That’s Seal Sitters founder Brenda Peterson, showing photos on her iPad at Thursday night’s Alki Community Council meeting. After an overview of the group’s volunteer work protecting (and educating people about) marine mammals, she mentioned they’re looking for more help as spring/summer pup season arrives, continuing through September. (And as reported here, there’s a training session coming up – June 1.) In addition to seeking volunteer Seal Sitters, Peterson also says they’re hoping more Alki-area folks will build rafts for the seals (remember this one?) since those are the safest places for them to haul out and avoid the potential dangers awaiting ashore. Peterson also told the crowd a bit about her best-selling book “I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth,” and mentioned she’s featured in an audio interview you can listen to for free through June 2 – just go here.

Next guest, Dolly Vinal from the West Seattle Wildlife Habitat Project – talking about how to get your yard/home certified by the National Wildlife Federation. Advice: Keep native plants, vary your landscape, make water available for the birds and animals that will find their way in. Ensuring habitat for birds is particularly important, Vinal says, because Seattle is on a flyway, and birds that are “just passing through” can benefit as well as residents. (She also gave thumbs-up to Peterson’s ramp-building request, saying those count as wildlife habitat too.)

Then came Steve Richmond from GardenCycles, with advice about preventing slides via ground-cover choices – he stressed that you want to beat back invasives like ivy and blackberries, since they can choke out the plants that could keep the ground covered and stable. Then, it was on to matters of crime, safety and more – click ahead:

OTHER TOPICS: For the third night in a row, Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James got to talk about the recent rise in car prowls (first reported here in our coverage of Tuesday night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting). He also reminded everyone that while it’s beach-fire season, fires have to be in the designated areas/fire rings, and Parks is patrolling and enforcing. … Update on brick sales for Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, which pays for maintenance: David Hutchinson says 257 were sold for summer installation, and 30 more have been sold since, so they’ll be part of the fall installation … Tony Fragada, the Alki Community Council rep in local preparedness efforts, says the search is on for an alternate location as the Alki neighborhood’s Emergency Communication Hub, since it turns out the previously designated spot is in a liquefaction zone. More to come when the new spot is identified and confirmed.

The Alki Community Council meets the third Thursday of the month, 7 pm, Alki UCC Church.