It’s a no to pickleball and a yes to wildlife for Seattle’s Lincoln Park

After almost a year of campaigning, wildlife advocates in Seattle were handed a win this week.

A city plan to place six pickleball courts on a disused tennis court pad in Lincoln Park in West Seattle has been scrapped.

“Seattle Parks and Recreation has made great progress identifying another location to add another pickleball court to West Seattle and thus has decided to no longer pursue creating courts at Lincoln Park,” a department spokesperson said via email.

The city would not confirm how many courts are planned for the new location, or where it is situated in West Seattle.

The move comes after fierce opposition to the planned courts in Lincoln Park from members of Birds Connect Seattle and other conservation groups.

Kersti Muul, a wildlife biologist, volunteer with Birds Connect Seattle, and a leader of the push to halt the city’s plan, said she didn’t immediately understand what she was reading when she received an email confirming that the courts would not go ahead. Then it sank in.

“I got goose bumps and then I immediately made like 100 phone calls,” Muul said.

Muul said almost 10,000 people joined the effort to prevent the expansion of pickleball into Lincoln Park.

Some of the main concerns were how possible court lighting and the trademark popping noise that accompanies a pickleball game would affect wildlife in the area.

“It’s the birdiest park in Seattle,” Muul said. “We have over 160 species documented here.”

Muul said the space is used for things like nesting, and for young birds to learn to fly and hunt.

“It’s a really productive habitat for birds there, so I was concerned with the noise and the movement for the wildlife’s sake,” she said.

A study published in the journal Nature in 2020 showed noise and light pollution can impact avian breeding habits.

“Would it cause early nesting, late nesting, no nesting?” Muul said.

Muul said the city’s decision to build courts in a different location is a win worth celebrating, but the work isn’t done. She said she wants to capitalize on the fact that the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is listening about the importance of green space and natural areas.

Muul is strongly urging the city to consider re-wilding the space in Lincoln Park, demolishing the old, unused tennis court slab, and putting in some sort of water feature for birds to use in the summer.

Local conservationist Sandy Shettler said moments like this can feel rare when defending nature.

“There’s a lot of setbacks,” Shettler said. “So just enjoying this moment is really important for us.”

Shettler said Muul said there are more appropriate places for pickleball courts to be situated in the city to ensure enthusiasts have somewhere to play without creating adverse impacts on wildlife.

RELATED: Wildlife advocates push back on pickleball in Seattle's Lincoln Park

Pickleball has swept the nation and grown quickly in popularity in recent years.

In Seattle, players have argued there’s not enough dedicated space in the city and urged the parks department to create more places to play.

Enthusiasts even hosted a pickleball funeral last summer as some temporary courts were shut down. They say Seattle is lagging far behind other cities of similar size in the West.

Greg Tuke, the co-leader of a movement to expand the number of pickleball courts in the city, said he was saddened by the news that the plans for Lincoln Park would not go ahead.

"It is a very big disappointment to us in the Pickleball community to hear that after being promised that six dedicated courts would finally be built in Seattle they are reversing that decision now," Tuke said via text.

RELATED: Pickleball is growing. Is Seattle ready?

He said more than 2,000 people have signed a petition to get 24 dedicated pickleball courts opened in Seattle, but city leaders have continued to ignore the huge demand for courts.

"We have three dedicated Pickleball courts when the average number of dedicated public Pickleball courts throughout the west is 27," Tuke said.

He said that information comes from Pickleheads.com, a site he called "the leading authority on the development of Pickleball courts."

Washington named pickleball the official state sport in 2022.