Thanks for the info, both of you!!!!

I used Marc's email as a template and sent one too.



Tina Blade

Kirkland, WA

Email at: tinablade at comcast.net



-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Hoffman [mailto:tweeters at dartfrogmedia.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 9:34 AM
To: Connie Sidles; Tweeters
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] New trail at the Fill



Connie, thanks so much for spreading the alert. Here is my email to the
city. All are welcome to lift/adapt this language for your own letter to
Allynn Ruth, 684-0301, mailto:allynn.ruth at seattle.gov.

Hello.

I'm writing in opposition to the Yesler Swamp Trail Small and Simple
Neighborhood Matching Fund application. As a bird watcher and nature
photographer, I have visited and studied the site in question scores of
times over the past ten years.

This proposal would create a relatively large human intrusion -- a boardwalk
and subsequent human traffic-- into a very small ecological niche of the
Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA). The boardwalk would be constructed in a small
grove that is a nesting site for many birds as well as a home to beaver and
other animals. Currently, the grove is only lightly visited because it is
accessible only by small, muddy trails that seasonally are partly
underwater. Its value as a wildlife refuge would almost surely be
compromised by a substantial increase in human traffic.

While I support trail development that will lead to human appreciation of
our natural areas, the location of such development needs to be carefully
considered. The fund application in question is well-intentioned but
misguided: ecologically speaking, the area in question cannot support the
proposed level of intrusion.

Approval for funding this proposal should be declined or, at the very least,
tabled pending an environmental impact study.

Marc Hoffman

(address and phone)

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
tweeters "at" dartfrogmedia "dot" com


At 07:57 AM 1/31/2010, Connie Sidles wrote:



Dear Tweets, a new boardwalk trail is being proposed to be built through
Surber Grove. It is being sponsored by a neighborhood group of citizens.
They have applied for a grant to the City of Seattle which would pay to hire
a landscape firm to design a trail. The proposed trail (which is incorrectly
categorized in the grant application as a "restoration of the trail") as it
is currently conceived would begin on 41st Street (at the north end of
Surber) and run through the center of the grove. It would curve around to
Yesler Cove and end at the active beaver lodge that sits on the edge of the
water there. At that point, the idea would be to construct a viewing
platform.

The grant application is now in the hands of the city, which is taking
comments until Feb. 3.

Comments regarding the Yesler Swamp Trail Small and Simple Neighborhood
Matching Fund application should be addressed to:
Allynn Ruth
684-0301
allynn.ruth at seattle.gov

If you want to read the details of the proposal, send me a private email,
and I will email you the pdf version of the grant.

I have deep concerns about this proposed boardwalk trail. As I understand
it, new trails in the city have to be wheelchair accessible now, which means
the boardwalk would probably have to be at least 4 feet wide. That's a lot
of boardwalk for a small site. Proportionately, a lot of habitat would
perforce have to be sacrificed.

I'm also concerned that this little grove cannot sustain the amount of human
presence that the neighborhood committee would like to see enter it. Right
now, most of the grove is inaccessible to humans, except for one muddy track
that goes in about 20 meters to the middle (and is closed by vegetation from
late spring to fall, the height of the breeding season), and one usually
waterlogged track that leads to the beaver lodge (I'm pretty sure the
beavers built their lodge after this trail was put in; they probably felt
safe to do so because the trail is underwater for a good part of the year.)
If the committee is correct about the numbers of people who will come
through here, I believe that many of the breeding birds that now find refuge
in the swamp will disappear. Among the most sensitive are Wood Ducks,
Gadwalls, and Virginia Rails.

I also worry that access to the beaver lodge would mean a great deal of
harassment of the beavers. Already when the trail is dry enough, kids from
the neighborhood think it's okay to climb on top of the lodge and hit it
with sticks.

Most of all, I think there should be parts of UBNA that remain closed to
humans. We don't have to have access to everything all the time, do we?

Lastly, as far as I can tell, the grant would not pay for an EIS. I don't
know enough law to know whether this would be a requirement, but it *should*
be.

If you have concerns too, now is the time to voice them. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com


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