Thursday, October 1, 2026
Olympia’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) has put forward naming recommendations for Yelm Highway Community Park and Kaiser Woods to honor local heritage and leadership.
Sylvan Niehuser, interim director of the Arts, Parks & Recreation Department, said the committee voted to recommend the 86-acre Yelm Highway Community Park to be named as Jolene Unsoeld Community Park.
“The committee recommended naming it Jolene Unsoeld Community Park in recognition of her advocacy for environmental policy and her passion for the outdoors,” Niehuser stated.
In September 2024, the city opened public comment through Engage Olympia, allowing community members to submit name suggestions and provide a brief explanation for their proposal.
While several names were submitted for consideration, Niehuser added the committee’s recommendation aligns with PRAC’s goal to recognize female leaders who have made lasting impacts on the local community.
The Yelm Highway Community Park will feature Olympia's first dedicated soccer fields, pickleball courts, a playground and a dog park.
In a separate decision, the committee recommended renaming Kaiser Woods to Elk Ridge Trails Park. This name was chosen to reflect the area's natural setting, including the nearby elk herd, and to highlight the park's focus on trail-based recreational activities.
Kaiser Woods Park is a 70-acre park property located in Southwest Olympia. It is slated to be Olympia's first park with dedicated mountain biking trails. The park development will include more than 5 miles of hiking and biking trails with skills areas and features for beginners to advanced riders.
The committee also acknowledged the contributions of Marj Yung to the community. While no specific park or project has been identified for naming in her honor at this time, PRAC expressed interest in considering her name for future opportunities.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the city council for approval.
7 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
Snevets
I'm a passionate outdoor person too as are alot of people in this area. How about keeping people's names out of it and stick to nature references since they are parks.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
Sounds expensive at a time when county trying to cut costs.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
BobJacobs
Jolene Unsoeld richly deserves this honor. In fact, there should be a building on the capitol campus named after her.
Bob Jacobs
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
Porter
Leave the names the way they are until all the signage wears out. How much will a name change cost?
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
BillString
How much of our money will go to "experts" "studying" the "issue"? How much to install it? And then what, the neighborhood parks? Street names? Olympia, to be perfectly honest, should make its official slogan the following- "Wasting the taxes of the many for the wants of a few."
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
DeaneTR
So they're going to dedicate a park to Unsoeld's environmental legacy and pave over one of the last beautiful opens spaces and put down toxic plastic sports fields with tire rubber crumbs that contain salmon killing 6PPD and poison all our children's brains with microplastics, which they're finding in the brains of people with who die from Alzhemers and other forms of demntia? The level of stupidity of park planners who think eliminating anything that's alive and replacing it with toxic petro-chemicals is what a public park is supposed to be is by far the highest level of idiocracy. I hope they get sued and lose in court and nothing happens to this parkland for years or even decades to come! It'd be way better than poisoning the land and the people to death!
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Report this
Annierae
I like the Elk Ridge Trail Park name! I've met many a life-long Olympian unaware of our very special Delphi herd on the edge of town. This should help give them some much deserved recognition. As for the negative comments here, by what process do you recommend naming parks? I'm grateful this process allowed our community to weigh in. Thanks planners.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Report this