SLIDESHOW: Green Seattle Day at Westcrest Park helps restore the urban greenspace

More than 130 volunteers took part in the restoration of the park during Green Seattle Day, the sixth annual staging of the event. Sponsored by the Forterra Partnership the event brought people out to plant non invasive species of plants in the park and to restore the urban green space. ---

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Patrick Robinson

Sat, 11/05/2011

Westcrest Park was a beehive of volunteer activity on Nov. 5 as more than 130 people swarmed the woods all in support of the Green Seattle Day. The sixth annual event kicked off the restoration planting season with the aim of reversing the decline of the tree canopy.

Volunteers across the city from Magnuson Park to West Duwamish Greenbelt planted over 5000 native trees and shrubs, removed invasive plant species such as English ivy and Himalayan blackberry, and otherwise tended to the environment in our urban green spaces.

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Volunteers were welcomed by Green Seattle Partnership Executive Council members Gene Duvernoy, President of Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy) and Christopher Williams, Acting Superintendent of Seattle Parks.

Speaking to the volunteers said, "Back in 1981 my folks bought a house at 8114 7th Ave. s.w. so this is my stomping grounds. When I was 17 or 18 years old I didn't share your same values of getting out of bed and coming to a park in November, at 38 degrees. I really want to applaud the young people who are here today. It demonstrates to me the value that these young people place on the community we live in." Williams recently took a trip to attend a conference to Atlanta, GA. and while there took a tour of their parks system. He noted that the invasive species, Kudzu, has taken over many of that city's green spaces. So much so that they look "shrink wrapped" and noted that larger urban green spaces are often rendered unusable. He noted that last year volunteers contributed move than 350,000 hours of work with much of it coming through the Forterra Partnership. "It's so vital to the restoration of this system and we want you to be advocates. Contact your council members and elected officials and let them know how important it is to you that this partnership continue to be funded."

Williams concluded by pointing out that restoring urban green spaces has a much longer term effect than just an improvement in the short term appearance of the park. "We like to think in the Park and Recreation business that the work we do is about what happens in the next fifty to one hundred years. Even two hundred years. The trees you are planting today are the trees you will bring your grandkids out to show them the work you did back in November, 2011."

Westcrest Park 80 acres of forest, walking paths, a dog park and sweeping views of the city. Westcrest has undergone significant forest restoration work throughout this past year. Youth and adult restoration crews from Seattle Parks, EarthCorps, Washington Conservation Corps, Student Conservation Association, Goodwill, Youth Green Corps and Washington Native Plant Society as well as hundreds of volunteers have been removing invasive plants and restoring eroded trails all year to prepare the forest for planting.

Crews of volunteers headed to all points of the park to plant an array of plants from ferns to snowberry plants that had previously been placed in the proper areas. After a brief orientation and planting demonstration the volunteers set to work adding new vegetation to the landscape and helping to revitalize the environment.

Due to a history of logging, pervasive invasive species growth and an aging canopy, Seattle is facing the potential loss of up to 70 percent of its forested parklands in the next twenty years. While the program has experienced much success to date, long term public and additional private funding are needed to keep these valuable efforts alive.

One of the largest volunteer forest restoration projects in the country, the Green Seattle Partnership has an ambitious goal of restoring 2,500 acres of forested parkland by 2025. It is a public-private partnership between the City of Seattle and Forterra and over 13,000 volunteers, community organizations and businesses that work towards this goal each year. Together the Partnership has enrolled over 700 acres into restoration with support from more than 450,000 volunteer hours over the past seven years.

The event was sponsored by: