Mother Nature’s Window opens again after 25 years

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 14, 2026

MARYSVILLE — He fought off developers and worked tirelessly for over 30 years to preserve a forest in the middle of urban Marysville.

Having died in 2013, Merton Turk did not get to see his idea for a park come back to life.

On Thursday, city and state officials celebrated his legacy with the grand opening of Mother Nature’s Window Park and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 34-acre park, filled with second-growth forest, is located at 9623 55th Ave. NE.

“Mert Turk did not live long enough to see the forest he saved reopen,” Marysville City Council member Peter Condyles said during the ceremony. “His obituary read less than 20 words and didn’t mention anything about his work to save Mother Nature’s Window. Instead, the forest he saved stands as a testament to the life that he lived. He didn’t need a long obituary. He had a park.”

Condyles is also the president of the Marysville Historical Society.

Mother Nature’s Window is more than just a park, Marysville Mayor John Nehring said during the ceremony.

“It reflects our community’s values, stewardship, connection and a shared commitment to preserving natural spaces,” he said.

In July 2025, construction began to reopen the park to the public for the first time in over 25 years. A $750,000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant helped fund the work. The city paid more than $1 million.

The park now includes accessible walkways and restored trails, benches, landscaping, irrigation and signage. A new parking lot has sidewalks and a bus turnaround. The city considers the improvements Phase 1 of the park’s upgrade.

The federal grant came in part thanks to U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, whose district no longer includes Marysville. U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell are working to establish federal funding for Phase 2 improvements.

All had representatives in attendance as city officials spoke.

“Mert Turk, and honestly many generations of the Turk family, dedicated themselves to this land and its preservation, from commitment to the trees and plants, all the way down to the smallest wildlife,” Condyles said during the ceremony.

For a full history of Mother Nature’s Window and Merton Turk, visit Condyles’ blog at petercondyles.medium.com.

“This park should have never happened,” Condyles said. “The hearing examiner approved houses to be built where we are standing, and Mert was able to convince the County Council to spend conservation futures money on buying it.”

Turk was a logger and began puchasing land in the late 1940s, planning to harvest the timber. However, in 1963, he decided to use the land to build a park instead, so his teenage son and friends had a safe place.

Eventually, Turk opened the park to the public as an event space and for Girl and Boy Scouts to come learn about nature. He would charge a fee but donated all proceeds to Seattle Children’s Hospital.

In the 1990s, developers started buying up the land surrounding Mother Nature’s Window, and Turk worked with the county to maintain the park. At the same time, vandalism and criminal activity in the trees had grown to the point the park needed to be closed.

In 1998, Snohomish County purchased the land but ran into roadblocks that stopped park development. In 2009, Mother Nature’s Window was annexed into Marysville as part of a larger annexation.

Due to crime, vandalism and much-needed upgrades, the city fenced off the property. It was closed indefinitely as funding to improve the park became increasingly difficult to acquire and the community debated on how the park should look.

In 2021, Alex Chamberlin from the Marysville Municipal Court, Dave Hall and Jeramie Roth for the Parks Department, and Jeff Laycock for the Public Works Department analyzed the park and interviewed residents, police and parks employees. Their work resulted in the eventual acquisition of funding for Phase 1 improvements.

The park will play a role in environmental education with three elementary schools all less than a mile away, Condyles said in an interview after the ceremony.

“The kids could walk from Cascade Elementary up here,” he said. “When you’re walking through here, you can see signs on the trees where Mert would label how old he thought it was. There’s flying squirrel boxes. There’s all this stuff for the kids. So the fact that it’s still going to be used as that is just so rewarding.”

Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay