For those of you in Seattle or who know people here:

Some of you who know me may not yet know that I'm once again leading field
trips and nature walks for all ages from and in Seward Park and Camp Long in
Seattle.

I will be offering a series of nature walks at Seward Park (Seattle) and
field trips leaving from Seward Park with a focus on habitats and the
knowledge that will help to appreciate and preserve the biodiversity of our
prairie, forest and lake shore ecosystems.

For you Tweeters people, most of my walks and trips include at least a
partial focus on birds including recognizing them by voice, habits and niche
and often looking at thier habitat needs. Butterflies are often another
focus.

Several of the trips are timed to get out of town when it is noisy (Fourth
of July and Seafair) and the theme of the field trips is to see some of the
remaining Puget Prairie areas to set some idea of what "Clark's Prairie"
might have been like - now Seward Park and some of the surrounding Seward
Park and Rainier Valley neighborhoods. My thought is to have people start
to plant some of the original prairie plant species through the neighborhood
to restore at least a small bit of what the pre european contact ecosystem
was like. There are still Garry Oaks in Seward Park and scattered through
the surrounding neighborhood. Hopefully a few of the animals that were part
of that community will make this area home again too.

The first field trip is July 4th to the Mima Mounds and Scatter Creek
prairie areas in the South Sound area and the sign-up deadline is this
Wednesday, June 22nd (apologies for the last minute notice)

If the links below don't work after making it through cyberspace, the
easyist way to find them is to google "Seward park" and click on the
"printable brochure" (pdf - a bit slower for some of us with dial up
service) or for a brief calendar with no description click on "summer
brochure on line" click on on the right hand side. Some of my programs give
my name as the leader on the "printable brochure' and some don't.

http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/Environment/brochures/Summer05.pdf
(p.15-20)

http://www2.cityofseattle.net/parks/brochure/programList.asp?queryby=Sort3&s
eason=Summer&year=2005&keyword=all&selectedfacility=Seward%20Park

Bak'wob is the Lushootseed word for "prairie".

Stewart Wechsler
Ecological Consulting
West Seattle
206 932-7225
ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-Advice on the most site-appropriate native plants
and how to enhance habitat for the maximum diversity
of plants and animals
-Educational programs, nature walks and field trips
-Botanical Surveys