By Todd Burley, Brian Gay, Patti Bakker, and Craig Chatburn

Ecologically, Seattle is known as a place of towering trees and majestic waterways. Also hidden within many parks are meandering meadows that provide areas of respite and critical habitat for many species. In fact, some places such as the current site of Seattle Center were likely maintained as meadows by the Duwamish People. Between the Salish Sea and Lake Union, this area was known by early settlers as “the meadow.” Today, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) maintains parts of many parks as meadows and is looking to expand the reaches of this ecosystem within our park system.

Meadows are important for many species because their diverse habitat includes many flowers and grasses helpful to pollinators such as butterflies and native bees. While wandering through or near these areas, you might notice a wide range of insects and birds visiting flowers and taking advantage of seeds and nesting structures found in meadow habitats. Familiar pollinating insects such as bumble bees, mason bees, hover flies, and hopefully the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, will also be frequenting these meadows, spreading pollen, and helping to maintain these ecosystems. As a “Bee City,” Seattle has made a commitment to support bees, which are in serious decline around our country, and managing an increasing array of meadow habitat is one way to help.

The many meadows SPR maintains can be found at Genesee Park, Carkeek Park, Magnuson Park and Discovery Park, among others. Management plans at these parks identify areas to be maintained as natural meadows. This means mowing only happens every one to three years as a means of keeping woody invasive plants in check, such as Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry. In all, SPR intentionally maintains over a dozen meadows in our system.

Many bird species also benefit from meadow habitats, as they nest in these grasslands and feed off the various insects that thrive there. SPR ensures that any mowing or other management in these areas is done between August and January, outside of ground nesting bird season. As Seattle is also an Urban Bird Treaty City, this is one way SPR contributes to that commitment and supports these visitors to our urban ecosystems.

During 2020, SPR realized an opportunity to expand our meadow network to more “passive turf” areas, which grew taller when mowing resources were redirected to other priorities in the city. We are now mapping areas where grass can be more intentionally left to grow naturally and add to our network of grassland meadow habitat. An update to our Turf Best Management Practices will include maintenance guidelines on how to manage these areas, similar to our meadow management standards.

SPR is also thinking about connectivity of meadow habitat through the development of a Pollinator Corridor Project. We know that having healthy habitat patches within 750 feet (2.5 football fields) of each other allows for insects and birds to move between these meadows, ensuring adequate space to prosper. Imagine a pollinator corridor from Magnuson Park down the Burke-Gilman Trail, past the Washington Park Arboretum, and down to Rainier Beach Farm and Urban Wetland. Or fly on butterfly wings from Discovery Park along the coast to Smith Cove Park, Myrtle Edwards Park, and along the soon to be developed new Waterfront Park. Like a web spanning the city, we seek to make a robust pollinator habitat network.

So, don’t be surprised if the grass looks a bit taller than usual in certain areas. Seattle Parks and Recreation is creating the space for native species to thrive, even in the midst of a rapidly urbanizing community. Grab a picnic blanket and settle in to enjoy the flowing meadows, fragrant flowers, and quietly hardworking insects.

By Belinda Chin and Todd Burley

Climate change has impacted people in many ways – from more extreme heat events and increased air pollution with wildfire smoke to rising sea levels and king tide events in vulnerable areas (see Google Earth Time-lapse for 40 years of development impacts captured in images). Yet these impacts are felt disproportionately be lower-income households and people of color. At Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), we are seeking ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and in doing this we must consider the intersection of social justice and environmental degradation. Climate Justice must embody our work.

In that spirit, SPR acknowledges that the city of Seattle and its greenspaces are on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral land of the tribes and bands of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot nations. We recognize the stewardship of Seattle’s greenspaces by the Coast Salish people since time immemorial, the disruption of their relationship to the land by colonization, and their resilience in continuing their endeavors from generation to generation in unbroken cycles of lived experience. We make this acknowledgment to remind ourselves that, by being here today, we strive to remedy this injustice through our beliefs and actions in helping to steward our green spaces and communities in Seattle

Climate justice seeks to transition our entire economy from one that is extractive to one that is relational and sustainable. Four areas of climate justice rise to the top of SPR’s considerations: ecological restoration, racial justice and social equity, localization of production and consumption, and retaining, restoring and celebrating cultures and traditions.

SPR has a long history of ecological restoration. As manager of nearly 12% of the city’s property, we take our role in this seriously and use environmentally-responsible management practices for all our parks – from neighborhood parks to natural areas. Our Green Seattle Partnership has 1,845 acres of urban forest in some stage of restoration and has planted over 30,000 trees. This habitat restoration is a critical part of our urban ecosystem, and even extends to our developed parks where we are expanding our pollinator pathways. It also extends to our creeks and shorelines where we work to restore those riparian ecosystems.

