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Note: This is the fourth in a series of Monday posts about the Restoration Management Plan for North Beach Park. To read the others in the series, please click the “Restoration Management Plan” link in the tags at the bottom of the post.

Friends of North Beach Park has been as successful as it has been because of the people who live near (but not on) the park and frequently come to work parties. Our work parties are usually five to seven people, a good number for the spaces we work in. We have a semi-regular crew of people who attend eight out of ten work parties a year. This greatly improves the consistency and amount of work we’re able to do.

FoNBP has tried many avenues to get volunteers for our work parties. We feel the best approach is to consider it like sowing seed: try a lot of things, and some of them will take.

Email

Everyone who signs in to a volunteer event is added to the email list for the park. We send out one large email announcing the work party, generally two weeks in advance. It usually includes some other information about the park or about other organizations. Shortly after a work party, an email is sent to the attendees with a little report.
This email list is maintained by hand, so to speak, using the contacts in Yahoo! mail. FoNBP will be switching to a contact manager program soon.

Tabling

FoNBP has tabled at two different community events, three times at “Art in the Garden” and twice at “Sustainable Ballard.”

Art in the Garden is our most successful outreach event. It is located in the Ballard p-patch, at 25th Ave. and 86th St. This is very close to North Beach Park, and many of the people who stop at our table have been there. Success at this event is getting names for our email list. Most important in 2014 was making contact with a neighbor of the South Plateau and meeting someone who had lived near the park and illicitly maintained the social trails (he’s since moved away). We consider this very worthwhile, but also very pleasant.

Sustainable Ballard is held on a Sunday in late September at Ballard Commons Park. FoNBP has tabled at this event twice with Green Seattle Partnership, to promote Green Seattle Day (first Saturday in November). The first time was very successful, as the weather was beautiful and the festival was jammed with people all day long. The GSP liaison at the table was very satisfied with the number of names we were getting for their mailing list. The second time was much less successful due to bad weather.

Print

Up until recently in 2014, Ballard had its own newspaper, the Ballard News-Tribune. In 2008, there were two articles about North Beach Park. In 2013, they printed another article about the restoration.

Print (as in newspapers) is not a viable option for promoting work parties. The surviving newspapers (both weekly and daily) only print parks-related news items when it fits their agenda.

Blog posts

In 2011 the Ballard blog, MyBallard.com, was very active and posted a couple stories a day. It had an avid readership, and got many comments, both on its own site and on Facebook. MyBallard posted a few articles about Friends of North Beach Park (most notably this one). In 2012, the editors were forced by economic circumstances to make the blog part time, which decayed it considerably.

Service Groups

There are many service groups in the Seattle area that are potential sources of volunteers.

OneBrick Seattle

OneBrick Seattle is the local group of a nationwide organization. The focus of OneBrick is to get people in their 20s and 30s to volunteer. They use social media extensively, and have a large online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and the web.

Four volunteers from OneBrick participated in a work party with Friends of North Beach Park. Considering the time of year (July) this was a good turn-out. And it was appropriate for the amount of work we had to do.
We might work with OneBrick again in the future.

YMCA Earth Service Corps (YESC)

YESC is a city-wide program to attract environmentally interested high school students into service programs. Most of the programs focus on on-campus projects, but some groups work with forest stewards on restoration projects.

FoNBP spoke to the Ballard HS YESC chapter in 2011, and three members attended a work party, but follow-up attempts at contact have not been successful.

High School Community Service

All high school students in Seattle are required to do some community service. Only Ballard HS has a community service coordinator, however. FoNBP has work parties listed in the Ballard HS community service newsletter.
Private high schools also frequently have a community service requirement. We need to contact these high schools individually.

College service groups

FoNBP is working with Seattle Pacific University to participate in their annual City Quest program.

ESRM 100 students

Our experience with ESRM 100 students appears to be better than most. We get a few students and they usually work well. It might be because they have to travel across the city to get to NBP work parties, as opposed to walking down from the dorm.

