A perfect post-weeding swim in Lake WA on Mercer Island.

Mountains to Sound Greenway choose a shady spot for our weeding work beneath a large Oregon ash / Fraxinus latifolius at Luther Burbank Park.  The soil was completely dry, but the native plantings were hanging on well.  So were the weeds.  We kept busy pulling noxious species away from the rose, mahonia & red osier dogwood.  There were many invasive common hawthorn / Crataegus monogyna seedlings.  To our chagrin, we looked up at our lunchbreak tree on the park lawn and saw a lovely small tree of just this invasive variety.  The children were very confused as to why it was preserved by the park staff while we had worked all morning to eradicate its progeny.  Perhaps an interesting lesson on multi-agency/organization coordination.  This is certainly a tree that should be hit with the mower.

We swam at the quiet north end of the park, enjoying wide views across Lake Washington.  We even had the amazing opportunity to see a dragon/damsel fly nymph (larvae) emerge from its watery lifecycle and gradually unfurl its wings over 10m or so.  Stunning.  

Read about their amazing life cycle here.

 Oregon ash / Fraxinus latifolius

Terminal 107 on the Duwamish with EarthCorps.

We pulled weeds with EarthCorps in the restoration site along Puget Creek at T-107 Park across from the Duwamish Longhouse, and indeed the park lies on a former native village site.  It was a quiet morning pulling stinky Bob and marveling at the noxious beauty of teasel until the train came chugging up just ten feet away!  Very exciting.  We observed just how carefully one has to grip the crown of noxious stinky Bob / Geranium robertianum.  The stems snap easily and if the crown remains in the soil it happily re-grows.  Afterwards we roamed the enjoyable park, reading about the boat sculpture, native history, spying the woodland pond, visiting the riverfront and deciding to come back with the kids' bikes; the photo below shows the regional trail access as well.

Native Crataegus Douglasii / Douglas' hawthorn, not to be confused with the noxious common hawthorn / Crataegus monogyna.  They have much different leaves (see below) and unfortunately you almost always encounter the weedy one.

The  noxious common hawthorn / Crataegus monogyna showing it's more divided leaves. 

Noxious stinky Bob / Geranium robertianum.

Stinky Bob must be pinched at the crown to be pulled out effectively, upon which it is easy to pluck.  When just the stems are tugged, they snap and the crown remains, happy to regrow.

Native Crataegus Douglasii / Douglas' hawthorn has some wicked thorns (as does the noxious sp.)

Noxius teasel / Dipsacus fullonum.  An attractive nuisance.

Noxius teasel / Dipsacus fullonum can be very tall.

Female flowers and a maturing cone on a Douglas fir / Pseudotsuga menziesii.  The female flowers will ripen into cones after being wind-pollinated by the little male flowers.

Wetland buffer maintenance at Tukwila Pond Park.

Jessa hacks the noxious common hawthorn / Crataegus monogyna.

Hidden away behind the big box stores in Tukwila is a very large pond (a lake really) surrounded by willowy wetlands.  It was improved via the mitigation process, as required in exchange for development on (poor quality) wetlands nearby.  The site used to be agricultural, and indeed the old fence posts can still be seen poking out of the water.  Due to development, creek out-flow was restricted and the area became permanently flooded.  Now it is excellent bird habitat.

Our work with the City of Tukwila was to remove invasive noxious species from the native planting buffer.  I casually mentioned to a couple of passionate children, "This tree is actually an invasive hawthorn species.  It can be harder to removed trees since they're large, sometimes you can girdle them to kill them."  Before I knew it they formed a team to start scraping it away and after an hour's hard work them eventually removed the tree entirely!  Other species we removed were holly, ivy, blackberry & nightshade.

After working, we hiked past abandoned train tracks and through the thick willows to reach the open water.  If funds could be secured, the City would like to create greater public access.  Biologist Sandra Whiting pointed out wetland species along the way and shared the cultural & restoration history of the site.

QUIZ!  What leaves are these?

cocean spray / Holodiscus discolor, snowberry / Symphoricarpos albus, noxious common hawthorn / Crataegus monogyna.  

Sandra Whiting teaches us about noxious reed canary grass / Phalaris arundinacea.

Genetic variation - a variegated (noxious!) blackberry seedling.

4 noxious sp together!  Ivy, baby blackberry, baby holly & baby bittersweet nightshade / Solanum dulcamara (which not the same as deadly nightshade / Atropa belladonna).

Black cottonwood / populus trichocarpa.

Black cottonwood / populus trichocarpa seed capsules.

Frogs, tadpoles and many tasks in KCD's wetland plant nursery.

The frogs and tadpoles didn't disappoint at King Conservation District's wetland plant nursery.  The flooded beds holding potted wetland species were teeming with delightful creatures.  These are encouraged with plant-flats left in the pools to create habitat.  We had to be careful not to over-flow the beds when adding water, lest the tadpoles go overboard.

My notes on exactly which species of rush, bulrush, sedge, etc. that we worked with didn't survive the trip home.  However I did find this list of plants grown at the nursery.  Giant bur-reed / Sparganium eurycarpum was the most showy plant we deadheaded (see photo below) as it has fetching spiky orbs and globular white flowers with leaves over head-height.  I am excited to spot this plant out in nature!

Hard to believe, but in 2.5ys of Squad, this is the first time we watered as a work activity.  Other tasks included cutting-off seed heads to prevent species from seeding into other pots- because some wetland species are hard for even horticulturists to identify without the flowers, we left a few on for ID purposes.  Fast-growing alders and cottonwoods had to be potted up as well.  We look forward to using the plants we've tended out on a wetland restoration site in the future.

Cheasty Greenspace- bucket brigade mulching on Beacon Hill.

This bucket brigade was our most complicated yet and the kids performed excellently with stamina and rhythm.  The sun was hot on the way to the mulch pile at the top of the hill but the mulch-dump-site at the bottom was rewardingly shady.  We furthered sheet-mulching work on a planting site from wintertime in order to smother weeds and retain moisture during the dry summer ahead.  As usual, working in the Cheasty Greenspace was a real pleasure.  (read more about the neighborhoods efforts at Cheasty in another post here)

After-play is always good fun, on the paths, around the bend and up the trees.  The fringe-cups / Tellima grandiflora are blooming.  Another lovely spring day in Seattle, spent in service of nature and community under the leaves.