Making Progress in Seattle’s Urban Forest I recently returned to one of the sites at Schmitz Preserve Park where I led habitat restoration over a decade ago, and I’ll be honest, the site is a total mess. It seemed so simple in the beginning. Remove the weeds and plant native trees. What happened? At the […]

O’Dea High School, an all-boys Catholic school located on First Hill in Seattle, is celebrating its centennial year by working with Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Green Seattle Partnership to restore the natural areas around the sports fields at Genesee Park.

Attendance at habitat restoration events is typically dominated by people who are white, affluent, and/or retired. Although these events provide opportunities to connect with nature, there are a number of barriers for low-income and/or people of color to get involved — knowledge gaps, the opportunity cost of working a weekend job, and safety concerns, to […]

The following summarizes a recent workshop presented by Molly Duttry, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA) Art Manager, who shared insights into how to bring accessible, community-based art activities to local parks and restoration events. You can find the full presentation here, and below. DNDA’s EcoArts program offers a unique interdisciplinary blend of arts and environmental education for youth and adults in King County. EcoArts classes foster […]

GSP Forest Monitoring Program turns 10! Did you know that the Green Seattle Partnership has been systematically monitoring the structure and composition of Seattle’s forested parklands for ten years?!? While inventorying and measuring vegetation have been ongoing in our parks for decades, the official launch of the GSP Forest Monitoring Program occurred in 2010. It […]

Two Years of Hard-Earned Lessons in Seedling Survival Seattle Parks and Recreation along with the Green Seattle Partnership work hard to ensure tree planting projects lead to healthy and resilient forests. To better understand how well our seedlings are surviving, Seattle conducted surveys in 12 of its restoration projects from the 2017-2018 planting season, covering […]

The Legacy Trail If you happen to be taking a stroll down the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail in West Seattle, you may be surprised by the diversity of habitats you find yourself in. One moment you will be enjoying a shaded forest next to a meandering creek, and the next you will be within […]

FREE Festival at Camp Long – June 29th & 30th Regular visitors to Camp Long are already familiar with the park’s towering forests and the active restoration projects taking place through the Green Seattle Partnership. This weekend, however, Camp Long will be offering something different. The 20th annual Arts in Nature Festival will be […]

Everything is connected from the tree tops to the whales’ flukes. How is your work as a volunteer supporting the health of our local Southern Resident orcas? This is a question we should be considering, especially during June, which is Orca Action Month. Recent media stories have highlighted the plight of our Southern Resident […]

For 45 minutes, which can be an eternity in kindergartner time, the students hauled buckets of mulch and dutifully emptied them around young native plants. Then finally, it was time to build. On a sunny Friday along Longfellow Creek, teaching artist Jules Hepp led students in building fairy houses using natural objects they could […]

An Earth Day Celebration April, also known as Earth Month, has come and gone; but it’s always the time of year when folks in our communities are looking for ways to give back to the environment. You’ve probably heard of Earth Day which is celebrated every year on April 22nd, but have you heard of […]

Planting Season Questions It’s winter, and that means it’s tree planting season in Seattle. The Green Seattle Partnership regularly installs over 100,000 plants each year as part of restoration projects across the city. In 2018, Seattle Parks staff, volunteers and contractors planted a record-breaking 43,000 trees alone! With all that work going into our forested […]

Happy New Year from your friends at Seattle Audubon! We’re the oldest conservation organization in Washington State and one of the largest, most active Audubon chapters in the country. We lead a community of over 4,000 members in appreciating, understanding and protecting birds and their habitats. Here are five things you can do to […]

Ed Deal, from the Seattle Cooper’s Hawk Project, has had a busy year of monitoring our resident population of Cooper’s Hawks. He and his dedicated team of volunteers made over 700 sight visits this year to increase our understanding of Cooper’s Hawk nesting in Seattle. Before reading his 2018 report below, you can find an […]

Some of the smallest visitors to Seattle’s forested parklands are also some of the most vital. I am referring not to toddlers but to pollinators – those birds and insects that make plant reproduction possible. In an effort to better welcome these creatures into our cities, EarthCorps recently created a guide to restoring native pollinator habitat. […]

“Five years ago I would never have believed there would be at least 44 nest-building pairs in Seattle.” ~Ed Deal As the Green Seattle Partnership continues to restore Seattle’s forests, it is important to keep an eye on the local fauna gracing our parks. The Seattle Cooper’s Hawk Project, an annual volunteer-run survey, does […]

Each year Green Seattle Partnership staff and volunteers are working hard to restore forested parklands across the city. We are always on the lookout for better ways to get the work done. It could be a new tool, a new way to deal with weed debris, or remove a specific invasive plant. Our volunteers up […]

A history of change lies along the shore of the Duwamish River. For over a thousand years, the Duwamish River has meandered through the narrow landmass we now call South Seattle. Indigenous tribes lived along the river since at least 500 CE and used the Green Duwamish Watershed to hunt ducks and geese, fish for […]