Have you ever walked past an overgrown, untended plot of the urban landscape and thought to yourself how much better that little bit of green space would be with some love and attention? You are not alone! In fact, Seattle is filled with noticers, and some of them have noticed that Wallingford has a few places that could use some love – like the neglected areas at 46th and Midvale, 45th and Midvale and Aurora at 46th. These lovely noticers have even taken pictures and compiled a list of places in our fair city that could use a little loving.
Could you be a lover? Find your tribe (and adopt your plot) through the City of Seattle’s reLeaf program.
Lizzy Stone writes:
I work for Forterra, a partner of the City of Seattle’s reLeaf program, which engages residents in caring for urban trees and green spaces in Seattle. One of our projects is Tree Ambassador, which trains volunteers who help nurture Seattle’s trees with the goal of growing and caring for the urban forest. We’re currently recruiting Tree Ambassadors to take on projects in two project tracks:Tree Walks: Tree Walks are fun, positive community events that engage neighbors with the trees surrounding them. Tree Ambassadors develop tours to highlight interesting or significant trees in their neighborhoods and lead their walk as a public event. Check out the schedule of upcoming walks or download one of the self-guided walks here. Don’t see a walk in your neighborhood? Become a Tree Ambassador and design Seattle’s next Tree Walk!
Tree Ambassadors in this track are given an introduction to tree identification and taught skills in making maps and organizing community events. After the training, staff will assist Tree Ambassadors in identifying good routes, mapping trees on that route, writing accompanying text, and putting together a public event. (Training will take place on Saturday, April 4th 9am-2pm in Ballard).Landscape Renewal: Tree Ambassadors plan and organize small-scale landscape projects in residential areas. Tree Ambassadors “adopt” sites and organize work parties to weed, mulch, and activate these neighborhood green spaces.
Tree Ambassadors in this track are taught basic landscaping and site design skills, how to identify and remove invasive species, proper mulching, how to run safe events, and community event organizing. After the training, staff help volunteers identify an appropriate landscape to work in, develop site plans, organize community work parties, and secure tools, mulch, and other equipment. Find a site to love in your neighborhood! (Training will take place Saturday, April 25th 9am-2pm in Beacon Hill).
Applications are due by March 17th. Program and application information is all available here. If you have questions, please email [email protected].
While I’m generally for rehabilitating neglected landscapes, I am quite concerned with how it is to be done. Examples of “urban forest renewal’ along the Burke-Gilman trail are quite disturbing to me as it is a type of habitat destruction.
With the eradication of noxious weeds, especially blackberry and Japanese knotweed, major sources of bee forage have been wiped out with nothing replacing them. (Note: Blackberry and Japanese knotweed, among others, are on the 2014 King County Noxious Weeds List under “Class B and C noxious weeds that are not designated for control in King County, control recommended but not required in King County)
Recent studies have shown that up to 40% of the pollen being brought back to honeybee hives in the spring is blackberry and in the fall, Japanese knotweed is a major source of nutrition when little forage is available.
In Washington State, there are over 400 species of bees, mostly solitary bees, many which feed on noxious weeds. About 60 to 70% are ground dwelling bees. Many others depend on leaf litter, old wood or twigs to reproduce. So to add insult to injury, fully cleaning up an area not only removes important forage but potential nesting sites, too. This winter, literally acres of land has been covered with wood-chip mulch, thus completely covering (and killing) a whole generation of overwintering insects. I haven’t yet checked through the mulch to see if there are effects on earthworms, but it seems they might have a hard time reaching the surface of mulched areas.
These lost insects provide much food resources for other insects, birds, small rodents and other animals. The top of the food chain is affected, too. Instead of going four blocks for blackberries on public right-of-way, I had to go over three miles and trespass on private property to get remaining blackberries from others being there before.
For urban forest renewal, I urge folks to NOT completely clean everything and to replace noxious weeds with BEE and OTHER POLLINATOR FORAGE as much as possible. Also, it would be wise to stop mulching. To paraphrase a leading honeybee researcher in reference to the loss of bees and other pollinators, if 30% of cattle were disappearing every year, the first thing you don’t want to do is to take away their food and habitat.