Other UW groups

We plant to start working with other UW groups, particularly the fraternity and sorority umbrella organizations, and ENVIR 100 students, in the fall.

Corporate community service

FoNBP did have one large, fun work party with Nordstrom employees. However, the size of the spaces available to all volunteers precludes corporate events.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Note: This is the second in a series of Monday posts about the Restoration Management Plan for North Beach Park. To read the others in the series, please click the “Restoration Management Plan” link in the tags at the bottom of the post.

This section is drawn from personal memories, work logs, and notes.

State of the Park at the Beginning of Restoration

Records of the condition of the park at the start of restoration weren’t very well kept. There was (and still is) graffiti on the trees. There was trash throughout the park, ranging from bottles’n’cans, through tires and wheels, and up to water heaters and a 300 gallon drum (which is still in the park). For the first several work parties, at least a couple dozen pounds of trash came out of the park, sometimes quite a lot more.

At least 40% of the trees had serious ivy infestations reaching up into their crowns. In some cases, the ivy reached back down to the ground from overhanging branches.

When Luke, Drexie, and Tad took Lex Voorhoeve (instructor of the Master Forester Class) through the park for a site review (September 2011), he said there was a “depressing amount of work.”

There were extensive ivy monocultures in the Headwaters Bowl, particularly along the rims and the dryer areas. There were also extensive ivy monocultures in the South Plateau and on the South and West Slopes.

The vast majority of the canopy was deciduous, with Alnus rubra (Red alder) on the bottomlands and Acer macrophyllum (Big leaf maple) on the slopes and dryer areas. For HMU-specific information about canopy coverage, please see the relevant sections in the “Wetlands” or “Uplands and Slopes” chapters.

2011

The first meeting about restoring North Beach Park took place on March 17, 2011. Attending were Michael Yadrick (Parks ecologist), Mark Mead (Urban forest manager), Joanna Nelson de Flores (Forterra/Green Seattle Partnership), Theresa McEwan (North End volunteer coordinator), Patrick Merriam (North End crew chief), Morry Browne (neighbor) and Loren McElvain (neighbor).

The first restoration work party was held April 30th, 2011. Fourteen people attended, an unusually high number.

From the start, Friends of North Beach Park (FoNBP) had five priorities for restoration work:

Hedera helix (ivy) off the trees – rough estimates (made long after the fact) are that 40% of the trees in the park had ivy up into their crowns.
Ivy off the ground – there were many places were ivy formed a groundcover monoculture that have been cleared. There are still monocultures on some slopes (See “Uplands and Slopes.”)
Rubus armeniacus (Blackberry) off the ground and dug up.
Smaller Ilex aquifolium (laurel) and Prunus laurocerasus holly pulled, larger marked for herbicide.
Invasive groundcover removed and replaced with native plants.

Work was done both at the front of the park, to make visible changes that made the restoration work obvious; and in the forest, getting the ivy off the trees.

First Workparty Group Portrait

Many of the people in this photo (and the person taking it) are still involved in the restoration of North Beach Park. Photo by Drexel Malone.

Friends of North Beach Park settled on the 4th Saturday of the month because earlier weekends were taken: Golden Gardens GGREAT (Golden Gardens Restoration and Trails) meets on the 2nd Saturday, Friends of Llandover Woods meets on the 2nd Sunday, and Carkeek Park STARS (Streams, Trails, and Restoration Stewards) meets on the 3rd Saturday. We thought that the 4th Saturday presented the least conflict.

The 4th Saturday schedule does mean that the work party conflicts with Memorial Day in May and the Christmas – New Year holidays in December, so there is no work party on those months.

In summer of 2011, Luke McGuff, Drexie Malone, and Tad Anderson met while taking the Master Forester Class taught by Lex Voorhoeve at Carkeek Park. We were assigned North Beach Park as our project.

In September, EarthCorps Science (Nelson Salisbury and Ella Elman) mapped North Beach Park and delineated the Habitat Management Unit boundaries.

