Subject: Re: History of Montlake Fill
Date: Oct 31 13:52:55 1997
From: "Constance J. Sidles" - csidles at mail.isomedia.com


Dear Tweets, In March 1993, the UW commissioned a study of the Fill
(actually the study covered the entire Union Bay shoreline, from Surber
Drive around the Fill, past the crew boathouse and over to Foster Island).
Provost Laurel Wilkening authorized the formation of the Union Bay Planning
Committee, with Dr. Clement Hamilton (director of the Urban Hort) as chair.
The group was charged to examine the UW's management of the shoreline and
make recommendations about its future use.
The Union Bay Planning Committee produced its report and
recommendations in October 1994 (updated in November 1995). You can get a
copy of this report by calling Dr. Hamilton and requesting "Management Plan
for the Union Bay Shoreline and Natural Areas." Or you can call Dr.
Hamilton's graduate student at the Urban Hort, Perry Guyaldo.
Here is a summary of the committee's recommendations:
1. Remove invasive non-native plants and animals (especially Himalayan
blackberry, purple loosestrife, aquatic milfoil, scotch broom).

2. Add native plants.

3. Maximize habitat diversity and native biodiversity.

4. Control human impacts (keep bikes and dogs on trails; don't build
buildings on nature areas; rope off critical wetlands; regulate and monitor
pesticides and fertilizers both in the nature reserve and in neighboring
areas; revegetate parking lot E-5)

5. Monitor physical and biological conditions.

6.Increase and coordinate teaching and research.

7. Enhance personal safety.

8. Ensure public accessibility.

9. Provide educational interpretation.

The UW has already begun to implement some of these recommendations. A
major effort to remove some of the intrusive Himalayan blackberry bushes
has already been done by large-scale machinery.
Purple loosestrife presents a more difficult problem. Loosestrife
first appeared at the Fill only a few years ago, with seeds brought in all
probability on the feet of ducks (or perhaps seeds were windblown).
Loosestrife found a happy environment at the Fill. The wetlands' annual
cycle of wet/dry soil perfectly suited this European plant. Each
loosestrife plant can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds in one season.
The seeds can remain viable in the soil for a decade. So it was no surprise
that the first few plants soon led to thousands. In a matter of three or
four years, purple loosestrife had completely eliminated access to the
small pond on the south end of the Fill (where cinnamon teals used to hang
out). It completely covered the transitory pond near the large cottonwood
trees, where pipits always came in the spring. Loosestrife also completely
ringed the main pond, driving out rails, marsh wrens and migrating
shorebirds. It choked off the large pond near the wooden bridge, where
bitterns used to live (and where milfoil is also a big problem).
Loosestrife also began to take over the cattails along the west entry road.
What were we birders doing during all this? Sitting on our hands. I
know I was, anyway. That is, until Stuart McKay showed up from Scotland one
day, took a look, and began to yank. He was joined by about a dozen other
volunteers, who cleared out the main pond by the end of the summer. That
fall (1995), we saw long- and short-billed dowitchers again for the first
time in two years. We also saw spotted sandpipers, westerns, leasts,
semipalmated, greater and lesser yellowlegs, pectorals, and stilt
sandpipers.
During the next summer, Stuart and other volunteers (including
students from Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences) cleared out the main
pond again, because of course the loosestrife came back. Once again, we
experienced a fantastic fall migration, with birds showing up even as we
pulled. Species included both dowitchers, both yellowlegs, spotties, pects,
westerns, Others helped too. Boy Scouts completely cleared the transitory
pond by the cottonwoods, allowing pipits to return.
This summer, more birders joined the effort. But the biggest
contribution came from a church group, who have performed miracles of hard
work. They have cleared out the cinnamon teal pond, several small
transitory ponds to the west of the main pond, and they are now working on
the big pond where the bitterns used to be, near the wooden bridge.
If you've been to the Fill recently, you can see the result of all
this hard work. Don't be fooled into thinking that front-loaders or other
machines did this work. Every plant was pulled out by hand.
Next spring, the effort will begin again. I urge you to join, if
you have any time at all. Perry Guyaldo (Dr. Hamilton's graduate student)
is taking names and can give you information about who is doing what where.
Or you can call me at 522-7513 or e-mail me. Or you can just go down to the
Fill and yank.
Getting rid of loosestrife has been for me a difficult, dirty task.
I hate to garden!! But I have never received such fast feedback for my
volunteer efforts. One day two summers ago, as we were pulling loosestrife
out of the main pond, I thought I was going to collapse. It was hot and
muddy, Mosquitoes were buzzing. My back hurt. My shoes were soaked. I
wanted to quit. But then I looked up and saw a flock of 7 dowitchers fly
in, circle once and land on the far side of the pond. They immediately
began to feed. They had come all the way from the arctic tundra and still
had a long way to fly. We gave them a good chance to make it; they gave us
far more: the sense that people may mess up the world, but people can fix
it too.