Admiral Way slope-clearing mystery solved


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More than a few WSBers have asked what we know about the city crew that’s been clearing part of the slope this week along the west side of Admiral Way, about halfway uphill from the West Seattle Bridge. We checked with Parks Department spokesperson Dewey Potter, who explains:

At this site there’s a little bit of park property and mostly Seattle Department of Transportation property. Under the Green Seattle Partnership, it’s the first piece of work to be done on non-park property, and the largest piece of non-park property identified as a Green Seattle Partnership site. Here’s the partnership web site: greenseattle.org and a recent Mayor’s news release

Parks is clearing the invasive blackberries. A banner will go up soon at the site inviting volunteers to come and help, if they’d like to, on the east side (the west side is too dangerous for volunteers because of its proximity to traffic and the steepness of the slope).

By the way, we regularly feature Green Seattle Partnership-promoted work parties in our West Seattle Weekend Lineup, published every Friday – here’s the GS list of what’s coming up this weekend, a particularly big slate since it’s the weekend before Earth Day. This page on the GSP website explains the importance of clearing invasives (ivy, and more) in urban forests.

10 Replies to "Admiral Way slope-clearing mystery solved"

  • Note April 16, 2009 (2:22 pm)

    Whoo!!! I’ve been hoping this was going to start soon!! It’s such a great thing. This area is in such poor condition. It’s very cool they’re having volunteers help too. Can you imagine how beautiful it’s going to be when all the blk berries, clematis, and ivy are taken out!

  • RobertSeattle April 16, 2009 (2:30 pm)

    Whoo #2 – I was getting worried about that small forest – the vines were really doing some damage to the trees.

  • hutchbec April 16, 2009 (3:20 pm)

    It’s looking so great! It’s like a scratch off game ticket – each time I go by they’ve unearthed something else that was hidden under the blackberries. Who knew there was a concrete wall back there? It looks so much better.

  • Debbie April 16, 2009 (3:28 pm)

    Thanks WSB for finding the answer – I too am delighted with their progress so far. That whole area has been an eyesore for years.

  • WSB April 16, 2009 (3:37 pm)

    And thanks for asking about it in the first place. That’s why we say WSB doesn’t have “readers” but instead has “collaborators” – even though we do drive/walk around town, literally looking for news, we can’t see every square foot of West Seattle every day, so it’s awesome that when people DO see something new, different, interesting, troubling, whatever in the neighborhoods THEY do see every day, they sound the alert and we do our best to find out more. Collaboration!!!! Thanks! – TR
    .
    p.s. we can be reached in a variety of ways, 24/7, as per the Contact page:
    https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?page_id=2

  • Elisabeth April 16, 2009 (8:25 pm)

    Driving by yesterday, I noticed that concrete wall. Does anyone know what it was for? Looks too small to be a retaining wall against the hillside. Maybe a business was located there once?

  • Mike D. April 16, 2009 (9:17 pm)

    I really, really appreciate this effort and all the others like it that are going on around the city. Whether they be large areas with pro’s shepherding the project or an individual taking it up on their own to clear city property of the dreaded ivy, blackberry, holly, etc. that is choking out all the beautiful madrones, maples and conifers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  • KSJ April 16, 2009 (9:19 pm)

    Thanks TR, fantastic news for our little neck of the woods! (so to speak)

  • margaritaville April 17, 2009 (10:34 am)

    Looks wonderful! Perhaps it can become a new raccoon habitat.

  • Gina April 18, 2009 (12:58 pm)

    The retaining wall is leftover from the little power station that was there.

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