West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli)
No, “green beer” isn’t just the coloring-added stuff served up on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a double meaning today for the keg of Elliott Bay Brewery‘s Demolition Ale that an entourage including owner Todd Carden (photo above, left) and chief brewer Doug Hindman (right) delivered by bicycle to the Latona Pub in Green Lake (6423 Latona Ave NE, ) today. The keg got its own helmet and T-shirt:
Covering the departure for WSB, Christopher Boffoli reports, “Latona Pub has been doing events all week in recognition and celebration of Earth Week. All of the beers they have been serving are delivered by human power. And today Elliott Bay delivered theirs via pedal power. Todd Carden of EBB says that people should check out the EBB’s blog and Twitter feed today as they will be offering a special coupon for Earth Day and organic beer.” (You can show the coupon at EBB on your smartphone.)
6:18 PM ADDITION: That’s Carden’s co-owner Brent Norton joining him and Hindman just before they pedaled away. And we’ve found what looks like an arrival photo on the Latona Pub website. And there’s more backstory on the West Seattle-based Washington Beer Blog.
For the 18th consecutive year, Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Mark Ahlness and students have just delivered specially decorated grocery bags to the Roxbury Safeway store. Ahlness founded the Earth Day Groceries Project, which involves not only Arbor Heights students, but also classes from many other cities (here are online reports from 2008 and 2009). On tomorrow, the official date of Earth Day, if you shop at Roxbury Safeway, you’re likely to get one of the special bags – while they last!
You can also track the Earth Day Groceries Project on Facebook (here), Twitter (here), and photos on Flickr (here).
Thursday is the official 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and one of the local schools celebrating sustainability success is Lafayette Elementary, which shared the photo of fifth-graders Marques Titialii and Alyx Hastings, members of its Green Team, helping with composting. Students meet monthly to come up with ideas for reducing the school’s environmental/carbon footprint; in the first year, they recycled lunchroom milk cartons, and this year, they’re working to compost everything that goes uneaten at lunchtime. They got grants from Seattle Public Schools and from ReUsies, the West Seattle-based company (two Lafayette moms!) that makes and sells reusable sandwich/snack bags, and they set up the program – for which Green Team third, fourth and fifth-graders are fully responsible, including getting their schoolmates to put leftovers in the proper bins. The district is able to pay for compost pickup because the program has reduced the school’s trash pickup costs. Principal Virginia Turner wanted to congratulate “the Lafayette students, parents and staff – led by Laurie Hertzler – for taking on the challenge of composting more than 550 student/teacher lunches each day!”
Three weeks after the first public discussion of three options for reducing “Combined Sewer Overflows” from the Murray Pump Station at Lowman Beach – including one that would dig up much of the small park – it’s back on a local agenda tomorrow: The Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meeting. Meantime, park neighbor Dr. Ron Sterling writes on his website dedicated to the controversial proposal that nearly 400 signatures have been gathered on an “offline” petition, while this online petition is still open to signatures and as of this writing has more than 60 names. At the March 30 public meeting (WSB coverage here), the county described the three alternatives it’s considering for reducing overflows at the site; all involved some form of storage, with the most concern voiced about the option detailed in the graphic above, showing a large tank buried at the park and a storage pipe under part of Beach Drive, plus an above-ground odor-control/electrical vault on the park’ s north side. (The other two listed alternatives include one that would put an underground tank on land across from Lowman that now holds homes and apartments – which could be claimed by eminent domain if their owners chose not to sell – plus one with underground storage under a street uphill.) Neighbors urge anyone interested in the project, pro and con, to be at tomorrow night’s MoCA meeting, 7 pm in the downstairs meeting area at The Kenney (7125 Fauntleroy Way SW). Meantime, the county is taking comments through the end of this month – feedback options are listed here.
(Photo courtesy Nature Consortium – a West Duwamish Greenbelt pond that’s home to red-legged frogs)
Thursday is the official celebration of Earth Day – the 40th anniversary of the first one on April 22, 1970 – and just one day later, you can get an up-close-and-personal look at our city’s largest remaining contiguous forest, the West Duwamish Greenbelt, by joining the free monthly guided eco-hike (mild terrain) presented by the Nature Consortium, the West Seattle-based nonprofit that’s devoted to restoring the WDG. RSVP by calling 206- 923-0853 or emailing lisa@naturec.org; then meet at 1 pm Friday at the 14th SW/SW Holly (map) trailhead. P.S. Even if you’ve already seen our Duwamish Alive! coverage from Saturday – don’t miss the comments on this report – they include reports that two key participants added just today.
