Thank you to our donors!

Nature Consortium is working to restore a part of the Longfellow Creek watershed on land owned by Allstar Fitness. Funding is provided by People For Puget Sound, Nucor Steel, and Nature Consortium. This site is now undergoing maintenance (weeding and mulching) which will continue through the summer.


Left: Nature Consortium volunteers at the Allstar Fitness site. The blue cylinders are there to protect our plants from from the beavers which reside near the creek.





We would like to recognize Applied Organics and Cedar Grove Composting for their support. Cedar Grove recently donated compost for our project – a deal negotiated by Applied Organics who supplied the truck and all other materials for the filter sock (erosion fence alternative). The estimated in-kind donation is $750. Seattle Parks and Recreation also provided removal of undesirable debris and delivery of mulch.

None of this could be possible without your support. Thank you from Nature Consortium!

Open Day May 2

Today was a great day for restoration. We worked at the Cooper site on maintenance and invasive species removal. We spread mulch over about 1,120 sq.ft. of land and applied 30 mulch rings to our plants, as well as maintaining 30 preexisting mulch rings. Next we worked on getting rid of the English ivy. We cleared 1000 sq. ft. of ivy from the ground.

This ivy also tends to grow up the trunks of trees, and if left unchecked, the ivy can eventually kill the tree. From these pictures you can see how aggressive the ivy can be. To avoid this, we make survival rings for the trees.

This process involves cutting away the ivy stems at a certain height all the way around the tree. This cuts the ivy off from its roots.

Then we peel the ivy away from the tree starting at the incision line and down to the base. The bottom right picture shows the final result. This ivy is now separated from its roots and will eventually die.

More information about ivy removal

Youth Service Day 4/25

Saturday's work party marked the annual Global Youth Service Day, and we celebrated with another great weekend of work. The day was spent at the 14th & Holly site with the University Child Development School (UCDS) and other community members. The Mark Smason Band entertained us while we worked on site maintenance, mulch rings, and transporting our reserve of plants to the nursery area where they will stay until the next planting season.

Site maintenance involves removing new weeds that may have sprung up in the time since the initial removal. This is necessary when working in an area formerly overgrown with Himalayan blackberry, for example. The roots may extend horizontally in the ground for several feet in any direction, making it difficult to dig out completely without greatly disturbing the soil. If any portion of the root is left in the ground after the initial removal, the plant may be able to sprout back up again. This is because Himalayan blackberry is capable of producing adventitious buds which can be found on both the roots and stems of the plant. If a root or stem of the plant is left in or on the ground, the adventitious buds can sprout into a new plant - even if it's not connected to the root ball. This makes our battle with Himalayan blackberry a constant struggle. We performed this maintenance on 7,680 sq. ft. of of land, and concluded the day by spreading mulch rings.

EARTH DAY

Thank you to everyone who came out for our Earth Day event with Duwamish Alive! and Earth Corps. The event was held at our Cooper site (Pigeon Point Park) on Saturday, April 18th. We had a great volunteer turnout - over 500 people including corporate groups and student organizations. Volunteers were divided into 20 groups in order to spread the work out over the entire park. The day was focused on invasive species removal, and with the extra hands we got a lot done.

The nice weather, combined with entertainment from some of our favorite musicians and dancers, kept us all in good spirits as we worked. Thank you to all who shared your art with us.

At the end of the day, we surveyed the work of all 20 groups to record just how much of an impact we had made. In those four hours, we cleared 28,695 sq. ft of Himalayan blackberry, 4, 727 sq. ft. of Scotch broom, and weeded 27,225 sq. ft. of second- and third-growth Himalayan blackberry. On top of that, we mulched 1,917 sq. ft. of ground - not bad for a days work!

The Earth Day Festival started at 2pm. By this time, all of our workers were tired and hungry. To celebrate our hard work, we relaxed with a fun barbecue and another round of music and dance performances. Kids and parents participated in environmentally-inspired art projects indoors. The festival also featured guest presentations by Mayor Nickels and REI's PEAK program.

March 27: Explorer School

A few kids from Explorer Junior High School joined us on March 27th for a work party at our Cooper site. We removed 170 sq. ft. of Himalayan blackberry and spread 509 sq. ft. of mulch - all before lunch. After eating pizza with the kids, we removed 750 sq. ft. of Scotch broom and took a hike around the park.

Youth holding recently removed Scotch broom

Weekend work parties

We had two work parties this weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. On Saturday, we had a cool group from Arbor Heights Community Church, as well as some of our regular volunteers. On Sunday, the youth from Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF) joined us for a few hours and brought some yummy fried chicken to share with us.

Overall, it was a great weekend for invasive removal. Over the two days, we removed a total of 1800 sq. ft. of Himalayan blackberry, 400 sq. ft. of English ivy, 250 sq. ft. of Scotch broom, and 1 cubic yard of trash. On top of that, we spread 1,125 sq. ft. of mulch. Needless to say, it was very productive weekend.

Thank you to Amy Denio and Ben Yarges who shared their musical talent with us while we worked.

STLF volunteers hauling away a pile of Himalayan blackberry

3/21 at 14th & Holly

We began the day at the 14th and Holly site removing Himalayan blackberry along the trail. We were able to remove 1,000 sq.ft. of Himalayan blackberry by the end of the day. Local clarinetist Amy Denio came out to perform while we worked. She is pictured here sitting on one of the rocks that will be used for a new trail in the greenbelt.

Once we finished removing blackberry, we began planting. Our crew leaders held a short demonstration on proper planting techniques, after which we were able to plant 77 plants including 61 sword ferns and 16 myrtles.







We ended the day putting mulch rings around the plants and more plantings along 12th and Holly. We planted 85 understory species at this site.

Crew leader demonstrating shrub planting