PORT ANGELES — Every tree can tell a story, even when felled.
To make way for a new and improved Generation II Dream Playground at Erickson Playfield, the city’s parks and recreation department removed 15 trees in May.
But four tree trunks closest to the footprint of the new play equipment were left intact, creating the perfect canvas for wood-carved sculptures to adorn the future playground.
Chainsaw carvers Jeff Eshom of ButtCutt Woodworking and Nick Bielby of Nicklby Wood Carving were recruited to make the initial sculptures from the 12-foot tall remnants of two fir trees.
Using a scaffold to reach the top, carver Jeff Eshom burns texture into a wood sculpture his has created from a tree stump at the new Dream Playground at Erickson Playfield in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Two nearby cedar trunks are being offered to carvers with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
Steve Methner, president of the Dream Playground Foundation, which is helping to organize the new play area with guidance from the City of Port Angeles, said that initial overtures with tribal officials have been made, but so far nothing has been decided on how those trunks will be used.
“One way or another, it’s our hope to have some native artistic carving element with those trees, but its still up in the air of what that will look like,” he said. “As with everything with a volunteer project, everything is aspirational and a work in progress.”
Eshom said he was honored to have been invited to take part in the caving project.
“We were able to take the trees that were cut down and make them into something,” he said during a carving break on Thursday.
“They asked me for a design — they wanted to know exactly what I was going to be carving. I kind of had an idea, but a lot of it, I just kind of winged it as I went.
“I kind of knew I was going to put a face on either side and I was just going to put animals all over it, things you might see on the (North Olympic) Peninsula. I’ve got bears and raccoons and frogs and an owl.”
Bielby said his carving was trying to tie together a theme from the former Dream Playground — the dragon mosaic that marked the front face of the children’s slide.
“They said they might want a dragon because there was a dragon incorporated in the last park,” Bielby said. “So I just threw a dragon in there.”
The dragon mosaic from the old playground was preserved and will eventually become an element of the new playground.
Included in Bielby’s sculpture is an engraved message: “Be proud. Be Strong. Dream Big.”
“It’s a good message, I think, for kids,” he said.
Bielby said he was happy to be asked by the Foundation to create a wood sculpture.
“It seemed right from the get-go, yeah, that’s pretty cool,” he said. “I like doing stuff like that. I love donating as I can. And it’s for a kids park.”
Eshom, who often used the nearby Erickson skate park, said he was pleased to be able to contribute to the new playground with his carving.
“Kind of nice to be able to give something back,” he said. “Create a piece of art and have something you can look at for a long time to come.”
The upgraded Dream Playground will be installed June 22-27 in a community build project organized by the Foundation.
“We’re in a mad race for volunteers right now,” Methner said. “We still need folks to go to our website so we’ll know that if they do plan to volunteer, to sign up for a particular shift so we know who’s coming and when.”
Signups can be made at https://www.padream playground.org.
Methner added that the project was in need of donated or loaned woodworking tools to speed the effort along. Willingness to lend tools also can be indicated on the Dream Playground Foundation’s website.
The original Dream Playground, built by volunteers in 2002 from design suggestions from area children, was torn down earlier this year amid complaints from parents not being able to see their children at all times as they played. The park had also been used as a shelter by homeless individuals and drug users.
The new playground will have clear sight lines for parents to keep their eyes on their children. It also will feature an improved play surface, replacing the former wood chips that could conceal hypodermic needles and other dropped objects.
Four kiosks outside the play area adorned with the hand prints of children who contributed to the original design are to be kept in the new playground, but all four will require repairs from vandalism, Methner said.
A nearby totem pole donated by the Lower Elwha Klallam after the first iteration of the playground was opened also will be retained.
The Port Angeles City Council voted last October to approve the $117,774 purchase of playground equipment from Play By Design of Ithaca, N.Y.
Real estate excise taxes covered $110,000 of the cost. The remaining $7,774 comes from community donations to the foundation. Additional donations have been received to help with the project.
Eshom, who often used the nearby Erickson skate park in his youth, said he was excited to contribute to the new playground with his carving.
“Kind of nice to be able to give something back,” he said. “Create a piece of art and have something you can look at for a long time to come.”
Saving parts of the trees that needed removal and turning them into works of art has become a harbinger of what is to come with the new playground, Methner said.
“The addition of these wonderful carvings is moving people’s hearts from being a little bit upset about tree mitigation to getting excited about what’s going to happen here,” he said.
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Photojournalist Keith Thorpe can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 59050, or at photos@peninsuladailynews.com. park