At the end of 2011, Friends of North Beach Park had had 55 adult and three youth volunteers, for a total of 165 hours. We had planted a grand total of 13 shrubs and 8 herbaceous plants, and had more than 0.05 acre in active restoration.

In terms of public engagement, Luke spoke to the Olympic Manor Community Association and the Ballard High School “YES” (YMCA Earth Service Corps). There was a post to MyBallard.com in November about the restoration efforts. Friends of North Beach Park also began working with the Seattle Parks Foundation as fiscal sponsor.

2012

The Master Forester class concluded with a successful three-part presentation about restoration of North Beach Park. This was the same day as the work party would have been, so there was no 4th Saturday work party in January of 2012. However, January 2012 did have a very successful work party and trash removal with a group of 8th graders from a University District alternative middle school, on their “Rite of Passage” program. This was the largest amount of trash removed during a single work party.

Rite of Passage students

This was the single largest pile of trash removed from North Beach Park at one time.

Early February featured the first annual Friends of North Beach Park potluck, which includes forest stewards and volunteers from Carkeek and Golden Gardens, as well as North Beach Park. At that potluck, we formed an official steering committee of seven.

In summer 2012, an independent forest steward worked in the South Plateau, a large, flat area about 80 feet above the main park. Working with residents of the Labateyah community, they cleared most of the ivy and blackberry off the .57 acre plateau in one summer of weekly work parties. They installed steps into the park, and had plans for a native plant demonstration garden modeled after the garden outside Daybreak Star Indian Center. However, when the rains returned, we found out that the South Plateau received street runoff that accumulated for blocks. The Parks Department had to remove the steps and put in fascines and rip rap. See “South Plateau” in the “Uplands and Slopes” chapter.

Also in the summer of 2012, Doug Gresham, of Gresham Environmental, delineated the wetlands. GPS points for the delineation flags were later established with Nelson Salisbury of EarthCorps Science.

In September of 2012, “Knotweed Hill” was created by Luke and a group of middle schoolers who were on a field trip to the park. They cleared a large area of ivy underneath a canopy gap. Before the clearance, the ivy had covered up some of the steepness of the slope. Removing the ivy revealed the slope to be much too steep for inexperienced volunteers. Also, we had been working on private property without realizing it. This lead to Luke, Drexie, and Tad spending many weekdays in the park, staking down burlap sacks, and work parties where dikes were built across the slope.

At the end of 2012, Friends of North Beach Park had had 343 adult and 162 youth volunteers, for a total of nearly 1150 volunteer hours. We had planted 227 trees, 112 shrubs, and 105 herbaceous plants. Nearly three-quarters of an acre was in restoration.

Public outreach in 2012 included tabling at “Art in the Garden” for the first time, and tabling at “Sustainable Ballard” with the Green Seattle Partnership. “Art in the Garden” is a neighborhood event located very close to the park. We meet neighbors of the park, including people who played in it as children. “Sustainable Ballard” is a much larger event, for the Ballard area as a whole. At this event, we’re helping Green Seattle Partnership promote Green Seattle Day (the first Saturday in November).

In 2012, FoNBP participated for the first time in the Seattle Foundation “GiveBIG” day of online giving.

2013

2013 featured many different groups working in North Beach Park: EarthCorps, Parks Department contract and Natural Area crews, and Friends of North Beach Park.

EarthCorps

EarthCorps ran seven work parties in North Beach Park, from April through November. During this time, they mulched Knotweed Hill, and cleared along the trail from Headwaters Bowls through the Central Valley. During the planting work party, they added density to both sides of the trail through their cleared areas, and added density to Knotweed Hill.

EarthCorps volunteers mulch Knotweed Hill.

Contract Crew

The Parks Department Natural Area and contract crew worked on the North Slope, removing invasives, putting done jute net and coir logs, and planting. On the South Plateau, they installed rip rap, meanders, and fascines to help control the erosion. They also helped clear a trail of fallen alder trees.

