West Seattle Blog…

‘Harbor Island People for the Environment’: Workers with a mission

From 13th and Florida on Harbor Island, a dramatic set of before and after photos – first, the “before”:

And the “after” – though the story’s not entirely over yet:

Here’s the news release we received, explaining what’s going on:

A small group of Harbor Island employees joined forces to improve the neighborhood by creating a green space in their industrial environment. Naming themselves “Harbor Island People for the Environment” (HIPE), they arranged for a non-profit youth organization to paint murals for a warehouse and they built planter boxes for foliage to brighten and clean the air.

Festivities to celebrate installation of the murals and garden spot will be held June 1 at 4 PM at the north end of Harbor Island, 1731 13th Avenue SW. Sponsoring companies: Crowley, PCC Logistics, Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine, Vigor Industrial LLC.

Urban ArtWorks is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering at-risk youth through professional opportunities in the arts, to learn a variety of skills, and to use their creative talents in a positive way. Seven young artists and their mentors created eight mural panels for display on the side of a warehouse facing 13th Avenue SW. The maritime theme of the murals begins with a depiction of the land some hundred years ago, when it was inhabited by the Duwamish people, evolving gradually to the industrial era of today.

The garden design was developed by Spirit Garden Design owner, Lucinda O’Halloran. The planter boxes were donated and built by employees of PCC Logistics. Volunteers from the four sponsoring companies held a work party on May 18 to plant flowering trees and shrubs in the planter boxes. Company volunteers also participated for the fifth year in City of Seattle’s annual “Spring Clean” by picking up litter in the area.

Harbor Island is a busy work environment with shipping, shipbuilding and repair, railroads, trucking, engineering firms, and more, all squeezed onto a narrow manmade island co-existing with the Port of Seattle’s cranes, which constantly load and unload container cargo. The HIPE committee has plans for continued focus on developing green spots for a sustainable environment.

The murals mentioned in the announcement will be arriving later this week, and we’ll check back. Thanks to HIPE for the before/after photos included above!

Getting toxics off the beach: Lincoln Park creosote cleanup

(Photos courtesy Puget Soundkeeper Alliance)
Thanks to work this week by Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, in cooperation with the state Natural Resources department and Seattle Parks, there’s less toxic creosote on Lincoln Park’s beach right now – and that means less in the marine ecosystem. Earlier this week, crews were out at Lincoln Park with an excavator and chainsaws – operated by the state Ecology Department’s Washington Conservation Corps – to remove what was estimated to total about eight tons of washed-up logs contaminated with creosote, long used as a preservative.

Thanks to Puget Soundkeeper’s pollution-prevention coordinator Barbara Owens for the photos; she says the downtown waterfront saw a similar project two years ago, in the Myrtle Edwards/Olympic Sculpture Parks‘ vicinity.

Déja vu at Alki Beach: Sunny day = littering beachgoers

Alki photographer David Hutchinson was out at the beach early this morning and dismayed to see this scene repeated (remember April?) – in multiple spots. Not long after he took the photos, David says, a Parks Department crew came by for trash pickup. But the point of this isn’t to criticize Parks, which put out some extra cans after last month’s litterfest – some of which still overflowed or were ignored:

The point is for people to consider picking up after themselves. David notes there’s available space in “dumpsters (usually half empty) when cans are full. There are 5 dumpsters from 59th Ave to 56th Ave – a distance of 4 blocks. They are spaced about every block. There are 3 dumpsters around the Alki Bathhouse plus 1 dumpster for recycling. An additional dumpster is located by the picnic shelter down at 62nd.” After all, it’s not like somebody’s on hand to bus your table:

We know many people who use Alki won’t see this story because the beach draws from far beyond West Seattle. But if you do go to the beach on a sunny day, or know someone planning an event, be sure to make sure an extra bag or two is in the plan, and even consider packing out your trash – or at least hauling it to the nearest dumpster, which probably, as David points out, will have room.

