As Metro Parks Tacoma works toward crafting its first ever Climate Action Plan, engaging local youth has been a key part of the process. Partnering with Lincoln High School, Foss High School, and Science and Math Institute (SAMi), Metro Parks staff visited these three schools to discuss the plan with students and to complement related topics the students are currently studying.

 

“That connection was great in that the result of this document as we get it funded into a future capital program, these kids are going to be in their 30s,” said Metro Parks Asset Management and Sustainability Manager Erich Sachs. “The decisions we make today will impact them when they are perhaps settling down and having families.” 

 

Each of these schools hosted Sachs who talked to the students about the plan and how climate concerns affect Tacoma specifically. The other goal was to hear from the students themselves regarding climate issues and their use of Tacoma parks, asking the questions, “Where do you go? What parks are you using? What activities do you like to do there?” Students were engaged last school year and new classes of students were engaged this year as well.

 

The students’ responses to these three questions provided significant information to help guide the Metro Parks CAP and to learn how youth are utilizing local parks as a way to decipher their needs and wants to make the parks more inviting and useful for them. Conversations also helped to bring the topic of climate change home for the students to think about how they can get involved in making their parks and city more sustainable and climate friendly.

 

The Climate Action Plan follows Metro Parks’ Environmental Sustainability Plan which aims to further limit the park district’s environmental impact and enhance the livability of Tacoma. Workshops were held to bring the public in on developing the Climate Action Plan and public comment is still being gathered at engagepiercecounty.com. The site also explains the plan in more detail and provides an executive summary of it. 

 

“We had a sustainability plan for the district in 2015 then the Zoo had one in 2014 so this is an update to that general work from the sustainability plan,” Sachs explained. “The Climate Action Plan takes it to that next level and broadens it a bit more to look at climate impacts for the local region too.”

 

At Lincoln High School, Natalie Reszka teaches advanced placement biology and advanced placement environmental science and is the school’s Climate Change Club Advisor. In her environmental science class, students complete five projects throughout the year using all their learning to answer a bigger question such as, “What is your school’s ecological footprint?” or “How can we create and maintain sustainable healthy ecosystems while humans expand and develop the land around them?” among others. 

 

Reszka said that last year when Metro Parks came to discuss their Climate Action Plan, students in advanced placement environmental science were familiar with action plans because they were involved in creating their own such plan for Lincoln High School in the form of proposals for a more sustainable school. Students this year are taking it forward.

 

“Getting to hear from Metro Parks about the Climate Action Plan will help them in developing their own plans in a few weeks for our school,” Reszka said. “We also have looked into, and continue to review, pages of the City of Tacoma Climate Action Plan as a ‘living’ textbook of sorts for the class to connect our learning to that as well. Metro Parks having a CAP was interesting to students because they didn’t realize places could have them other than the city, and it brought up the questions of, ‘Why doesn’t Tacoma Public Schools have a CAP yet? Who writes it? Will students have a say like we did for Metro Parks?’” 

 






Lincoln High School teacher Natalie Reszka is helping her students create a climate plan for their school. (Photo: Metro Parks Tacoma)



A most interesting aspect of partnering with Metro Parks has been giving Lincoln students the opportunity to talk about the parks they most often frequent – Wapato Park, Gas Station Park, Blueberry Park, Lincoln Park, Titlow, and McKinley.

 

“Students mostly are interested in better restroom maintenance and the possibility of solar power lights or green roofs on the restrooms,” Reszka said. “Plus, students liked the idea of playground equipment being something that could create energy, like swings being generators. Students also talked a lot about being able to safely walk and bike to the parks.”

 

Reszka will continue conversations with her students around the Metro Parks CAP and she plans to have Metro Parks staff return as panelists to whom students can present their end of unit proposals to for a Lincoln CAP. 

 

Molly Hogan Edison is the liaison between Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and SAMi. As part of this role, she teaches a Zoo Conservation class which is relevant to Metro Parks’ CAP. 

“Last year, Erich and the other folks from Metro Parks came and ran two different sessions at SAMi, one during lunch open to all students and one in my Zoo Conservation class,” she said. “This year Erich reached out again to continue the collaboration.”

 

The timing was perfect, as Edison’s students were embarking on a unit in their Zoo Conservation class about global conservation issues and local action.

 

“This was such a perfect tie-in,” she said. “Erich and other folks from Metro Parks came out and told my students about the Climate Action Plan and the process of developing it. That was the launching event for our unit on global conservation issues and local action.” 

 

That SAMi doesn’t have one specific feeder school or geographical boundary provided the opportunity to hear from students across the city.

 

“It was really interesting hearing from the students about what places they go to in Tacoma and what Metro Parks facilities they use and how they use them,” Edison said.

 

“This year we heard ideas from the students more related to what they’re studying and what they’re really interested in. Students were asking questions about how Metro Parks Tacoma is addressing some of those issues they have in mind – climate change, pollution, overpopulation… Issues that these students are learning about in their classes and other classes about the real-world connection with Metro Parks and what’s being done in their community.” 

 

The Metro Parks Tacoma Climate Action Plan will go to its board for adoption on the same schedule as Metro Parks’ 2025/2026 biennial budget, on Nov. 25, with the final vote coming on Dec. 9.