Friends of North Beach Park

The FoNBP had their second annual potluck, again with forest stewards from other NW area parks, including Llandover Woods.
There were ten 4th Saturday work parties in 2013: January – April, June – November. The January work party featured some plants donated from the Swanson’s Nursery “Trees for Salmon” program.

By the end of 2013, most of the safely accessible trees in the park needing ivy survival rings had been protected.
2013 had 189 adult and 20 youth volunteers, for a total of nearly 665 hours. Friends of North Beach Park planted 346 trees, 672 shrubs, and 675 herbaceous plants.

More than half an acre was brought into restoration, and nearly 1½ acres were in Phase 2 and Phase 3 of restoration.
Public outreach included an article in the Ballard News-Tribune (Bryan, 2013) and tabling at “Art in the Garden” and “Sustainable Ballard.”

2014 (to date)

The start of 2014 featured nearly 200 extra plants from the Parks Department. The summer work parties have concentrated on after care of plants, mostly watering and weeding to help them deal with the heat stress of June and July.
There were numerous site reviews, from Seattle Public Utilities (with their drainage and wetland scientist), a big site review with the Parks Department to talk about target forest types, the South Plateau, and to plan crew time for the next couple years.

The forest stewards returned to working in the South Plateau once a month. We also wrote a letter to the neighbors of the South Plateau explaining our plans.

In June, we executed a cross-gradient belt transect, crossing three HMUs and going from the highest points on the rim to the lowest points of the park floor. The information this provided is used throughout this report.

In July and August, Friends of North Beach Park participated in Groundswell NW’s open space inventory.

Public outreach this year has been limited to “Art in the Garden,” which was very successful for us.

FoNBP participated in the Seattle Foundation’s “GiveBIG” day of online giving again, and raised more than $800.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

For the third year in a row, Friends of North Beach Park have had a booth at Art in the Garden.

This year we had two tables instead of just one. That made for a much nicer display, I think.

This was our most successful year so far, in terms of getting people to sign up for our email list. I’ve already sent out a “welcome” email, and none of them bounced, so I guess I read all the addresses correctly and nobody spoofed me. Score!

We love Art in the Garden because we always meet people who live near the park, grew up near it, have seen it before and after restoration began. We also meet people who say “Oh, I didn’t know that was a park! I’ll have to check it out!” It’s great not to just get positive feedback, but to have the possibility of introducing people to such a great little urban escape.

The table we sat behind.

The other table. The book that people picked up most frequently was “Seattle Geographies.”

Our Celebrity Spokesmodel!

Julie got a bouquet of flowers for our booth. Art in the Garden is a fundraiser for the Ballard P-Patch, and this year they had a bouquet table with fresh-cut flowers from the p-patch itself. They were all very pretty!

The Seattle Santa

We had a surprise drop-in visit from Santa! Even he’s feeling the economic pinch, he’s had to take a summer job as a garden gnome.

After things slowed down in the mid-afternoon, I took a walk through the garden and took several photos of flowers and vegetables.

Blooms!

Because of the warm weather this summer, everything was growing like gangbusters. You can see the whole set of photos on Flickr.

Will we do it again next year? Of course! Although… well, as tasty as it all was… we’ll probably do a better job of avoiding the food trucks. We love them a little too much!

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Sometimes, a small work party is just the thing.

Four volunteers from OneBrick Seattle joined three Friends of North Beach Park for a little mid-summer aftercare watering for plants that we’ve planted in the last couple years.

This might seem paradoxical, because aren’t “native” plants adapted to this weather, and able to survive the summer with no problem? That’s true of well-established plants, getting the care one gives a garden. However, giving a plant even a gallon a week of some water can help it survive the worst of the summer drought, and establish better in the following winter. A gallon might not seem like much, but pouring it directly onto the root crown means very little is wasted.

And summer work parties are generally pretty small — who wants to spend a wonderful morning in the city, even in a forested park, when you could get out and about? So that’s a good time to do some watering and after care.

NB: The person is watering the fern, not the ivy. Just to be clear.