Lauren’s idea: Saving bees, with education – but she can’t do it alone

Meet Lauren. She’s been working to learn more about bees, which are so vital to our environment … and yet, to some, so scary, or at least mysterious. She has an idea to help other learn more about them – but she can’t make it happen alone – so she would like to pitch her idea to you, and find out what kind of support is out there:

Seeking fellow West Seattle Neighbors interested in supporting an observational/educational beehive in High Point!

My name is Lauren Englund and I live in the High Point Community. I am also a member of the High Point Neighborhood Association … and I have an idea. I would like to apply for a Department of Neighborhoods Grant (or similar) for the construction of an observational beehive enclosure within one of the park spaces in High Point (perhaps something similar to the enclosure already installed at Bradner Gardens Park). Beehive enclosure’s help to minimize disturbance to the bees, heighten the flight path of the bees (to minimize human/bee interaction), and protect curious children from getting too close to the hives.

Click to read the rest of Lauren’s idea: Saving bees, with education – but she can’t do it alone…

West Seattle wildlife: School-salmon release season begins

In Fauntleroy Park this morning, Westside School (WSB sponsor) second-graders were the first to visit Fauntleroy Creek this spring to release salmon fry they’ve been raising. The students arrived in vans; the salmon, in a bucket:

Another bucket nearby held a few of the smolt that had been released into the creek a year earlier; watershed steward Judy Pickens explained that they have been transporting smolt downstream that way because last year, so many of them died somewhere between the park and the fish ladder near Fauntleroy Cove. She joined teacher Laura Holmes (center) for a briefing at the park’s north-central entrance before everyone headed down to the creek:

Judy was presented with student art and poetry about the fish, and read the poems aloud before they were tacked up in the kiosk nearby:

Back to that first fish – as was the case with each student in turn, the boy in the black/white hat was instructed to hold his hand over the cup once volunteer Dennis Hinton had scooped up a fry to set free – then to carefully empty the cup into the creek, by a small footbridge a short walk from SW Barton … and then, off went the fry:

Each spring, Judy, Dennis, and other volunteers watch for smolt heading outbound – this spring, 105 so far – and then each fall, they watch for salmon returning home after about 3 years away.

Followup: Another record Recycle Roundup in Fauntleroy

(Sunday photo by WSB editor Tracy Record)
Another successful dropoff event this past weekend – more successful than ever, in fact! Judy Pickens just shared this wrapup of how the Fauntleroy Church‘s Recycle Roundup on Sunday (WSB coverage here) turned out:

The West Seattle peninsula is surely sitting higher in the water today after residents brought a record 16 tons of recyclables to Sunday’s Recycle Roundup hosted by Fauntleroy Church and 1 Green Planet. With that much stuff returning to the resource stream, more cars surely fit in the garage and a few marriages may have been saved!

The crew packed every truck available with 16 tons of almost everything imaginable, from infant car seats to elder scooters, computers to fencing. To thank the church’s green committee for organizing the free event and providing a “Green Ideas” handout, recyclers tossed just over $1,400 in the donation basket.

The church will announce the fall event date soon so that area residents have ample notice to start sorting.

Recycle Roundup 9 am-3 pm today at Fauntleroy Church

(Added 11:46 am: The 1 Green Planet team this morning in the early going)
Last time the Fauntleroy Church Green Committee brought 1 Green Planet to West Seattle for a “Recycle Roundup,” the recycling company’s trucks went away with 14 tons of electronics and other items. 9 am-3 pm today, they’re back, and will be set up in the church parking lot (9140 California SW) again awaiting your recyclables. If you haven’t checked it yet, here’s the list of what they will and won’t accept. It’s a free service (though the Green Committee will accept donations if you’re interested in helping them cover their costs).

Followup: West Seattle High School’s raingarden takes shape

Thanks to Jennifer Hall for sharing photos of West Seattle High School‘s YMCA Earth Service Corps club (and friends) taking advantage of the Saturday sunshine to get their new raingarden going.

You might remember the boost the project got last month — it won a $1,000 grant from Sustainable West Seattle for rounding up a crowd to learn about fighting the Tox-Ick Monster.

