it.’ And then we realized that people weren't noticing the sign.”

The sign is mounted on a plain metal post where the trail meets the boat launch at Blue Heron Park. The four-sided kiosk will have a large sign at the top that says “Native plants info,” according to a hand-drawn design Logan submitted to the Columbia Basin Herald.

The stretch at Blue Heron Park is just a part of the Joseph K. Gavinski Trail through Moses Lake, which starts in Cascade Valley, crosses the lake at the Alder Street Fill, follows the lake shore along the west side of the peninsula and crosses the lake again alongside Interstate 90 before winding through Blue Hero Park and on to Cove West. 

The sign has photos and descriptions of six native plants: desert primrose, snow buckwheat, rabbit brush, western yarrow, Indian ricegrass and Woods’ rose, as well as information about the great blue herons for which the park is named.

The Trails Planning Team is looking ahead to tying together some of the different activity trails in Moses Lake, Logan said, and improving visibility and safety on the trails.

“We have various trails here, there and the next place,” Logan said. “Some of them don't connect well, so we're working on trying to get them so they connect to each other. We just got a grant for some more signage for some of our trails, because sometimes people aren't even aware that they’re there.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    The sign shows the different native plants to be seen on the stretch of the Joseph K. Gavinski Trail through Blue Heron Park in Moses Lake, and, of course, the eponymous great blue heron.