(WSB photos and video by Cliff DesPeaux)
On a day dedicated to caring for the Duwamish River — with more than a dozen Duwamish Alive! cleanup/restoration work parties on and around it — about 100 of the volunteers took to the water, after hearing kayaking basics from Greg Whittaker of Alki Kayak Tours. They left from South Park:
Among them, someone who is dedicated to river cleanup year-round, Neal Chism, to whom we introduced you with this story last October:
Ahead – more photos from the river cleanup, as well as photos and video from the largest Duwamish Alive! site at Pigeon Point Park:Read More
Thanks to Mike Heavey (in photo below) for sharing pics from one of more than half a dozen sites in West Seattle that were part of today’s annual Duwamish Alive! Earth Day work parties – he was one of 15 volunteers at Roxhill Bog, the restored natural area on the east side of Roxhill Park, across SW Barton from Westwood Village. Mike reports, “Under the direction of park steward, Scott Blackstock, the group of 15 people removed invasive, non-native species (mostly dandelions and some geranium).”
This year marks a decade since the peat bog – buried more than 30 years – was unearthed, so that restoration could begin. Meantime, photojournalist Cliff DesPeaux covered two other Duwamish Alive! work parties for WSB and we’ll have a second report with his images later on.
Residents in some parts of West Seattle will come home today to find a surprise like that – 2 bags of free Cedar Grove Compost along their curb, maybe leaning against their streetfront garage. It’s the kickoff to a six-week-long giveaway promotion with Cedar Grove and Seattle Public Utilities – even if you don’t find the free compost outside your home, you’ve got another way to pick yours up – more on that shortly. Cedar Grove is made from recycled Seattle yard waste – yes, the stuff you put out on the curb in the big bin, or huge paper bags. Besides the residential dropoff, they also delivered a huge pile to the Delridge P-Patch on 25th SW. Before all this, there was a promotional show-and-tell this morning at the south-of-Admiral home of avid recyclers and gardeners Kirsten, Matt and Harrison Whittemore, who posed for WSB with cat Swaggr (note the nicely mulched garden behind them):
They are avid recyclers and gardeners. If you don’t have free compost bags waiting outside your home, you can get a coupon by going to cgcompost.com, redeemable at locations including the South Transfer Station in nearby South Park; if you don’t want to use your free bags, donate them to the White Center Food Bank, which serves part of West Seattle and can use the compost for edible gardening.
This week two West Seattle businesses announced they’re leaving their storefronts but want to be clear they are NOT closing their businesses:
AUTHENTIC HOME, which specializes in paint and interior design, will continue to sell their exclusive paint line not only online but also through resellers (listed here); proprietor Kathy Banak is also continuing to book color/interior design consultations at 206-937-3070 or info@authentic-home.com. And she says new products are in the works. (Saturday is AH’s last day at its storefront north of The Junction.)
SOLD HOME DECOR is leaving its storefront on 35th SW across from Southwest Library, and just announced a big sale of the used furniture in its showroom there. But proprietor Maria Groen also notes that – as was her focus before – she will continue to offer real-estate staging/consultation and redesign/interior-design consultation. Her contact info is online at soldhomedecor.com. The store’s last day in Westwood is April 25th.
One more West Seattle biznote – a challenge of sorts:
RED CUP ESPRESSO’S EARTH DAY CHALLENGE: Red Cup owner Tricia DiBernardo says her solar-powered Junction coffee shop has adopted the West Seattle-based Nature Consortium in honor of Earth Day, and they’re encouraging you to volunteer with and/or donate to the nonprofit that’s devoted to restoring the West Duwamish Greenbelt, the largest contiguous forest left in the city. She says Red Cup (4451 California SW) has volunteer sign-up sheets for NC, and if you sign up, you’ll be entered to win a T-shirt or hoodie with the group’s cool logo. DiBernardo adds, “This is a wonderful non profit that we would love to support and hope others will also. All of us Red Cuppers have signed up to volunteer as well as about a dozen or so customers .. but we need more people!”