Happening now: Join CoolMom & friends to ‘Think Outside the Car’

(First 3 photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Music, fun, and food right now in the north lot at Westside School (WSB sponsor), 34th just south of SW Holden, where CoolMom‘s “Think Outside the Car” kickoff celebration continues till 2 pm. BottleRockit is playing, and the Lumpia World and Athena’s food trucks are selling lunch:

There’s another kids’ bike parade planned at 1:30 pm, and in the meantime, don’t be chicken about getting an “Undriving License”:

(added) Here are Hannah and Elliot Goldstein with theirs:

(Photo by Undriving’s Julia Field)
“Think Outside the Car” is a campaign not to get you entirely out of your car, but to encourage walking and biking when possible, and also to reduce driving impacts – asking people not to idle their engine while waiting at school, for example. Watch for more info and events to come.

ADDED 5:40 PM: One more photo – this one from Don Brubeck, who was there volunteering with Cascade Bicycle Club:

The Cascade mention reminds us – Bike To Work Day is coming up on May 18th.

‘Opted out’ of phone books? City says 1 in 5 already has

Approaching the first anniversary of its opt-out-of-phone-books program, the city says more than a fifth of Seattle households are using it. According to a news release this morning: “More than 75,000 residents and businesses have stopped nearly 420,000 individual unwanted phone-book deliveries – saving 375 tons of paper.” Another round of deliveries looms, so they’re getting the word out now – you can opt out online by going here – do it by May 22nd, Seattle Public Utilities says, or the next round of Dex books will be on your doorstep (you can opt out of others, too). If you don’t want to opt out online, do it via an automated phone service, (206) 504-3066. (P.S. To stop junk mail, go here – note that you’ll be asked to opt out by name of company whose mailings you get, so it’s not as streamlined a process.)

West Seattle Earth Day: South Seattle Community College cleanup

(Photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
When we saw South Seattle Community College president Gary Oertli at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Westside Awards breakfast back on Wednesday (WSB coverage here), we asked if anything big was coming up. He mentioned that the SSCC Business Club would be out on 16th SW this morning in front of the campus for an Earth Day cleanup. He didn’t mention he’d be there too!

But there was the college president (black cap, both photos), ready to pitch in along with students from the Business Club and some faculty members. We caught them in the late-morning sunshine, post-donuts, pre-cleanup. A big thanks to them and everyone else who spent part of this Earth Day weekend taking care of the community!

1 week AFTER Earth Day – ‘Recycle Roundup’ next Sunday

Another reminder, while you’re in the Earth Day” mood today – NEXT Sunday (April 29th) is the Fauntleroy Church Green Committee‘s next event with 1 Green Planet, coming to West Seattle for another “Recycle Roundup.” 9 am-3 pm in the church parking lot that day, come drop off your stuff. The church’s website has the list of what you can bring that day to be recycled – see it here. Yes, they will accept your items for free.

Continuing tomorrow: Rock and Gem Show; Green Home Tour

That’s Logan, and he’s proof the West Seattle Rock Club‘s annual Rock and Gem Show is for all ages – whether you’re helping out, as he is, or just visiting. Interactive, too. If you missed it today, the show (no admission charge!) continues 10 am-6 pm tomorrow at the Alki Masonic Lodge, 40th/Edmunds.

Activities as well as exhibits – and a silent auction, too, according to the official show info. Another free event you can enjoy in its second day tomorrow, the Seattle Green Home Tour, with four West Seattle stops, including the LD Arch Design (WSB sponsor) “Lemon Drop Addition”:

That’s architect Parie Hines and landscape designer Keri DeTore (yes, same KDT who also writes for WSB!), who is working on a “green roof” for the chicken coop. Here’s the Green Home Tour map with all four West Seattle sites (and one not too far away):

If you want to check out tour sites outside West Seattle, our preview story has a link to the Seattle-wide site, as well as lots more info on the WS stops. Tomorrow’s hours are 10 am-4 pm.

Photos: Duwamish Alive! in West Seattle, South Park, beyond

Hundreds of volunteers have been hard at work over the past three-plus hours doing cleanup and restoration work not only in the Duwamish River watershed, but on the river, as part of the semiannual Duwamish Alive! mega-work party. We stopped by Duwamish Waterway Park in South Park as volunteers got ready to head out for the day – note the Alki Kayak Tours URL on some of the kayaks; they’re involved with this part of the cleanup every year:

(If you were part of any other work parties, we’d love to add another photo or two, since this is the only one we could visit – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!)

