President’s Message

please contact the office so they can give you the infor-mation.

Also many have noticed that the swing/play center at the ballpark has been removed. It was determined that it was becoming un safe and too expensive to keep repairing. We are currently looking into replacing the play center with items like at the Youth Center. We would like to get some input from members at the January workshop to help design the new area. This item will be run through the Activity work shop. Hope to see you there.

Wishing all of you a joyous holiday season!

Bill Ritchie, President

Hello Everyone,

I hope your holiday season is going well. To all that were able to make it to the annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the ACH, I hope you en-joyed all the great food and company.

I know some of you heard that a members guest was abusing the members lots by bring up unlicensed vehi-cles and utility trailers for storage. These items were removed from the park and the mess has been cleaned up, and the unwanted guest has left the area. Please know that at all times all park employees are always keeping the members safety and security in mind, we still

need the help from all mem-bers as well. We need you as members to inform any of the park employees or any BOD of anything you see or hear that just doesn’t seem right. Security does it’s best to check all the lots but they can’t see everything.

We are currently working on a official Facebook page so that when there is any type of notices, the BOD will be able to send it to the mem-bers so we all have the cor-rect information. GBNT also has a emergency notifica-tion that sends a notice to members via email and have had this for almost two years now, but there are no members signed up. If you are interested in getting this

Vice-President’s Message

The Membership Committee is looking for new mem-bers. Please contact Don Abeles 206-285-3344 or the main office.

"Did you know?" A recreation-al vehicle is sometimes re-ferred to as a "unit".

The CUP condition No. 25; states as follows:

"The temporary stay of any recreational vehicle shall not exceed 270 days per year, and a certification by the member to the Board of the Directors as to

compliance with the following provision must be available to Snohomish County upon re-quest:

A. No unit shall be inhab-ited for over 30 continuous days,"

GBNT is governed by the Con-ditional Use Permit, Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, Rules & Regulations, and Administra-tive Policies. While the board may not be able to cite an ex-act document and location on the spot, given a little time, the

information can be provided. I highly encourage all members to call or email their questions to the board using the contact information at the end of the newsletter.

Thank you for your input and ideas, there was a lot of infor-mation sharing at the Decem-ber Open Board meeting. It is encouraging to know that so many members want to be in-volved.

Connie Cathcart, Vice-President

Gold Bar Nature Trails

Newsletter

January ~ February Volume 1, Issue 1

Hello GBNT campers Let’s start off with a few things that happened in November. The Police informed us that they suspected a fugitive wanted for burglary and that he was in our campground. They checked a few campsites and found some stolen utility trailers. They asked me who was on that site, we checked the key cards and the video cameras and a suspect was identified as a guest and not a member. The Police are still look-ing for the suspect outside of the park. A few weeks later another incident where 10 sheds were broken into on Northstar and one RV was stolen. Later, an outside

vagrant who has been coming into the park was finally appre-hended by the sheriff’s depart-ment. Sheriffs Deputy’s believe the break-ins it to be someone who was a guest or visitor to GBNT to know their way around so easy and avoid being seen or reported by members. So please while in the park keep a lookout for everything around you and what the campsites around you look like. Please watch for who comes and goes around your area and please report anything out of the ordinary because you are also the eyes and ears of the park. The electrical upgrade is still moving along. We are on Logger

loop heading to Poplar. For those with new water standpipes in-stalled that are not turned on, we are going to wait until spring to turn them on. Keep your old standpipes insulated for the win-ter month’s Thank You. GBNT staff has been putting up Christmas lights and getting ready for Santa to visit. So, from all the staff here at GBNT Thank You for another great year and see you next year Happy Holidays.

Steven Thaete, Park Manager

Park Manager’s Message

Page 2 Newsletter

I

am a tree

standing tall in the park.

I practice branch dancing in the wind and

I watch over your playground and the Youth Center

pool while you work in school learning to read about me,

my pine family and evergreen cousins. You play with your friends

while I practice throwing pinecones at your camper. Usually I miss.

When You come back with your parents and grandparents, you will be taller

than you were last summer and smarter about our world and caring for our park.

Rain waters

my roots

as I wait

for you.

Welcome to the new members. We did not have

any new members in November or December.

So far we only have one for January.

Membership

Violations

19-60 - Speeding = Reduced to warning

19-61 - Abandoned Vehicle = Rescheduled

19-62 - Unsightly campsite = 30 days to clean

19-63 - Violation removed.

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 1

Welcome New Members!

October 2019

Hoerner, Corey 266

Barnes, Larry &

Edgar, Bridgett

803

Rule, Kathleen 284

Bakko, Larry 571

GBNT is rich with evergreen and na-tive plants.

Evergreen huckleberry easily roots and grows in green belts throughout the park.

It is an especially attractive and adapt-able native shrub. It provides beauti-ful color variations throughout the year, with deep wine-red new shoots contrasting with the rest of the dark, glossy green foliage and pale pink flowers in the spring, berries that change from red to dark purple in the summer, and lush green foliage throughout the fall and winter.

