‘If we restore it, the fish will come’: Big dreams for Schmitz Park and its creek, and how you can help
(Schmitz Park, in the center of pilot/photographer Long Bach Nguyen‘s 2012 image)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
In the spirit of the people who brought Fauntleroy Creek back from near-death, a new community coalition is dreaming of restoring another creek to its salmon-sustaining glory.
Right now, the stream in Schmitz (Preserve) Park ends unceremoniously underground and then into Elliott Bay via an outfall. The vision is to daylight it and let it run to the sea along its historic path to Alki.
To daylight this vision, a roomful of community leaders gathered at renowned photographer Art Wolfe‘s Seaview home this past Tuesday night for a presentation that Wolfe himself introduced, with a slideshow of images of Schmitz Park in its greenest glory.
“This is a good idea for this time,” declared Wolfe – good for people, good for wildlife (he mentioned his most recent book “Wild Lives“). That wildlife includes salmon; they have just a few home creeks left in the city limits, including Fauntleroy and Longfellow, but Wolfe expressed certainty that Schmitz Park’s creek could join them. “I think it’s worth trying to open-air the creek to salt water.” That would be a few blocks downhill to the north, at Alki Beach.
The room rippled with people murmuring “yes” in agreement. Wolfe continued showing images of what he found in Schmitz Park earlier this spring – trillium and salmonberry flowers, hummingbirds “like little gems,” a pileated woodpecker, red-breasted sapsucker, the snags where birds can find food and respite, trees coated with moss. Wolfe said everyone should see it for themselves: “This kind of environment” – the forest’s “boggy bottom” – “is what purifies the water and makes this a viable salmon-spawning resource.”
His photos also included the not-so-scenic grate over a segment of the creek at 57th and Stevens – here’s the Google Maps Street View image of that spot:
From there, he recounted, the culvert “empties so far out (in Elliott Bay) that nobody realizes (fresh water is mingling).” Wolfe said a potential vision for the Schmitz Park creek could be to run the streambed along a street and down to the beach, “maybe a sidewalk along one side and the creek on the other.” But he stressed that it’s “early in the game” and this is just an idea for now. But: “I think we need more salmon-spawning streams.”
Next to speak was Daniel Nye, co-chair of the new coalition, the Schmitz Park Creek Restore Project. He too spoke reverently of Schmitz Park, “sacred ground,” observing that its old-growth trees “have been here waiting and watching … for centuries since the icebergs retreated.” The forest, he reiterated, is “a spiritual place.”
Nye recounted the park’s history – long before it was a park, it was part of the home territory of the Duwamish people (whose chair Cecile Hansen and council member Ken Workman were among the guests at the gathering). In 1851, the Alki arrival of the white settlers known as the Denny Party started a wave of change on the peninsula. The Schmitz family (whose representative Vicki Schmitz Block was at the gathering) set aside the 53 unlogged acres that became Schmitz Park.
Nye talked about the park’s design by the famed Olmsted Brothers (shown above in an image from a federal website). Their plan “was only partly realized,” he noted – hopes of a “treed corridor (that) went from Alki to the Park” went unrealized, though, as he observed, the features that were realized included the WPS-built “art deco bridge” circa 1936.
This new effort, he said, could make a long-held dream come true. That’s why Nye and co-chair Brian Barilleaux are “getting together a group of people and approaching Seattle Parks with a plan of how to achieve this, and how to finance it.” Nye noted that this is a rare chance to “protect and preserve” something that has not yet been totally transformed from its origins. “We also want to restore the ties to the community and the gift of this park that was given.” And it would be a gift for our area’s life-sustaining salmon. “There are no marine species (in the creek). because it was cut off … even though it’s clear water, it’s essentially lifeless. We want to bring the fish back. … If we restore it, the fish will come.”
But long before the grand dream of daylighting the creek might come true, Nye said, people can take relatively simple action now to help the park and creek – removing ivy and graffiti, clearing blocked sections of the creek within the park. And in the big picture, “There are several ways to get the creek to the beach.” Looking back into history, they think the Alki Elementary playground might have held a “natural lagoon”: “The ghosts of that lagoon are still there,” so perhaps the creek ran in that area to get to the sea.
The dream stretches beyond the creek. They envision the possibility of a National Heritage Area, with buildings such as Alki Point Lighthouse, the Alki Beach Bathhouse, the Fir Lodge/Alki Homestead – and the awaiting-a-new-home Stone Cottage could factor into this too (among those at the gathering was Mike Shaughnessy from Save The Stone Cottage). Wayfinding to help people with area trails could be a factor. Barilleaux added, “Make it a historic monument and historic attraction.”
Other possibilities suggested by Nye: Restoring ties with local schools; demonstrating Indigenous agriculture such as camas (recently planted at the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse) and berries; honoring the “sacred” nature of the forest and creek through connecting with local faith communities.
So how to make it happen? Schmitz Park already has inspired generosity and future vision, Nye noted, with a nod to yet another person in the room, Bruce Stotler, who has donated his park-adjacent home to become part of the park when he’s gone. “He’s an inspiration to all of us … in the tradition of Emma and Ferdinand Schmitz.”
An initial list of coalition supporters was shown – and an invitation offered for all to join – that means you, too. “Even if there’s nothing you think you can contribute to this, you can pull out ivy!” They’re going to have ivy-removal training sessions soon, and then organize teams to go to the park in June and July and get going.
You can find out more about the restoration proposal here, and you can email with questions or to volunteer at SchmitzParkCreekRestore@gmail.com.
This Saturday will find community volunteers working throughout our Duwamish River Watershed in South Seattle and Tukwila, removing debris from the river in kayaks, restoring salmon habitat, and even restoring a 10,000-year-old bog at Roxhill Park. Several of the 11 event locations which Duwamish Alive Coalition partners are hosting are sacred places of the Duwamish Tribe. 
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