Tomorrow, Sunday, and subsequent weekends into mid-March, you are invited to join West Seattle’s newest neighborhood-beautification campaign – on the sloped median of Chilberg Avenue between Genesee and Douglas, just east of Beach Drive, leading to Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook Park.

(WSB photo showing part of the project area)

A group of neighbors, Friends of the Chilberg Link, successfully applied for a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant, $8,900 to be matched by more than $10,000 in volunteer work and contributions. Janice Nyman – herself an arborist and architect – sent word that their work parties are about to begin and they’re inviting participation.

“Although its looking pretty raw right now,” she said, “I think it’s going to be quite pretty: Fruit trees, pollinator wild flowers, berries!” You can see the plan here.

The announcement adds that “Friends of the Chilberg Link will remove invasives, prune vegetation, plant edible plants, and create an area for rainwater holding and a secured art piece. Work parties will be held in the winter and spring of 2016. Professional landscape firms will be hired to lead the community in landscape installation, including: Mariposa Naturescapes, Garden Cycles, and Black Lotus Landscaping LLC.”

The project will evoke the area’s history, according to research done by local historian Judy Bentley – a one-lane road ran through a meadow filled with wildflowers.

At the northern end of the Schmitz property, a single-lane dirt road wound down a hill through substantially uninhabited meadow to a dead end a block beyond Carroll Street.

When walking to and from the old Alki School [at Chilberg Ave. SW/59th and Carroll], we frequently preferred the trail along Chilberg Avenue, to enjoy some of the most beautiful wild flowers in the open fields and leading up into ‘The woods,’ the hillside forest.” (Lillevand Papers, SWSHS).

“We love the historical reference to a winding meadow with wildflowers, so we are using it as the basis of our design,” Nyman says.

Join them Saturdays and Sundays, 10:30 am-12:30 pm. You’re asked to “bring shovels, pruners, and gloves”; cardboard donations are welcome too, as is the donated use of yard-waste containers. Questions? Contact Nyman at nymanarc@gmail.com.

P.S. If you or someone you know has more information about the history of Chilberg Avenue, please contact Bentley at bentley.judy@gmail.com or Lissa Kramer at the Log House Museum.