One of evergreen huckleberry’s most interesting characteristics is its dual nature under different light condi-tions. While it is most at home as an understory shrub, it can also tolerate sun.

No discussion of evergreen huckle-berry would be complete without mentioning its fruit. The berries, while very small, are full of flavor, with a fresh, tart sweetness that makes the trouble of harvesting them well worth it. (Thank you to my neighbor who cooked us huckleberry syrup last summer.)

We may occasionally find Ocean spray plant which is toughness incar-nate. Happy in sun or shade, wet or dry, ocean spray is one of the hardest

native plants to kill, try as you might. As an added bonus, it’s also a rela-tively fast-growing plant, especially in sunny spots, so buying a 1 gallon ocean spray can be a great solution for filling a hole in your greenbelt between ferns that brown out in the winter.

In late spring, cascades of large, white to cream-colored flower plumes cover the entire plant, attracting butterflies and other pollinators. These flower clusters will eventually turn brown and remain on the plant through the winter. The dense structure of ocean spray makes it extremely valuable wildlife habitat, providing shelter and food (in the form of insects) for insec-tivorous birds. (Almost as much fun to say as califragilisticexpialadotious.)

One of my favorite native shrubs is the Red-Osier Dogwood with its dis-tinctive red branches in winter. These native plants do not appear in GBNT without being integrated from pots.

This elegant shrub is a winter high-light, with stems that are often bright red, especially after a frost. When its lush green, oval leaves emerge in the spring, the color contrast with the red stems is breathtaking. A relative of flowering dogwood, red-osier dog-wood has open clusters of small white flowers. While it is comfortable in sun or shade, planting Red-Osier dog-

wood in a moist, sunny spot will give it the opportunity to thrive, quickly forming a large thicket that, with the help of its plentiful berries, creates a perfect bird habitat.

Red dogwood stems add unusual de-sign to any dried flower arrangement or potted evergreen collection. Cut a long stem. Immediately turn the tip down and circle it into a knot. It will dry in this position.

It’s hard to walk in a greenbelt with-out encountering Salal. The tough evergreen leaves are harvested and used in floral arrangements world-wide, and its large berries are edible. As an understory shrub, Salal prefers shade to part shade, and, once estab-lished, it will spread and become a great, low-maintenance ground cover for shady areas where other plants have trouble growing.

However, our ever-present Salal is not fire-resistant. With this threat in mind, controlling the spread of Salal under your green belt trees is a good idea.

Unlike Nature Parks that have allowed members to willfully cut trees and native plants to the dirt, GBNT has important policies that will keep our special place green.

Enjoy.

Pea Patch

Happy Winter GBNT! I want to start by saying Thank You to everyone that voted for me. It is an honor and a privilege to know so many of you have trust and faith in me to help make our club the best it can be! I have been given the task of see-ing to the Administration, Bylaws and Rules & Regulations. I am cur-rently getting up to speed on eve-rything and hope to have a good grip on things in the coming months. I know there are some things that need review and possibly change which I intend to look into very seriously. This is where I need your help. If there is something you

would like me to review please shoot me an email @ wendy.cox@gbntone.org. I would also like to possibly put together a committee to help me with this as well. I will know more about that in the near future. We have created a new Facebook page that will be “Read Only”. Sort of our way to get information out to the members but without things getting lost in all the discussions that Facebook always seems to bring. Please search Gold Bar Na-ture Trails Official Message Board and request to be added. This is strictly for Members ONLY. Please do not request us to add family

members or friends that do not have a membership of their own. There has been a lot of anger and concern on the Facebook Member only site lately and I would like to ask that you just please be patient and allow us to handle situations properly before we post anything. We are not trying to be secretive; we just have to follow certain pro-tocol before releasing information. This is another thing on my list of things I would like to make better in OUR park. Please feel free to come introduce yourself, I love making new friends!

Wendy Cox, Administration

nance rangers found other shed's and trailers open. The owner of shed's and trailers were notified and secured. Then later in the week a member re-ported their motorhome was stolen it was determined it was stolen early in the morning. Luckily it was found and impounded later in the day by Seattle police with a bunch of the stolen items inside. So needless to say, it's been a tough 2-3 weeks. Members want to know why everyone wasn't notified well with over 1,200 mem-bers that's hard to do. The members effected were notified. We have had a FLASH ALERT system setup now for 2 years, only one person signed up that being the park manager. My wife put the info on FB and got a great re-sponse. We will also have instruction sheets at the BOD meeting and hope-fully here in the newsletter. With all that said I would like to ask all mem-bers please when you are here get to know your neighbor if you see some-