Equity is also a core of our work. Currently 94% of households live within a half-mile of one of our parks, which is great, but our acquisition strategy is not focused on getting to 100%, rather it seeks to focus our open space program in areas most in needs of the benefits they provide.

We also seek to create programming for people in identified equity areas in Seattle, such as expanding our environmental education programs out of our Environmental Learning Centers and into underserved neighborhoods. Finally, we also host green job pathways programs like the Youth Green Corps and Seattle Conservation Corps that provide experience, skills, and opportunities to enter green jobs in our field.

Through the Urban Food Systems Program, SPR also supports local production and consumption as ways to mitigate food insecurity. We manage over 700 fruit trees, many community gardens, and P-Patches to offer a chance for people who may not have yards to grow local, healthy, and organic food. This food is often then donated to food banks or communities in need to help mitigate food insecurities present in our community.

And we strive to reflect the diverse histories, cultures, and traditions of people who have made this city their home. Many parks are named after prominent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) leaders in our community and include interpretation about their lives and contributions (check out this blog post for Black History Month). We are also working to undo the historical attempted erasure of Coast Salish peoples by restoring Indigenous place names in our parks as well as referencing traditional ecological knowledge. Finally, parks and community centers are affordable spaces to meet and gather in for many in our community. Historically, our parks are seen as one of the greatest democratizing forces in our city.

Addressing the impacts of climate change is a mammoth task, yet by directing our response first to those most impacted, Seattle Parks and Recreation is seeking to embody the relational solutions of climate justice.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is celebrating Earth Day and Month with a week of virtual and in-person activities to connect people to the planet and each other. Join us!

Visit www.seattle.gov/parks/earthweek to learn about the latest Earth Week activities!

Earth Day Kits and Virtual Activities

Our Rec’N the Streets program will be handing out Do it at HomeEarth Day Kits that will include how-to instructions and all of the materials needed for art activities and seed planting. Kits will also have two free tickets to visit the Seattle Aquarium or the Woodland Park Zoo. You can pick up kits, while supplies last, at any of the locations Rec’N the Streets has programming during the week of April 21 – 25.  See the Rec’N the Streets Facebook page for specific locations on each day.

Unable to make it to the park? Visit SPR’s Earth Week YouTube Playlist and watch educational videos on how to recycle, native plants and their significance, fun Earth Day focused art projects, and more.

Take a Walk in the Park

Get some Vitamin N (nature) and take a walk in one of Seattle’s 485 parks. Guide yourself, join a naturalist, or even read a book while you walk!

• Story Walk®: Reading and the outdoors go together like kids and playgrounds! The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Parks and Recreation are collaborating to bring you StoryWalk® in the Parks from Wednesday April 21 through Saturday April 24.  You can find StoryWalks at Herring’s House Park (Tualtwx), offered in partnership with the Duwamish Longhouse; Genesee Park (Upper Field parking lot); Magnuson Park (Magnuson Frog Pond Park and Ride, lot E-5); and Northacres Park. Find all the details at www.spl.org/StoryWalk. Post your StoryWalk® photo on social media with the hashtag #storywalkseattle.
  
  
• Self-Guided Nature Walk: All ages are invited to go to Meadowbrook Pond from 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. on Thursday April 22 for a Self-Guided Nature Walk.
  
  
• Naturalist Nature Walk: Visit Carkeek Park from10:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 24 for a Nature Walk with SPR’s Environmental Education staff.
  
  
• Naturalist Walk for Seniors: On April 21, SPR invites Seniors (50+) to take a Nature Walk from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. at Jose Rizal Park with Parks Environmental Education staff.
  
  
• Or go for a run in the park! Join your socially-distanced neighbors on April 17 for the Earth Day Run at Magnuson Park. Register online for the 5K, 10K, 15K or half-marathon and have a tree planted in your honor!
  
  

Clean-up Our Parks Events

On Friday, April 23, join Seattle Parks and Recreation Environmental Education staff and volunteers from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. for a Clean-up Our Parks event. Come with your family or a friend, bring your own bags and gloves or get them from one of our volunteers in the following parks.

• Longfellow Creek Natural Area
• Myrtle Edwards Park
• Herring’s House Park
• Thornton Creek Natural Area
• Genesee Park and Playfield 

If these parks are not in your neighborhood, you can still help us and participate. Send a picture of cleaning up your local park or neighborhood to: Kyle.Morrison@seattle.gov.

Restore Our Urban Forests

Join the Green Seattle Partnership to celebrate Earth Month! A number of virtual learning opportunities – from book clubs on environmental justice to webinars on indigenous plant knowledge – are listed on the GSP webpage. If you are looking to get into the woods and do some hands-on restoration, then check out the volunteer events listings to find one near you with space available.

For a listing and links to all these Earth Week events and opportunities, visit www.seattle.gov/parks/earthweek.