ADDED 4:23 PM: Thanks for answering the call! Two people sent photos from the Pigeon Point/West Duwamish Greenbelt work party – Trissa shares this photo of her son Atticus, who she says volunteered along with his Uncle Thomas:

Amanda ‘s photos start with Norman Baker singing to the volunteers who were clearing out invasives (having art or music is a trademark of events like this when Nature Consortium is involved):

And she says this reptile made an appearance too!

Missed the chance to pitch in today? Lots more work parties coming up around the area. Tomorrow, for example, there’s an Earth Day cleanup at Dakota Place Park (Dakota/California), 1-4 pm.

ADDED SATURDAY NIGHT: One more photo – thanks! Karen shares the picture from the T-107 cleanup:

T-107 is one of the Port of Seattle’s local parks, by the way.

LD Arch Design: New WSB sponsor (and Green Home Tour site!)

Welcome to another new sponsor, LD Arch Design, a green architecture firm focusing on residential additions and remodels. Their message for you: The mission of the firm is “thrifty and thoughtful design for a small planet,” and architect Parie Hines works to sensitively transform existing homes – maximizing reuse and keeping any added spaces compact and efficient.

Parie is sitting on the porch of her family’s home, which doubled its space with an addition built in 2009 on a very tight budget. Featured as part of the Seattle Green Home Tour on April 21st and 22nd (this Saturday-Sunday), it’s an example of Parie’s “less is more GREEN” design philosophy, showcasing affordable green strategies for people who are interested in making their existing home greener.

The “less is more GREEN” design concept is simple – it uses less space, less new stuff, less toxic stuff, less energy, and less water – which often leads to less money spent on your home. You can read more about it at the “less is more GREEN” blog, and specifically about the green strategies of the LemonDrop Addition at the NW Ecobuilding Guild site page. And, of course, you are invited to stop by to see it in person on April 21st and 22nd.

LD Arch Design also reserves time for pro bono or reduced-fee design for community projects, using Parie’s background in public architecture, affordable housing, and community development. LD Arch Design is one of the resources available at the WS Tool Library DIY Ask an Expert event every 2nd Thursday at 6 pm at Youngstown. Parie also serves as co-chair of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council and chairs its Community Design and Land Use committee.

Reach LD Arch Design online at ldarchdesign.com, by phone at 206-229-8923, and via its Facebook page.

We thank LD Arch Design for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

Seattle Green Home Tour this weekend – with five area stops

Just a few days till this weekend’s free, self-guided Seattle Green Home Tour (with WSB among the co-sponsors), which – as the clickable map above shows you – has four West Seattle stops this year, plus one not too far away (and 25 stops in all, around the metro area). Read on for more details on the West Seattle sites: Click to read the rest of Seattle Green Home Tour this weekend – with five area stops…

Arbor Heights’ Earth Day Groceries Project bags have arrived!

(Photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
Arbor Heights Elementary School teacher Mark Ahlness started the Earth Day Groceries Project in 1994, and it’s still going strong – with Ahlness and his students bringing this year’s delivery of specially decorated bags to Roxbury Safeway manager Sai Cho (upper left of our photo) this afternoon. The 350-plus bags – bearing art and messages about Earth Day – will be distributed to Safeway shoppers. (Though April 22nd is still more than a week away, but this is the last day of school before a week of spring break, and that’s why this was delivery day.)

