Beneath the blackberries: Hamilton Viewpoint hillside cleanup

| Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

(WSB photos by Katie Meyer)
Thanks to Shelley and Kristen for e-mailing about this sighting today – crews working for the city on the slope beneath Hamilton Viewpoint. The burlap they’re spreading is striking enough – but what really caught passers-by’s eyes were the mounds of bottles and cans found beneath years worth of blackberry tangle – here’s a closer look:

WSB contributor Katie Meyer talked to the workers while photographing the project zone and the bottle/can mounds. They told her the areas being protected now with burlap will be seeded with grass, and then planted with native bushes and shrubs (Oregon Grape and ferns were mentioned).

As Katie points out, the recovered containers have been sorted into piles for recycling!

JanS December 3, 2010 (4:42 pm)

that is totally amazing…we are such pigs!!!!! Thanks to those who have cleaned it up.

onceachef December 3, 2010 (4:53 pm)

Nice job and thanks for cleaning up! What a pig sty and what a shame it got to be that way in the first place.

I. Ponder December 3, 2010 (5:07 pm)

If this state had a deposit on cans and bottles it we’d never that mess.

Trileigh December 3, 2010 (5:22 pm)

Thank you so much, folks! Your work is truly appreciated by the West Seattle community.

Genesee Hill December 3, 2010 (5:27 pm)

Heck, no way are pigs that filthy. Humans are filthy. I bet there isn’t a real pig within 10 miles of the Hamilton Viewpoint, so I would not classify it as a “pig sty”…

orcmid December 3, 2010 (5:31 pm)

It looks like the brown leather hat that blew away above there has not turned up, aye?

JBL December 3, 2010 (5:39 pm)

Wow…Has this ever been done before (cleaning out all the bottles and trash)? Just wondering how old all that trash is.

Baba December 3, 2010 (6:00 pm)

Is city going to leave all them cans overnight like that? My cousin in law is on his way over from Enumclaw right now…

sophista-tiki December 3, 2010 (6:14 pm)

Dang

toddinwestwood December 3, 2010 (7:23 pm)

Some of those might be collectible.

wolfbain December 3, 2010 (7:24 pm)

bottles and cans… just clap your hands! LMAO

Juno December 3, 2010 (9:49 pm)

Wow! What a cool ‘1% for art’ project. The arrangement of bottles, the palette, the ironic nature of all – simply stunning. Thank you!

Noelle December 3, 2010 (9:49 pm)

That is awesome! I thought they were getting ready to build a retaining wall or put in drainage of some sort. When I saw them clearing the blackberries and putting down those sheets, it looked a lot like mud slide prevention work. I am happy to hear the hillside is NOT falling down or something!!!

austin December 3, 2010 (9:58 pm)

I was just there day before yesterday. The volume of this cleanup is incredible! It’s disgusting the volume of garbage left on this hillside. It’s amazing the work going on to remove it.

Laurie December 3, 2010 (10:18 pm)

Thank you!
I wonder if my son’s mini-WSSC soccer ball is hanging out down there with orcmid’s brown leather hat…?

Lura December 3, 2010 (11:19 pm)

It would be interesting to read about the age of some of the bottles and cans.

miws December 4, 2010 (7:30 am)

Lura, I was thinking the same thing when I first read this yesterday.

Wonder if there are any circa ’70’s-’80’s cans that had the fully removable pull tabs (bonus if the pull tab is inside the can!), or going back even further, steel cans with the pre-pull tabs two triangular openings made by the “church Key”.

Quiz for the “kids” here:

1) Why would there have been two openings in the top of the pop/beer can?
2) What the heck is a “church key”?

Mike

Mayor Quimby December 4, 2010 (8:34 am)

I was at this site on Thursday afternoon just when the crew finished, and it was a site to see!

Two things I note:

The bulk of the debris is probably from NYE and July 4th celebrations when that park is more than over run with folks (not from W Seattle).

The safety of the workers out there. For every whole bottle there seem to be two that are broken about that landscape…poor guys, be careful

steve December 4, 2010 (8:45 am)

I’m surprised the City has chosen this time of year to do such intense clearing in a critical slope and probably landslide prone site.

sarelly December 4, 2010 (10:28 am)

That really is amazing.

What I’m wondering is why use shrubs when it seems planting trees would be more helpful in preventing erosion due to their larger and deeper root systems. We have, for example, some kind of white-bark birch or aspen in our back yard, which grew from a sprout to a couple of stories high in ten years. There must be a number of relatively fast-growing varieties.

kc December 4, 2010 (11:15 am)

This is amazing and very frustrating to me. I am encouraged by the cleanup, but I have a similar large hillside off the back of my home that I own which is next to an alley. Over the years, tons of trash had been dumped, so two years ago I tried to clean it up. I removed three dumpsters of trash including many bottles and cans, as well as car parts, refrigerator, water heater, etc. The city thought so highly of my efforts to clean up the years of trash that I received a citation and was fined and forced to submit a plan to replant the native vegetation that was killed (blackberry tangle) and plant new trees. (no trees were injured in this process) All in all, my clean up effort cost me nearly $10,000 and several lost work time at city offices…and all I have to show for it is more berry tangles and a lighter checkbook.

dawsonct December 4, 2010 (12:53 pm)

I hope they continue to intensively follow up on this next Spring when the bind weed (Convolvulus arvensis), or as people so frequently misidentify it, morning glory, comes back. With so much open area and sunlight, it will explode in an area where it is already a huge problem.

Genesee Hill December 4, 2010 (5:13 pm)

Awesome clean up! Thank you so VERY much!

sun*e December 4, 2010 (10:04 pm)

@wolfbain: Bottles and cans… just clap your hands…just clap your hands. Where it’s at. I got two turntables and a microphone. I love this Beck song… too perfect! :lol:

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