Here is (most of) the crew:

That’s Morry in the back, Nan in the front, and then Kegan, Jon, and Mai Lin left to right. Nan, Kegan, Jon, and Mai Lin signed up for the work party via OneBrick Seattle. (Not in the picture is Julie, who had done about as much watering on her own as the rest of the crew put together.)

Friends of North Beach Park will be at Art in the Garden, on Saturday, August 2nd — next week! Stop by and say hello and talk to us about North Beach Park. We’ll have information about North Beach Park, what we’re working on, and our plans for the future. We’ll also have information from some of our supporting organizations.

Stop by to say hello, stick around for the art, the garden, the silent pie auction, and the food trucks! A very pleasant little neighborhood fair.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Saturday, August 10, was the 13th annual Art in the Garden festival, held in the Ballard P-Patch at 85th St. and 25th Ave. It’s a nice little neighborhood festival, very small compared to other summer fairs. But its location makes it perfect for North Beach Park outreach, because it’s right around the corner from the park. Last year and this year, “Friends of North Beach Park” tabled at the event, with the support of Green Seattle Partnership (the all-important shade canopy).

This year the weather was perfect. The day started out cool, and there was a long period where it was sometimes warm/sometimes cool, but it never got too hot. And as the day drew on, the skies cleared and it became a lovely summer afternoon.

One thing we like about Art in the Garden is meeting neighbors of the park: People who remember playing in there as children. People who didn’t let their children play in there. People who walk their dogs through the park, or jog through the park. It makes us realize how special North Beach Park is, that such a little, apparently forgotten park, has such deep memories for long-term residents. It doesn’t hurt that if people have noticed the restoration, they’re often very thankful and appreciative! It’s also a great chance for those of us who work in the park to run into each other (as it were) and chat for a few minutes in relatively clean/dry clothes.

This was our table display. We gave away most of the flyers in the very front, which promote the 4th Saturday and EarthCorps work parties. We also gave away a few flyers for Green Seattle Day (November 2nd — save the date!), and “The Truth About English Ivy” flyer. Last but not least, we got about nine or ten signatures on the email mailing list.

We also had a trifold display that I’ve been bringing around to events since last year’s Art in the Garden. No one will ever accuse us of embezzling restoration funds for inappropriately-lavish displays. But all the information on it is up to the minute, and it shows how much work we’ve done in the two and half years we’ve been working in the park.

But Art in the Garden is also about craft vendors. This is the row of vendors that faced 25th Ave. There was another group in the parking lot, near the food trucks.

And speaking of which…

In previous years, the festival has sold brats from their beer garden. But that meant there was no place for families to sit and eat together. So this year, they had a couple food trucks come in. The Seattle Biscuit Company had great, large, soft biscuits. We had the breakfasty one, which came with a fried egg, Beecher’s flagship cheese, and some great bacon. Splitting one was perfect, one each would have been too much! The other food truck was Curb Jumper Street Eats, which serves gourmet sliders. We had the 3 slider sampler, and REALLY liked the salmon. That’s the food we’d go back for.

But let’s not forget the art, the garden, or the people!

All in all: a pleasant afternoon, spreading the word about North Beach Park. There is a full set of pictures on Flickr.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Saturday, August 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Art in the Garden, 8527 25th Ave. NW
We’ve mentioned this in emails before and even sent out a postcard. We’d love to see you at our table. Friends of North Beach Park will be on 25th Ave., at the southeast corner of the p-patch. We’ll have information about North Beach Park and Seattle’s forests (Courtesy Green Seattle Partnership). Art in the Garden will have a beautiful p-patch, pie auction, bake sale, food trucks, art, and more. We look forward to meeting you. For further information, visit their website.

Saturday, August 24, 9 a.m. to Noon, main entrance: Friends of North Beach Park work party.
Join us on the 4th Saturday to help make North Beach Park a better park and Seattle a better city. We provide tools, gloves and guidance. You bring a willingness to play in the woods. For registration and further details, please visit this website.