(WSB photo from April 2009)
More than half a dozen sites in West Seattle are part of the annual Duwamish Alive! Earth Day work parties next Saturdays – cleanup, restoration, invasive-plant removal, myriad tasks to help our greenspaces and waterways (including the Duwamish itself). Many of them, we’re told, still need more volunteers to sign up – so please set aside some time; it won’t even take the whole day – just 10 am-2 pm so that you can check out the Earth Day Festival 2-4 pm at Pathfinder K-8, adjacent to one of the sites (Pigeon Point Park, also the scene of the 2009 photo shown above). Here’s the list of sites and info on who to contact to sign up.
From the WSB Forums: Lowman Beach Park neighbor Dr. Ron Sterling has set up a website to rally those concerned about the possibility of the park being dug up to place a large wastewater-storage tank underground if King County chooses that as the solution to “combined sewer overflows” (CSO) into Puget Sound. He had the most to say at the county-led public meeting last week on what the county has announced as its 3 options for the Lowman Beach (formally known as Murray) pump station’s CSO solution. His new website is at soundangels.org. As he writes on the site, the next chance for public discussion is the April 21st Morgan Community Association meeting (7 pm, The Kenney), but in the meantime, some of those commenting on our coverage of last week’s meeting had asked how to get involved. In addition to sending official comments to the county (go here), those who are concerned can join an online petition just linked from the soundangels.org website.
Got chickens, or thinking about them? One of our newest WSB sponsors can help you feed them. We welcome Scratch and Peck, a regional chicken-feed company (delivery or pickup), which like all new sponsors gets the chance to tell you about their business: 
“Many of us are trying to eat healthy foods grown close to home – that’s a big part of the reason we keep chickens in our yards. We are a local, chicken-owning family business dedicated to providing the cleanest, most wholesome animal feeds possible without the use of soy. We use only organic or non-gmo grains, most of which are grown in the Pacific NW. We currently specialize in chicken feed and are also working on creating feeds for other urban farm animals (goats, rabbits). We are in the process of building a feed mill to produce a line of organic feeds made with Washington-grown grains. Our customers seek us out because they want organic chicken feeds so the eggs and meat the chickens give are the cleanest, healthiest possible for human consumption. Most comments center around the idea that the chickens absolutely love the feed and their people love the look and feel of it. The grains are ground or whole and look similar to granola. Many folks say that it looks good enough for them to eat it themselves! My customers return again and again because their chickens thrive on the feed and they feel confident that they are providing the best feed available. My customers are very appreciative of our delivery services. We enjoy it as well because it enables us to visit with our customers and to meet their special chickens up close and personal. Their lives are enhanced because we are helping them in their goal to live as local and organically as possible.” Scratch and Peck is affiliated with the Seattle Urban Farm Co-op, Puget Sound Food Network, American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, and Sustainable Connections. You’ll find them online at scratchandpeck.com – phone and e-mail information is here.
We thank Scratch and Peck for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.
Every Saturday morning, volunteers descend on some of West Seattle’s green treasures — for cleanup, for restoration, for a helping hand to make sure natural spaces survive in our city. One of them got some TLC today, and Mike Arizona shared the photo above, with this report:
On any given Saturday along West Seattle’s Longfellow Creek you will find volunteers working to restore the creek and the greens spaces that surround it to a more natural habitat. This Saturday was no exception!
Thanks to a energetic group of volunteers from Seattle Works, 500 square feet of the Delridge Natural Area was freed from invasive blackberry and the entire area was mulched and cleared of trash. Today’s volunteers prepared the site for planting of native plants and trees this fall.
Check out Longfellow Creek at www.longfellowcreek.org and learn how you can help preserve and enjoy a West Seattle treasure.
Most Fridays, our weekend preview features work-party listings around West Seattle for the following day; you can also check ahead for opportunities here and around the city via the Green Seattle Partnership website.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
For the second time in two weeks, King County Wastewater Treatment brought a team to West Seattle to explain and discuss proposed solutions for a problem that sends more than a million gallons of untreated wastewater and stormwater into this part of Puget Sound in the average year.
This time, at Monday night’s meeting about proposals for the area feeding the Murray pump station at Lowman Beach, the proposed trio of solutions drew even more concern than the trio explained earlier this month for the area served by the Barton pump station by the Fauntleroy ferry dock. (The entire meeting presentation, by the way, is now online – see it here.)
