University of Washington Restoration Ecology Network Capstone 2023-24
Lizard Haven At Discovery Park
Restoration in Progress
As springtime takes full effect at Lizard Haven, we have completed the installation of plants on the site! A wildflower patch has been prepped in between two Garry oak trees. In the fall, it will be ready for wildflower seeds. We picked up big-leaf lupine, Nootka rose, wild ginger, and great camas plants from Tadpole Haven Nursery and installed them onto the site. Who knew so many plants could fit in just one car! As the spring months continue to roll by, we will be working on monitoring and watering the plants to help them get ready for the summertime. It has been amazing to see the transformation that this site has undergone over the last few months. The restoration work at Lizard Haven has imitated a lot of the rhythms the rest of the world is going through during the late winter and spring months. New growth and new intentions are set at the beginning of the year for many of us on earth, and the same can be said for this site. We put a fresh intention into this site during the invasive species removal and let the native plants take back the site. Just like how new things are born and new life emerges during the springtime for the animal kingdom, so do the plants and flowers all around the site. As spring feels like a time to come out of the darkness of winter, and maybe for many of us, seasonal depression is now in the background, it has been wonderful to see the reflection of our own lived experience through the restoration work on the site. Gratitude and thankfulness fill our hearts as we reflect back on all the lovely memories made planting at Lizard Haven. Stay tuned for more updates on the continued work we will be carrying out leading up to summer!
As spring is around the corner the team is getting ready to host our big planting parties! The first round of plants got delievered to Lizard Haven and we couldn't be more excited. Some of the plants we potted this last work party were salmon berry, thimble berry, Oso berry, and snowberry. These plants will bring so many ecosystem functions to the site including; food and habitat for native wildlife. These native plants will grow and provide shade to the site, which will help outcompete the non-native species from re-establishing.
We are hosting two work parties during the first weekend of March!
Come help us mulch the Discovery Park South Meadow in preparation for planting. We are happy to announce that Metropolitan Market will be sponsoring both of these work parties with refreshments! We are very grateful for their contributions to our project. Please use the links below to sign up! March 1st: seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38796/ March 3rd: seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38797/ We are teaming up with Tutta Bella to raise more money to purchase native plants integral to completing our restoration project! Native plants are the basis of all restoration work, without them to reestablish an area cleared of invasive species, the invasives can re-establish and minimal habitat benefits are gained. With your help, we will be able to get more plants providing a broad variety of ecological benefits and restoring habitat integral to the Northern Alligator Lizard.
If you are interested in other ways to be involved with the project, please consider coming to one of our restoration work parties, donating, or contacting us! Our next two work parties are this upcoming Sunday, February 18th and Friday, February 23rd from 9am-12pm!
Come help us continue to remove blackberry, spread mulch, and begin restoring the south meadow! Register for the events using the links below: February 18th (Sunday): seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38793/ February 23rd (Friday): seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38974/ On Friday, February 23rd, help us schmear away the blackberry invaders while we schmear some bagels with cream cheese! We'll have bagels and cream cheese donated by Oxbow Bakery to keep us fueled up for the hard work :) We are very excited to have them sponsor this work party! We made excellent progress this week despite the very wet weather on Sunday. On Friday, we were able to begin laying mulch down at the far end of our site which we have cleared out over the last few weeks! Mulch is important to retain top soil which stores a lot of nutrients and organic matter while preventing blackberry re-establishment through shading the sun-loving species out prior to us receiving our plant shipments next month.
We also were able to start making progress on the 'old-growth' Himalayan blackberry patch at the top of our site, and on Sunday finally cleared a path through it. We learned that despite the Blackberry preventing other species from establishing in the region, the soil is healthier than we anticipated with tons of earthworms present! Sunday, we also had Tutta Bella's donate us some pizzas for the volunteers to enjoy despite the cold and wet weather. If you are interested in helping out, and would like some pizza, Tutta Bellas will be sponsoring us again on the 25th - we hope to see you there! At our work party on February 2nd we were lucky enough to see a Northern Alligator lizard on site! We're grateful to be able to see the creatures we're restoring Lizard Haven for. We hope to see you at our next work party, and for you all to see the Northern Alligator lizards as well!
Our next two work parties are this upcoming Friday, February 9th and Sunday, February 11th from 9am-12pm!
Come help us continue to remove blackberry and begin restoring the south meadow! Register for the events using the links below: February 9th (Friday): seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38791/ February 11th (Sunday): seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38792/ On Sunday, February 11th, Tutta Bella's will be supplying us with four pizzas (vegetarian options available) for this work party and we are very excited to have them sponsor our project! We will be holding the fourth work party of our project on Friday, February 2nd from 9am-12pm!
Come help us continue to remove blackberry and begin restoring the south meadow! Register for the event using the link below: https://seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38738/ We will be holding the third work party of our project on Sunday, January 28th from 9am-12pm!
Come help us continue to remove blackberry and begin restoring the south meadow! Register for the event using the link below: seattle.greencitypartnerships.org/event/38734/ |
Ellise Hall
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