Saturday, September 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., main entrance: EarthCorps work party
Join us for the next EarthCorps work party. We’re making great headway in cleaning out some ivy and blackberry from the very front of the park. This is a great event to bring a group to – whether a couple friends, a family reunion, or a church group. To sign up, visit EarthCorps’ volunteer page and go to September 14th.

Both events meet at 90th St. and 24th Ave. NW. Bring water and a snack if you need it; the EarthCorps event has a lunch break. Wear sturdy shoes and weather-appropriate layers that can get dirty. (Long sleeves are helpful when working in stinging nettle and blackberry.) Parking is available on 90th St., east of 24th Ave.

Seattle Parks Foundation
Support the restoration at North Beach Park by making a tax-deductible donation to the Seattle Parks Foundation. Visit our project and click on the “Donate” button. All proceeds donated will be used in our restoration
efforts.

We look forward to seeing you at these events!

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Join Friends of North Beach Park at one of these upcoming events — we hope to see you soon.

Saturday, July 27, 9 a.m. to Noon: Friends of North Beach Park work party.
“Friends of North Beach Park” meets the 4th Saturday of the month, now through November. We provide tools, gloves and guidance. You bring a willingness to play in the woods helping make North Beach Park a better park and Seattle a better city. Wear weather-appropriate layers that can get dirty and sturdy shoes or mud boots. Bring water or snacks as you need them, but there are no facilities in the park. All ages welcome, but children must be kept under supervision of their parent or guardian. Parking is available on 90th street, east of 24th. Metro route #61 goes directly past the park, and routes #48 and #40 stop at 85th St. and 24th Ave. For registration and further details, please visit the Green Seattle Partnership website.

Saturday, August 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Art in the Garden, 8527 25th Ave. NW
Friends of North Beach Park will be at Art in the Garden, a neighborhood party sponsored by the Ballard P Patch. There are a beer garden, artists booths, food trucks, and a lovely p-patch in full bloom. Stop by to say hello, meet your forest stewards and talk about North Beach Park. Stay to enjoy the Art in the Garden, pie auction, food, and fun. We look forward to meeting you. For further information, visit the Art in the Garden website.

Saturday, August 24, 9 a.m. to Noon: Friends of North Beach Park work party.
Here’s a reminder for the 4th Saturday work party in August. Many of the details for the July work party are the same. Exactly what we’ll be working on hasn’t been set yet, but it’s sure to be challenging fun. For registration and further details, please visit the Green Seattle Partnership website.

If you can’t make the July or August work parties, dates for the rest of the year are September 28, October 26, and November 23. The October and November work parties are likely to involve planting.

EarthCorps at North Beach Park
EarthCorps returns to North Beach Park September 14th. EarthCorps events run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Please visit the EarthCorps website to sign up.

Donate to North Beach Park
If you can’t make it to a work party but would like to support our efforts, please visit the Seattle Parks Foundation website at http://seattleparksfoundation.org/current-projects-north-beach-park/ and click on the “Donate” button. All proceeds from your tax-deductible donation will be spent on improving the park.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Here are some of the events coming up in or around North Beach Park. It’s a busy summer!

Saturday, July 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., main entrance: EarthCorps work party.

EarthCorps will provide all the tools, information, and expertise needed to help us get ahead of the ivy and woody invasives with this work party. We’ll be working at the base of the slope of the Headwaters Bowl, bringing new areas into restoration. This means we’ll encounter some fun trash. For further information and to register, please go to their website and click on the dark blue square for July 13. There are still plenty of places left!

This is the second of four work parties EarthCorps will sponsor in North Beach Park this year. We’ll post the other dates as soon as we know them.

Saturday, July 27, 9 a.m. to Noon, main entrance: Friends of North Beach Park work party.

“Friends of North Beach Park” meets the 4th Saturday of the month, now through November. We provide tools, gloves and guidance. You bring a willingness to play in the woods helping make North Beach Park a better park and Seattle a better city. Wear weather-appropriate layers that can get dirty and sturdy shoes or mud boots. Bring water or snacks as you need them, but there are no facilities in the park. All ages welcome, but children must be kept under supervision of their parent or guardian. Parking is available on 90th street, east of 24th. Metro route #61 goes directly past the park, and routes #48 and #40 stop at 85th St. and 24th Ave. Sign up on the GSP site so we know you’re coming.