‘Think Outside the Car’ launch April 28: Bike rodeo, food trucks…

The local family-oriented sustainability group CoolMom has been working on this for months, and now it’s about to launch – its Think Outside the Car project. They’re planning an event at Westside School (WSB sponsor) on April 28th that will have a festival flavor, with a kids’ bicycle rodeo, live music, and even food trucks. Read on for the announcement: Click to read the rest of ‘Think Outside the Car’ launch April 28: Bike rodeo, food trucks……

Followup: Preschoolers participate in Easter-egg-recycling project

The scene from the Arbor Heights Cooperative Preschool class of “Teacher Karen” may look like your everyday “kids dyeing Easter eggs” class – but there’s more than meets the eye. It starts with the story published here last week about Paul West and his request for people to give them their hard-boiled Easter eggs post-Easter so he could turn them into fertilizer for an “urban nitrogen project. That resonated with Karen, who explained via e-mail:

I have been wanting to dye eggs with my preschool class but I don’t want to “waste” the eggs, although they will not be edible after a day in a class full of three-year-olds. Then I read your story about Paul and gardening with urban nitrogen. I contacted Paul and talked to him about it. He very generously donated 5 dozen eggs to our class, and our class agreed to return at least double that many after we’d colored them.

So this morning, she invited us to drop by her classroom as the kids worked studiously on the task at hand.

P.S. If you’re interested in donating Easter eggs to the fertilizer project, Paul explains it on his website.

Get ready to recycle! List for next Fauntleroy Church ‘Roundup’

Every time the Fauntleroy Church Green Committee brings 1 Green Planet to West Seattle for a “Recycle Roundup,” they head out with tons of stuff to be recycled rather than thrown away. So we’re giving you advance warning – another one is in the works for April 29th, 9 am-3 pm, and the church’s website already has posted the list of what you can drop off that day to be recycled – see it here. Last “Recycle Roundup” in October (WSB photo at left) set a Fauntleroy record – 14 tons of recycled items! (P.S. Yes, it’s free.)

Nature Consortium brunch doubles last year’s success

(Photo by Long B. Nguyen)
What you see in that recent aerial view is part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt – the largest contiguous forest in Seattle, and the focus of the restoration work done by the Nature Consortium. The West Seattle-based nonprofit is celebrating the other kind of greenery, too – almost $40,000 raised by Sunday’s annual benefit brunch at The Hall at Fauntleroy, double last year’s total, according to NC founder and executive director Nancy Whitlock:

Other big numbers could be found in the NC’s annual report, circulated at the brunch – 2,295 youth served with art classes last year, 3,651 volunteers helping plant 7,155 native trees and shrubs. “It’s pretty astounding even to me, how much is accomplished,” marveled Whitlock. She spoke of her organization “growing up,” coming out of its adolescence – next year is its 15th anniversary. The terms were apropos, given that Nature Consortium works with youth, including the two groups that performed at the brunch – Natural Voices sang “The Greatest Love of All”:

There was also a feisty dance performance by younger kids from Rainier Vista; though Nature Consortium is headquartered in West Seattle, it works elsewhere in the city, too. This year, a bit of a disappointment for fans of all ages of the NC’s signature Arts in Nature Festival – it’s going on a one-year hiatus to regroup for a big 15th anniversary blowout next year, and beyond. But the boost from Sunday’s brunch is bound to help power them in that direction. You can donate to the NC’s work online any time; you can also plug into their frequent forest-restoration work parties by going here.

3 weeks from today, it’s Duwamish Alive! – sign up online now

Trees mark the 11 spots where you can pitch in during the next Duwamish Alive! event, three weeks from today, 10 am-2 pm April 21st. As shown, you can volunteer in West Seattle spots from Alki to Westwood, or east in South Park, or even further south in Tukwila. Here’s the page you can use to sign up for the spot of your choice.

2 chances tomorrow to clean up and green up West Seattle spots

Two ways you can pitch in around West Seattle tomorrow, north or south:

NORTH: Janet Jones sends word that the community gardens at Genesee Hill School need some springtime love! 9 am-1 pm tomorrow, you can come help “spruce up the playground, tend the Nature Garden, distribute mulch, remove invasive species.” Seattle Public Schools, which still owns the shuttered-school campus, will provide tools and gloves. Meet at the north playground (along Dakota).

SOUTH: Join EarthCorps at Fauntleroy Park, 10 am-2 pm Saturday, to help with planting, invasives removal, and trail maintenance. You can sign up online – just go here. Volunteers will meet by the park entrance along SW 97th, near 39th SW.