Last fall, a hardy band of volunteers ventured down into the ravine beneath the Sylvester Road bridge in Normandy Park, where they worked to clear hundreds of pounds of garbage around Fox Creek, a tributary stream to Miller Creek. While these folks removed most of the trash, some remains, and more hardy souls are requested to help haul the rest of this garbage out this Saturday, May 16th between 9am and 11am.

There is also an abundance of invasive English ivy that has grown up many of the trees. If left unchecked, this invasive weed will kill the trees and deprive the stream of the benefits they provide. Volunteers will girdle the ivy at the base of the trees, greatly extending their lives.

So, once again the call goes out to watershed citizens who will brave the steep slopes of Fox Creek ravine to care for this ecological resource and improve water quality downstream:

WHAT: Fox Creek volunteer garbage/ivy removal in the ravine below Sylvester Bridge

WHEN: Saturday, May 16th from 9am to 11am

WHERE: Meet at the hairpin turn on 11th Place SW just down the hill from the intersection with Sylvester Road, Normandy Park.

INFO: Please RSVP via email to Dennis Clark so he can plan accordingly and to guarantee your doughnut!

WHAT TO WEAR/BRING:

• Shoes with gripping soles and good ankle support – we’ll be on steep slopes
• Clothes that can get dirty if you slip
• Layers of clothing – you’ll warm up quickly moving up and down the slope or gathering trash along the creek
• Hard hat if you have one – I have plenty if you don’t
• Sun glasses or safety glasses if you wish to use them (primarily due to bushes)
• A water bottle

PARKING:

• Parking is limited. If you can carpool, walk, or bike, that would be great. We will meet at the hairpin turn at the top of 11th Place S.W., just below the intersection with Sylvester Road. If you aren’t familiar with this location and need to MapQuest or Google it, use the following as your destination address: 16856 11th Pl. S.W., Normandy Park, 98166.
• If you drive, proceed down 11th Place S.W. past the hairpin and park as far off the road as you can. Take care to avoid blocking driveways or damaging the neighbors’ vegetation.

STUDENT PARTICIPATION:

• Students 16 and older are welcome.
• Those under age 18 should download and complete this form with a parent or guardian’s signature to allow their participation. Those over 18 do not need to fill out the form; they can sign in on Saturday.

Last Saturday, the population of Normandy Park grew by 42,500.

You could be forgiven for missing your new neighbors because they’re only about an inch and a half long. They’re also covered in scales and like to eat bugs, so you may not have a lot in common with them. These new residents of the area are actually coho salmon fry:

For the last six weeks, the salmon fry been raised by the volunteer group Trout Unlimited in a small hatchery on the grounds of the Southwest Suburban Sewer District plant in Normandy Park. The group received the coho as “eyed eggs” from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. At the hatchery, a small building next to Miller Creek, the eggs and fry were incubated in trays constantly bathed in clean well water.

On Saturday morning (Jan. 17th), 15 volunteers used buckets and ice chests to carry the fish to 15 sites along Miller and Walker Creeks in Burien and Normandy Park. Another 25,500 fish were released in Normandy Park.

Upon release, the coho have to fend for themselves amongst wild salmon fry. All the fry have to learn to survive the challenges of high stream flows and polluted stormwater, avoid predators such as great blue herons, and find enough food (insects – yum!). A smart, strong, and lucky few will survive a year living in our streams before heading down to Puget Sound. Even fewer will survive another 2-3 years in Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. In 2012 and 2013, a tiny fraction of the 42,500 fry released today in Burien will have survived incredible odds and will struggle to swim back up Miller and Walker Creeks. Back in fresh water, they’ll be looking for a bit of gravel and a mate to spawn with (our Pacific Northwest “circle of life” can match the Lion King’s any day!)

To help ensure the fish have healthier streams to return to, there will be a variety of restoration projects where you can volunteer this year – and as always, The B-Town Blog will list the opportunities well in advance!

To learn more about the streams and how they support our new neighbors, visit the Miller and Walker Creeks stewardship webpage.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Extra special thanks to Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward Dennis Clark for this post and photos!]

Miller and Walker Creeks need your energy and enthusiasm one last time this year, so come join the “Stewards of the Cove” in Normandy Park this Sat. Oct. 11th.

All four Saturdays in October offer opportunities to help volunteer to improve the Highline environment for people and fish, so get your gloves ready and mark your calendars.

Plus, these events are fun!

WHAT: Plant native trees and shrubs alongside the experienced hands of EarthCorps. Lunch provided. Sign up with Tony Cassarino, 206-246-9941.

WHEN: Saturday, October 11, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m

WHERE: Normandy Park Community Club, located at 1500 SW Shorebrook Drrive (map below)

Both Miller Creek and Walker Creek flow through the area, and both creeks are in need of your help.

An ad-hoc committee aimed at monitoring and studying both creeks is forming, and its inaugural workshop is scheduled for Wed., Sept. 24, from 7pm – 8:30pm at the Burien Community Center, Classroom 5, located at 425 S.W. 144th Street (map below).

At this workshop, participants will learn the answers to some of the following questions, and help provide answers to some other questions:

• How do we know about water quality, water quantity, and habitat conditions in Miller and Walker Creeks?
• What monitoring has been done in recent years?
• What monitoring is necessary to allow for analysis of trends?
• Can we better coordinate existing monitoring?
• What additional monitoring would we like to do in the future?
• And how are we going to use all the data that have been and will be collected? Five years from now, will monitoring give us the information we need to evaluate the health of these stream basins and make good decisions about future projects, programs, and policies?

Improving monitoring of water quality, water quantity, and habitat conditions is recommended in the Executive Proposed Miller and Walker Creeks Basin Plan. This workshop is intended to kick off an ad hoc committee effort to answer the questions listed above. Answering these questions will help everyone take better care of the land and water in the Miller and Walker Creek basins (basin boundary map).

The monitoring discussion is intended to produce recommendations on how local partners can conduct voluntary monitoring in the future. The outcome of this process will not affect the current monitoring for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as required by the Department of Ecology. The monitoring that has been and is being done by the Port of Seattle will be discussed, however, because it provides information on those portions of the creeks that flow through the airport property.

For more information, or to RSVP, please contact Dennis Clark, King County Public Outreach/Stewardship Coordinator, 206-296-1909.

View Larger Map