Interesting point! Himalayan blackberries and Japanese knotweed are going to be a hard sell, though. What are some of the replacements you mention? To me, in an area where 40% of the incoming spring pollen is blackberry, that’s evidence that blackberries cover too much of the landscape, and as someone who’s lived in blackberry country 40% coverage doesn’t seem implausible.
My only concern about blackberry removal along the Burke-Gilman is that it might not be effective enough. It’s very intensive work to get rid of those things, years of work with picks and shovels, and it’s a war zone until that’s somewhat stabilized. That may be where we are now, waiting for eradication to proceed far enough to put in expensive materials.
When it comes to forage for bees in Western Washington, I don’t think that’s a good conclusion to make re: “blackberries cover too much of the landscape”. Rather, blackberries should be viewed as valuable nutrition which bees need.
A honeybee colony needs to store at least 70 lbs of honey and 500 to 600 square inches of pollen to survive the PNW winter – so what other plant blooms in sufficient quantity to provide this in our area? good question. There probably isn’t one, hence the problem described by “8 frame”.
Blackberries are a preferred nectar/pollen source for bees for a reason – not only do they provide a plentiful nectar and pollen source, but they provide polyphenols which help the bees immune systems against diseases like nosema.
Blackberry pollen has been found to have more proteins and antioxidants than other pollens evaluated, with nearly double the proteins and amino acids and almost five times the antioxidant capacity as other pollens. So…Bees visit honey bees for a reason. It isn’t because it is most plentiful, it’s because it is the most nutritious for them of what’s available and by removing it they must fly farther to find it or forage on less nutritious food, which we’ve all heard of nutritional wastelands. Is that what we want for the bees, or for ourselves?
The N-frame collective can let blackberries take over their own plots, but for public spaces we have to look for other sources of bee nourishment. Flowering currant and a couple Mahonia sp are nice natives, for example. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a general list.
I would prefer to focus on our parks. Meridian is a multi-use gem and it is sorely neglected by Parks Dept. City Fruits is trying to implement a plan to preserve and add fruit trees. But there is a lot more to do.
Parks has removed tables and trash cans, presumably so they can sit in their trucks and do nothing? We need better service and I would be glad to participate.
What I was attempting to point out in my original comment was that a whole ecosystem was being affected by the eradication of noxious weeds and the spreading mulch. I was using blackberry and Japanese knotweeds only as an example since they are the most recognized of the noxious weeds. Just as most people cannot recognize more than four or five of the more than 400 bee species in Washington, they can’t recognize more than two or three species of the dozens of Washington noxious weeds, either.
A significant number of noxious weeds are on the State noxious weeds list due to their growing on state pasture land, mostly in Eastern Washington, and being detrimental to cattle and other grazing animals. In other words, the weeds are affecting the economy. In Western Washington, these weeds need only be “controlled´ rather than “eradicated.” For public spaces, we don’t “have to” look for other resources. A good compromise would be to set aside controlled areas for some weeds.
I did calculate the loss of bee forage for a 0.9 mile stretch of the Burke-Gilman near GasWorks and came up with an estimate of 4.7 million blackberry flowers lost to pollinators, which was close to the 4.5 million for the equal area of cultivated blackberries. Thankfully, this area was not mulched over. As I could only find about a dozen replaced trees about five feet tall, the replacement is but a mere pittance for the poor bees and other pollinators.
While flowering currant and Mahonia, among others are nice natives, a few certainly cannot replace the amount of forage lost. Programs exist in other states (and countries) where the sides of large sections of highways, freeways and other public lands are planted with wildflowers rather than grass.
Note to Judy: While I do respect your preference to focus on our parks (and I am a frequent user of the parks), it is a totally separate discussion from habitat and ecosystem destruction than I originally started (unless you’d like to see sections of parks set aside as pollinator friendly areas). Maybe you can start a new and separate discussion on parks.