One of them would involve digging up most of Lowman Beach Park, including its unique beachfront tennis court and two century-old trees. Another would involve acquiring homes across the street from Lowman, through eminent domain if necessary. Read on for a look at all three and what the crowd of about 40 at the Southwest Community Center meeting heard and said about them:Read More
After the 9 am kickoff ceremonies, those volunteers are now at work along Fauntleroy Way planting trees. City Council President Richard Conlin joined the opening celebration at Fairmount Playfield too; at the center of the photo is a new Tree City USA flag. Major participants include the Rotary Club of West Seattle, Boy Scouts from Troop 284, Cub Scouts from Pack 793 and Keller Williams Realty.
We’ll be back out soon to check on the actual tree-planting!
12:21 PM UPDATE: If you drive along Fauntleroy Way, you’ll notice the tree-planting stretches almost all the way to the business district’s heart at California SW. Here’s a photo shared by Anne from Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor), showing three volunteers with one of the dozens of new trees that will change the face of Fauntleroy Way for decades to come:
ADDED EARLY SUNDAY: Another photo from Anne. That’s little Trevor helping with the tree:
From our photos – that’s Council President Conlin with organizers just before the event started; note he rolled up on two wheels (see helmet and bike):
This is more progress toward the city’s goal of having a 30 percent tree canopy within 30 years. Read more about that goal – and see how to check your own neighborhood’s canopy – by going here.
Just in from the Port of Seattle – it’s offering a tour of two of its West Seattle parks, two facilities that some don’t realize are port-owned/managed. Read on for the announcement and how to sign up:Read More
We’ve mentioned this a few times and with Saturday just around the corner, it’s time for another reminder: The Rotary Club of West Seattle is helping lead the way in a big tree-planting project along Fauntleroy Way this Saturday, along with local Boy Scouts and the city – and hopefully, with you too! Just be at Fairmount Playground starting at 9 am Saturday. Meantime, here’s the latest news release – read on:Read More
(June 2008 Riverview-area photo by Christine – click to see larger version)
We’ve had a few reports in recent years of bee swarms (particularly the summer of 2008), followed by frantic searches for information on who, if anyone, to notify. This year, the experts have reached out first – with this note in the WSB Forums today. Beekeeper Brad Jones writes that if you find a honeybee swarm – he and other local beekeepers (including Sustainable West Seattle president Brian Allen) will help find it a home. Their contact info is in the Forums post – worth bookmarking!
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Got a couple notes about a strong chemical-like odor in the Gatewood area at midday. Not an avalanche of reports, so at first we weren’t going to write about it – but it does provide an opportunity to remind you that odor IS an air-quality issue and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency wants to hear about it. So if something is persistent or otherwise worrisome, file a report – at least this will help them track it. The information is on the PSCAA website – you can file online or call during business hours.
12:54 PM: The Nature Consortium‘s celebrating its success and looking to its future right now at The Hall at Fauntleroy, during its second annual Benefit Brunch (co-sponsored by WSB). In the capacity crowd, we spotted King County Executive Dow Constantine, State Sen. Joe McDermott, and Seattle School Board rep Steve Sundquist. The Nature Consortium 
is a West Seattle-based nonprofit, headquartered at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge, and its main work involves restoring the West Duwamish Greenbelt – with lots of volunteer help! Their work parties are listed on greenseattle.org – lots of chances to help (including the upcoming Duwamish Alive! events in honor of Earth Day, April 17). 1:54 PM: Added photos – including, at right, NC board member Becca Fong.
(Photos in this story courtesy John Lang unless otherwise credited)
In our Saturday report on this year’s Fairmount Ravine cleanup, we mentioned that organizer John Lang had found an apparent transient camp earlier in the week and asked for police help before the volunteer event. There was a lot more to the story, as you’ll see now that John has written up his account of not only the cleanup but also the discovery, and a close call he had along the way, as well as what they’re hoping for the future:
The 18th annual spring cleanup was a great success! 23 people participated on the sunny and warm Saturday. There was participation from students from Kennedy, O’Dea and West Seattle High Schools including one who drove all the way from Federal Way. That is dedication!
That’s our photo of the teens – John’s story continues after the jump, including what happened when he discovered the camp – and was attacked by the campers’ dog – plus, how your help might be needed (not just for future cleanups):Read More
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