There are new park guides across Tacoma. Here’s who they are, what they’re doing and why
If you were at Owen Beach Wednesday afternoon, you might’ve seen them: Metro Park’s new park guides, eager to build connections and educate the community on the natural world around them.
Under a blue tent, beachgoers and other passersby stopped to learn about the team’s featured “Critter of the Week”: harbor seals. Guides were quick to spout seal facts, play interactive games and answer questions about a seal’s diet and habits. (Did you know adult seals can eat 10-15 pounds of fish every day?)
The park guide group was created to bring more engagement and activities to local parks, said Daniel Mero, Metro Park’s supervisor for visitor engagement. Funding for the program came from the 2022 Levy Lid lift, as well as the community parks and recreation budget and the regional parks and attraction budget, according to Metro Parks public information officer Stacia Glenn.
The team’s job is multifaceted. Two guides will spend their time in regional parks around town and the other two will focus on neighborhood parks, providing a first point of contact for visitor questions and concerns.
Guides will coordinate nature walks and educational events, add to current programming offered by the Tacoma Nature Center and facilitate kids activities in the parks, Mero said.
They’ll work alternating days seven days a week through the end of September, Glenn said. As we get into the more rainy winter months when there is less activity in the parks, the guides will be moving into the community centers, supporting other parks programming and using that time to plan new programs next summer, she said.
All guides will be trained in de-escalation, first aid and CPR. They will also regularly engage with encampments of people experiencing homelessness in local parks and work with the city of Tacoma’s Homeless Engagement Liaison Team to connect people to resources as well, Mero said.
The plan to hire the park guides came prior to recent gun violence at Point Defiance Park, and Mero said they “are not in any way an enforcement arm” of local police.
“They’re not intended to be first responders [either], per se, but we want to make sure that they are prepared to be in the field should a need arise,” Mero said. “I’m so excited about the four people that we have in these roles. They are just passionate, enthusiastic people that are committed to helping us develop an active park user group, and that’s really fun to see.”
More programming to come
A big focus of the community neighborhood park guides will be bringing programming to smaller neighborhood and community parks, Mero said.
“We’re more education-focused than the previous iteration of park rangers, which was mostly focused on enforcement,” said regional park guide Alex Holmes. “It’s doing a lot of guided walks, a lot of these pop-ups. We’re just trying to teach people about the park and kind of how to be better stewards.”
Community neighborhood park guide Manni Valenzuela said Metro Parks hasn’t always had equitable programming that focuses on smaller neighborhood or community parks, especially in less affluent areas of the city.
“A big part of the community neighborhood park guides is providing activation and park spotlights for those smaller parks that just don’t get as much attention,” she said.
“We want to make sure that these parks feel integral to communities and neighborhoods that don’t really have a lot of resources or access. And making sure that people feel like this is a space they can come gather, get to know their neighbors, bring their family, have time where they can enjoy outdoor spaces in a way that maybe they don’t have to travel for.”
All the park guides have different backgrounds or specialties: whether it be ecology and forest restoration, park maintenance and education, youth programming or in Valenzuela’s case — social service work with people experiencing homelessness in Tacoma.
“Most of my career I’ve worked with folks experiencing homelessness, housing instability, domestic violence, all of those kinds of things, specifically in outreach and in case management roles,” Valenzuela said.
“I spend most of my free time in the parks. And I also think that outreach in Tacoma, specifically with folks experiencing homelessness, needs a different kind of response.”
Community neighborhood park guide Darnell Crumity was doing trail restoration with the AmeriCorps program prior to his role and said he wants to coordinate more fun activities in local parks like kickball games, a water balloon toss, basketball and engaging with schools to educate kids on the outdoors.
Holmes said he’d like to lead bird-watching groups and Valenzuela plans to give a guided tree walk through Wright Park.
“[We’re] still in a lot of ways getting our feet under us and figuring out what the future holds,” said regional park guide Jake Brooks. “For one, it’s a beautiful office. That’s in it and of itself quite rewarding.”
Where can you see the guides?
Regional park guides Brooks and Holmes will likely spend most of their time in high-traffic parks like Point Defiance, Owen Beach, Dune Peninsula, Ruston Way and Fort Nisqually, they said.
Valenzuela said she and Crumity may be seen in “every single” other park in Tacoma, including Brown’s Point, Dash Point, east side parks, west central parks, as well as any other neighborhood or community park.
“Because there’s only two of us and that’s a lot of ground to cover, we don’t have the same consistent appearance Jake and Alex have,” she said. “We are working on getting some kind of pop-ups like this moving forward, but also a lot of smaller kinds of recreational programming like wiffle ball in the park … water balloon fights, those kinds of smaller events.”
Valenzuela said she and Crumity are working closely with Tacoma Nature Center and after-school programs. The team is also working to host more volunteer restoration opportunities like beach cleaning and clearing out invasive species, she said.
“So much of our life is go, go, go, really fast, very embedded in technology, really structured a lot of the time, and on a time limit,” Valenzuela said. “For me, the parks are a space where I can [be] connected to nature physically. Being inside a forest, having your feet in the grass, having your feet in the water are ways that can really support our mental health and feel connected to what we really are: we are sapiens, we are humans, we are animals.”