If you can’t make the July work party, dates for the rest of the year are August 24, September 28, October 26, and November 23. The October and November work parties are likely to involve planting.

Saturday, August 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Art in the Garden – meet your forest stewards!

Art in the Garden is a neighborhood party sponsored by the Ballard P Patch, at 8527 25th Ave. NW. There are a beer garden, artists’ booths, and a lovely p-patch in full bloom. This year also features food trucks and an eating area. Don’t forget the pie auction and bake sale! Friends of North Beach Park will be at a table on 25th Ave. Stop by to say hello, find out what our plans for North Beach Park are, and make suggestions. Stay to enjoy the Art in the Garden, food, and fun. This is our second year at this event and we look forward to seeing you. For further information, visit their web site.

And, as always, if you can’t make it to a work party but would like to support our efforts, please visit the Seattle Parks Foundation website and click on the “Donate” button to make a tax deductible donation. All proceeds will be spent on improving the park.

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

Saturday (August 4th) Julie and I tabled for North Beach Park at Art in the Garden, a neighborhood party held at the Ballard P-Patch, which is just north of 85th St. on 25th Ave. This means it’s very close to North Beach Park, and when I went last year to distribute flyers, I kept thinking it would be great to have a table there.

See? Art! In the garden!

The canopy, banner, and materials were provided by Green Seattle Partnership. We also had some materials on the table from Groundswell NW, another group that does parks restoration, specifically in Ballard and the northwest part of Seattle. It was nice to make contact with them and find out more about their organization. I made a couple flyers specific to North Beach Park.

We had the perfect spot for what turned out to be the hottest day of the summer so far: Directly under a mature Western Red Cedar. We set up early in the morning, long before it got hot, and we were shaded all day.

Made in the shade.

In terms of metrics we probably didn’t do very well — only eight names added to our mailing list, only a few dollars in the donation jar. But in terms of meeting people who knew North Beach Park, we did great. That’s what I expected to have happen, and by the end of the day we’d had a great time. Lots of people had seen our work, lots of people said they’d go back to the park and look at it some more.

We packed up around six p.m., so we had been on site for about ten hours. We talked to lots of people about the park, and about parks in general. Two of the other forest stewards sat at the table with us, and another stopped by.

It was a wonderful experience, and we’ll do it again next year.

Julie “booth babe.”

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Saturday, July 28, 9 a.m. to Noon

Meet at the entrance to the park, at NW 90th St. and 24th Ave. NW.
There is parking north and east of the park.
We’ll provide tools, gloves, and guidance.
Please wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty.

As always, our goals are to be safe, have some fun, and get some work done.

There are two fallen alders along the main trail that require some attention. One is heavily infested with ivy, and needs to have some of the ivy removed from it to prevent rerooting. This is a very wet, confined space; only two people can work there. The other fallen alder is not infested with ivy, but the crown has landed in the shrub layer and needs to be cleaned up a bit. Last but not least, the entrance needs some maintenance and monitoring attention.

Please join us. It’s a great opportunity to get some exercise, meet new people, and get hands-on experience in not only what makes Seattle great, but to directly help make it greater.

Art in the Garden: And if you can’t join us at the work party, please join us at Art in the Garden, Saturday, August 4, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. We’ll have a table with information about North Beach Park, Green Seattle Partnership, and other parks in the neighborhood you can help out at.

Art in the Garden is in the Ballard P-Patch, at 85th St. and 25th Ave. NW, just west of Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church. It’s a very pleasant neighborhood fair with a beer and sausage tent, bluegrass music, some craft and vendor booths, and a p-patch in full bloom. Our booth will be near the sound stage. Just look for the Green Seattle Partnership banner.

Here is a link with more information.

Hope to see you at one of these events!

Mirrored from Nature Intrudes. Please comment over there.

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