by Hannelore Sudermann
photography by Chris Anderson
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND is only a half-hour's ferry ride from downtown
Seattle—yet for children growing up in urban King County, its
forests of fir, hemlock, and alder are a world away.
There's a place here just for them. It's an environmental
educational facility, where, this week in October, a hundred
sixth-graders from Evergreen Elementary in Silverdale have come for
a four-day program.
But a few days after their arrival, no voices greet visitors to
the compound, only a fresh bloom of oyster mushrooms on a fallen
log. Over at the dining hall a stray raincoat in the entry is the
only sign of life. The honey-colored, salvaged-wood tables are
cleared. A winding path through the trees leads to a wood-and-glass
classroom building. Here too, the seats are empty, the place
deserted.
The children who arrived in yellow school buses at the beginning
of the week have all vanished into the 255-acre sanctuary called
IslandWood. They are wading at the edge of Mac's Pond as they hunt
for macro-invertebrates with small nets, or taking the spine trail
through the trees down to the estuary. A few, after touching
a banana slug, have stopped midway across a swaying metal
suspension bridge to gaze down into a ravine. And another batch has
wandered into the organic garden for their first taste of raw
cranberries.
They've been outside all day despite the rain. But they'll be
back at the compound for dinner.
At the main center, a slender woman of about 50 in a black
fleece jacket and blue jeans, her hair pulled back and caught with
a clip, slips gracefully through the door. Two employees don't spot
her coming in. She's not one to demand attention.
This is Debbi Brainerd, philanthropist and founder of
IslandWood, and until recently chairwoman of the nonprofit's
foundation board.
The idea for IslandWood crystallized in 1997, when Brainerd '79
and her husband, Paul, founder of the Aldus Corporation and head of
his own nonprofit organization, were newly married. They chose to
build their home on Bainbridge and had found nine acres on the
south side of the island. Still, when the realtor called to say
1,100 acres of forest nearby would soon be divided into 20-acre
parcels and sold off, the couple had to look.
"We were just curious," says Brainerd, recalling the Sunday when
she and Paul visited the site. "We parked our car at the entrance
and walked up an old logging road." A five-point buck stepped out
of the brush just in front of them. "It just sort of grabs you for
a moment when this buck walks out and stands there staring at you,"
says Brainerd.
Magical places
WHEN DEBBI BRAINERD was a little girl, her family spent weekends
in the woods. They had a small cabin on Whidbey Island, where
Brainerd and her younger sister and brother had their share of
outdoor adventures. In the fall and winter, her folks would sleep
on a fold-out couch, while the children would spread their sleeping
bags under the kitchen table. In the summer, the children slept
outside.
"We went there as often as we could," says Brainerd. "My deepest
memories are connected with that tiny one-room cabin."
A few weeks after she visited the Bainbridge Island property, an
idea coalesced in Brainerd's mind: At least a portion of the
land could be preserved and turned over to children, so they could
capture the same kinds of magical experiences Brainerd found in the
woods when she was a child.
She started thinking about children growing up in urban
communities, often with no connection to the natural world. "I
thought we could build a school in the woods where kids could come
and learn about the natural and cultural history of Puget Sound,"
she says.
But that would need a good plan, community support, and
money
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