Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Kerston Swartz, Public Affairs and Advocacy This week, Seattle said YES to renew its commitment to 450 parks, 26 community centers, 185 athletic fields, 120+ playgrounds and one extremely thankful zoo. With the passing of Proposition 1, Woodland Park Zoo will be able to complete major maintenance projects critical to our functionality and guest experience. A stable and dedicated funding source established by creating a voter-approved park district means we can make badly-needed upgrades to our electrical, water and other utility systems, replace aging and inefficient structures and (maybe most importantly) make strides toward our sustainability goals. Here’s what your YES vote makes possible: Preventing energy loss The roof of the Tropical Rain Forest (TRF) building used to look like this: Look at all of that light coming through! Archive photo by Woodland Park Zoo.  Today, it looks like this: Not so much light coming through anymore. Photo by R...

Posted by: Laura Lockard, Public Affairs After many weeks of deliberation and receiving public comments and testimony, Seattle City Council voted unanimously to place a Seattle Park District on the August 5th ballot. Your calls, emails and testimonies made this happen—and for this we offer a deep bow of thanks. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. What a park district means for Seattle In August, Seattleites will have the opportunity to vote YES to fund critical maintenance projects for Seattle’s parks and the zoo, including structural seismic and building upgrades to our exhibits, and infrastructure improvements that will move us closer to our sustainability goals. If voters approve this measure, the major backlog of maintenance, upkeep and operations of the 6,000 acres of city parklands, including the zoo, would no longer be neglected due to budget cuts and competition with the city’s other important services. A Seattle Park District would create a dedicated funding sou...