Hello camper's

Here we are again it's time for anoth-er newsletter. As we approach anoth-er winter here is another reminder to insulate your stand pipe or shut it down. Also don't forget about your trailer a water leak in the spring is not fun. As winter approaches with it comes the dreaded white stuff SNOW. But this year the park is ready, we have purchased 2 new snow plows, so along with the equipment we have we should have a jump on the weath-er. The new security vehicle has been in use now for about a month and the security team loves it. Now to the bad news. Recently we have seen a rise in break-ins and local police have been in the park a lot. It started with a guest bringing stolen items in to the park to hide. These items were found and taken and removed by police. The guest was not found but the police continue to look for him. While look-ing for the guest, security and mainte-

one you don't know on their site call the office. We must all be more ob-servant when in doubt call. Winter is the time of year when the park is empty so keep your eyes open. Please don't engage these people their dan-gerous most will hurt you. Full timers if you leave the park to do errands when you return take another route to get home in the park don't forget if it looks wrong it probably is. Also, to the weekenders don't tell people your not here the thieves read FB all the time for information. Why give them a heads up. And please don't criticize the rangers they work hard and do the best they can we have 273 acres and 12.3 miles of road to patrol and they can't be everywhere. With that said I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you and your family and safe where ever you go.

Bob Rowe, Liaison

Administration

Facilities, Safety & Security

Page 4 Newsletter

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 6 Newsletter

The year is nearly over, hard to believe. Our annual Christmas party is December 21st. We start at 1:30 and end about 8:30 that evening. We will have Santa and Pets, lots of crafts, appetiz-ers and desserts and gifts for kids from Santa.

The schedule for the next few months is pretty firm. We start with New Year’s Bingo, spon-sored by the Bingo group. (chairperson, Marilyn Waibel) There are flyers posted on vari-ous web sites and in the flyer box at front gate.

On February 2nd, we will have a Super Bowl Sunday, with all you can eat snacks during the game. Hosted by Hanson’s, (Lonnie and Nancy) and Judy Kittelson. We are also hosting a “Valentines/Winter Wonderland dinner with live music at the club house. See Facebook for more infor-mation soon. March is St. Pat-rick’s Day dinner, April will be Easter activities, May will have a Mother’s Day special event and then we start Memorial Day weekend. Schedules are still tentative for some events but we will keep you posted as things are firmed up.

Have a safe and happy Christ-mas and New Years and come back with renewed interest in our Park and it’s activities.

Again, I could not do this with-out the volunteers in our Park. Please consider adding your ide-as and time to Park activities. I am always available by text or email. Check the back of the newsletter for numbers.

Rita Tuck, Liaison

Gold Bar Nature Trails Emergency/Priority messaging system Go to URL: https://www.flashalert.net/signup

Enter the e-mail address you would like to get Flash Alert on. Confirm the e-mail address you would like to get Flash Alert on. Create a password, (Minimum of 4 characters) Confirm your password. Click the red bar to create your account.

After you have confirmed your subscription you will need to do the following to add Gold Bar Nature Trails to your subscription;

Click on Add a subscription. Choose your region: (Seattle/Western Washington) In the search bar type in: Gold Bar Nature Trails. Or you can scroll down to: Organizations and click on Gold Bar Nature Trails. Check the type of information you would like: Emergency alerts and news releases. Click on the: Subscribe box and you are now ready to receive alerts on e-mail.

To log into your account from a computer, go to www.falogin.net and sign in with your e-mail address and password. If you would like to download the Android or IOS app. for your cell phone just go to the app. store and download the Flash Alert App. And sign in to your account. If you have any questions about the flash alert setup, you can e-mail Mike Hill at:(michael.hill@gbntone.org) or you can call me at 425-343-5131. 3/23/18

Activities

FLASH ALERT SIGNUP

Page 7 Volume 1, Issue 1

PO Box 109

16411 May Creek Road

Gold Bar, WA 98251

Office: 360-793-1888

Fax: 360-793-2245

Sales Office: 360-793-2451

Security Emergency

AFTER 4:00pm

360-770-5995

Email:

gbntone@gmail.com

Gold Bar Nature Trails

We’re on the web

gbntone.org

GBNT Board of Directors Name Position Phone Term

William Ritchie President 206-795-6327 20

#552 bill.ritchie@gbntone.org

Connie Cathcart Vice-President & Violations 415-370-8531 22

#979 connie.cathcart@gbntone.org

Peggy Fitzwater Treasurer 206-351-2658 21

#557 peggy.fitzwater@gbntone.org

Rita Tuck Activities 425-308-6367 21

#72 / 91 rita.tuck@gbntone.org

Robert Rowe Facilities, Safety & Security 425-471-2398 20

#1002 / 1144 robert.rowe@gbntone.org

Mike Hill Infrastructure Planning Long Range Planning

425-343-5131 20

#1017 mike.hill@gbntone.org

Wendy Cox Administration Rules & Regulations, ByLaws

425-343-2705 22

#772 wendy.cox@gbntone.org

Don Abeles Membership, Sales & ORV 206-285-3344 21

#44 donald.abeles@gbntone.org

Colleen Okeson Secretary 425-208-2046 22

1156 / 1157 colleen.okeson@gbntone.org

PRSRT STD

US POSTAGE

PAID

GOLD BAR WA

PERMIT NO 1

Time Dated Material