Since September 8, 2026, the Back Nine of the former Wayne Golf Course has been closed for the Sammamish River & Waynita Creek Restoration Project. The City of Bothell plans to reopen the area in early 2028. The Front Nine and Blyth Park next door are still open. Less obviously, the open half is changing almost as fast as the fenced half. Crews are reshaping a creek on the east side, and volunteers are planting native trees on the west side. Walking there this winter means walking through both projects at once.
What the fence actually closes
The City's project FAQ marks the closed area as running "from Waynita Way to the bottom of the forested slope on the east side of the property." The rules inside that line are strict. There are no open entry points to the Back Nine, and the FAQ says there will be no access during slower construction periods "like winter." Volunteers and students can't enter during construction either.
The closure also runs longer than the headline date suggests. The FAQ says the Back Nine stays closed through 2027 and the trails reopen in 2028. Even then, "landscaped areas will remain fenced off through the one-year plant establishment period." So the trails come back first and the newly planted ground follows about a year later.
Bothell Beat's late-September issue restated the closure and asked visitors to follow the posted barriers and stay out of the project area.
What the crews are building behind it
The City's August 31 announcement describes work that will change the ground on the east side for good. Crews will re-meander Waynita Creek, reconnect groundwater to the stream, widen its floodplain, and create slow-water refuge and cold-water habitat for migrating Chinook salmon. Wetlands will get larger, invasive plants will come out, and native trees and shrubs will go in. When the work is done, the City says the area will have trails, pedestrian bridges and viewing areas.
The funders show how far beyond Bothell this project reaches. They include the Washington Department of Ecology through Streamflow Restoration and the Climate Commitment Act, King County Parks and the Flood Control District, the Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed (WRIA 8), the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund, the EPA, Forterra, Meta, and Swire Coca-Cola USA. The City's full project page is at bothellwa.gov/waynita.
The open half is being replanted too
West of the fence, the Front Nine looks less like a golf course every season. Whale Scout has worked with Bothell Parks and Recreation on the property since 2019. Its volunteers pull Himalayan blackberry and English ivy and plant native trees to shade the water and improve its quality. The group says volunteers come out "on a near-weekly basis" to plant, remove invasives and water.
You can see that work from the main paths. A Washington Trails Association trip report from June 16, 2026 said much of the property was "actively being reforested/replanted with natives," with a small crew on site that morning. The main gravel paths were in good shape, but many secondary paths were overgrown or blocked by the new plantings. The same walker saw a blue heron, swallows, sparrows, towhee and ducks, plus butterflies on the muddy shore of the Sammamish Slough. That report is from early summer. Paths change as plantings fill in, so treat it as a description of how the Front Nine is evolving, not a current map.
The Front Nine is part of a longer plan as well. In a May 28, 2026 presentation, the City described the draft Wayne Open Space Action Plan as a 20-plus-year vision for a park that stays mostly passive-use. The exception is a four-acre active-use parcel on the Front Nine. At a September Parks Board discussion, as summarized by Citizen Portal, board members talked through primary, secondary and tertiary trails, accessible links from the regional trail down to the river, boardwalks or elevated paths across the lowlands, and paved accessible loops. These ideas are still under discussion, and the City has not set a dated schedule for them.
Getting around the closure on foot
With the east side fenced, the park now works as two connected pieces. These routes are still open:
- The Front Nine from the clubhouse lot. From downtown, WTA's directions go west on Bothell Way NE, left on 96th Avenue NE, then about a quarter mile to the parking lot on the right. Whale Scout lists the address as 16721 96th Ave NE. The June trip report described a free gravel lot with room for about 30 cars and a couple of portable toilets. WTA counts about 3 miles of trails on the property, and dogs are allowed on leash.
- Blyth Park by way of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The City's FAQ names this as the way around the project area. Blyth Park is at 16950 W Riverside Dr. The City's 2025 facility guide lists 72 parking stalls. The park has restrooms, a playground, picnic shelters, disc golf and fishing access. With its fuller restrooms and larger lot, it is the easier winter base.
- The Tolt Pipeline Trail from Blyth Park. The FAQ says access to the Tolt Pipeline easement is available from Blyth Park. WTA places the trail's western end at 104th Avenue NE, across from the park's southeast corner. It describes a wooded climb up Norway Hill and a 12-mile, one-way multi-use route to Duvall.
The City's FAQ also points to COBMap, its interactive map, for other walking trails around Bothell.
Why the river side matters
Whale Scout's event page explains why the riverbank work matters. The Sammamish River is a migration corridor for salmon. The former course has nearly a mile of shoreline and is the largest City of Bothell park. The new plantings on the Front Nine are meant to shade, cool and clean a small stream that flows into the river. Chinook aren't the only fish involved. UW Bothell's salmon guide says the middle-run kokanee spawns mainly in the Sammamish River in Woodinville and Bothell, and it points readers to the North Lake Washington Salmon Watchers blog for updates during the season.
So the work on both sides of the fence aims at the same river. The City is rebuilding the creek channel, and the volunteers are planting the shade above the water.
How a golf course became this
Today's park took years of organizing. The City's December 2019 fact sheet says OneBothell formed in 2014 after a residential development was proposed. Forterra bought the whole property in 2016 as a "buy and hold" strategy. The City then bought the Front Nine from Forterra for $3.4 million and partnered with King County on the Back Nine.
The cost split was uneven. Bothell paid $400,000 for the Back Nine, which is roughly an eighth of the Front Nine price. That brought the City's total for all 89 acres to $3.8 million. King County paid $7.7 million for two conservation easements, about twice the City's share. The cheaper half to buy is the half now being rebuilt as salmon habitat. Whale Scout's history goes back further. The golf course opened in 1931 on land that had been logged and then farmed, and the Coast Salish people hunted and traveled along the river before that.
Two December Saturdays to get your hands dirty
The Back Nine is closed to volunteers, so the public restoration work this winter happens on the Front Nine. Whale Scout has posted two events:
- December 5, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers care for new native plantings on the "front nine," meeting at the clubhouse parking area at 16721 96th Ave NE. Sign-up is required, and a confirmation email goes out two to three days before. Volunteers under 16 must come with an adult, and those under 18 need a release form signed by a parent.
- December 19, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A second Front Nine restoration event.
The event pages print the day and month only, and the year comes from the page addresses, so check with Whale Scout before you go. December 5 is also the date listed for the Bothell Tree Lighting Festival downtown. The listing shows a holiday market from noon to 5 p.m. and Santa's arrival and the tree lighting at 5 p.m. at Main Street and 102nd Avenue NE. The organizer's site notes the schedule has changed, so confirm the times before you plan a morning planting and an evening on Main Street.
At Hawkins & O'Bryant, we follow projects like this because a park changing this much over the next few years matters to the homes around it. If you live near the Wayne Open Space or Blyth Park and want to know where your home stands today, we're glad to walk through it with you. Request your free home valuation, and we'll give you a clear, unhurried read on your property.
