Birds Connect Seattle members with then-Councilmember Lisa Herbold at Lincoln Park | Photo by Kersti Muul
No pickleball courts to be added at Lincoln Park
After months of advocacy from Birds Connect Seattle, the Seattle Nature Alliance, and community members from all over Seattle, Seattle Parks and Recreation announced they will not create pickleball courts at Lincoln Park.
This is great news for birds and other wildlife at Lincoln Park. Pickleball courts would have significantly increased human-related noise, which is a known environmental pollutant that stresses and harms wildlife, directly adjacent to priority habitat areas in the park.
Please join us in thanking Seattle Parks and Recreation for choosing to be good stewards of wildlife and habitat and Lincoln Park.
About Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is majority wooded with areas of native mixed deciduous/coniferous forest, groves of Pacific Madrone, and stands of intentionally planted species like Coast Redwood and European Beech. Including off-site trees, Lincoln Park contributes to a forest with approximately 90 acres of contiguous tree canopy, the 9th largest area of contiguous tree canopy in Seattle. The forested areas are dotted with open meadows and managed lawns. Bluffs on the west side of the park slope steeply down to a paved pedestrian path and cobble beach on Puget Sound.
More than 160 bird species have been reported from Lincoln Park, along with at least 9 mammal, 11 arachnid, and 58 insect species. It also supports the only known population of Phantom Orchids in Seattle.
Why picket over pickleball?
Pickleball is noisy. The hard paddles striking rigid plastic balls can produce noises up to 120 decibels within three feet of the paddle–a painfully loud sound on par with a chainsaw or thunderclap. The loudness attenuates over distance, but can still be 70 decibels or louder 100 feet away. The noise generates complaints and even lawsuits from human neighbors.
Wildlife are sensitive to increased noise, too. Behavioral, physiological, and reproductive responses to human-related noise are documented in the literature. Studies find, among other effects, reduced diversity and abundance in noisier environments, diminished foraging and prey detection efficacy, interference with and alterations of vocalizations, and possibly the occurrence and severity of infectious wildlife diseases.
Given the widespread and often deleterious effects on wildlife, human-related noise is increasingly recognized as an environmental pollutant that should be considered as part of public land management and in wildlife conservation strategies. When Seattle Parks and Recreation announced plans to add pickleball courts at Lincoln Park, there had been no consideration for the potential impacts to wildlife. This was part of a larger trend that we observed in which our parks department repeatedly failed to consider the needs of our shared biodiversity in management decisions.
What’s next?
Seattle Parks and Recreation is encouraging the community to seek funding to de-pave the site for restoration and habitat enhancement. Birds Connect Seattle will organize to support that effort.
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