Planting & Mulching the Understory at Northacres Park

Northacres Park was still hanging onto to its fall leaves on one of the first cold days in an otherwise warm autumn. Squad helped with a variety of stewardship tasks around the various restoration areas underneath the lovely mature second growth forest. Small native plants were put in, mulch was spread and weeds were dug. In what may have been a first, large log rounds were moved from a tree that had come down; their weight really necessitated teamwork to transport them!

Green Seattle Partnership hosts many other regular events at this park and so many more, contributing to the wellbeing of our public green spaces. Consider seeing if your local natural areas have work parties you can sign up for as well.

Happy Holidays to everyone and see you in the New Year!

Planting Washington State's Tree & Flower at Northacres Park.

Northacres Park has a charming woodland amongst well-developed playground, splash park & sporting areas. The Green Seattle Partnership’s volunteer Forest Stewards have done a marvelous job removing noxious weeds and planting natives.

Squad added to the understory with perennials such as oxalis and goldenrod. We also contributed to the next generation of trees by planting young grand fir and hemlock, the latter of which is our Washington State Tree.

The State flower is the coast rhododendron / Rhododendron macrophyllum, we planted several of those as well! Their pink blooms in June are a lovely site. If you’d like to enjoy them in the wild, try the Tubal Cane Trail- it’s kid-friendly and the flowers line the beginning portion. Not only that, you can see an amazing plan crash site with large shiny aluminum wreckage you can stand in, a historic mine, cool backpacking camps and a pretty alpine lake at the far end!

A Little Bit of Everything at Northacres Park.

Northacres Park showered us with blossoms and animal sightings while we worked in the woodland with dedicated local forest stewards from the Green Seattle Partnership. Our original winter event was cancelled because of the extensive snow coverage(!) so we were eager to work here. We enjoyed seeing osprey, active humming birds and an exquisite spotted towhee nest. Thanks to an observant 9 year old volunteer who caught sight of the ground nest while weeding, a few folks were able to see the delicate eggs from a distance before we taped it off. Later we could see a bird-parent or two returning to the nest.

We split into teams to execute a variety of tasks from planting and mulching to tackling noxious weeds. Some of the little native plants such as hemlock and deciduous huckleberry are particularly adapted to growing on rotten wood so an area near a log was chosen and some half decomposed wood was mixed into the planting hole. The madrona trees were in full bloom and bees could be heard enjoying them. We look forward to returning to Northacres park!