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new year check in
Himalayan blackberry cane growth in our restoration area remains suppressed. Paint sticks guard over growing baby ferns. Rainfall is held by the earth, allowing it to gently enter the next phase of the water cycle. All is well at Wallace Swamp Creek Park as we turn the calendar and continue our travels around the sun.
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one year
Today marks the one year anniversary of the community-led habitat restoration project at Wallace Swamp Creek Park. We do this work on the ancestral land of the first peoples of this region–the Coast Salish, the Stillaguamish, the Duwamish, the Suquamish, the Sammamish–peoples who have stewarded this land since time immemorial and who are very much alive and present as good stewards of the land to this day. It is with gratitude to and because of them that we have the honor of tending to this land with the hope of restoring it to a healthy, native ecosystem where native insects, fish, birds, and mammals, including humans, can be sustained and…
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November 12 2020 Work Party
One of us tends to a tree by unearthing the Himalayan blackberry root balls that have snuggled under its base. She follows the root balls to their smallest ends, untangling roots like filaments from the soil, excavating them with the care of an archeologist preserving what has been found. To watch her is to see love in action. One of us sings with the unbridled beauty and joy of the birds she calls by name, all of them family to her. To gather with her and her dear human family with purpose during this time, to hear her voice across the field as we work is to be held in…
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October 24 2020 Work Party
Sometimes I wish we could be there together, tending to place, healing wounds, connecting to the earth and to each other, forever. We are in my heart. A sincere thank you to all who came to help me build the kind of world I want to live in. You are all so needed. And so appreciated. Until next time. Love and grace, my friends.
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October 10 2020 Work Party
We unearthed root balls bigger than child-sized heads, bigger than my fist, not quite as big as my foot. In these root balls we saw brains and hearts and arteries and capillaries. We honored these roots even as we removed them from the earth, embracing it all. We were defenders of place, habitat, native ecosystems, and humankind. And then there was thunder, lightning, rain, and hail. If you stood still for just a moment, hail bouncing, rain pouring down, you might have deeply felt our inextricable connection to the earth and everyone and everything on it. It was good.
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September 20 2020 Work Party
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September 5 2020 Work Party
We admired the tenacity of the Himalayan blackberry as a species and its multiple reproductive strategies. We marveled at the beauty of roots working so hard, curling and twisting and winding, to seek light despite six inches of cardboard and mulch to suppress them. We devised strategies to remove prickly canes without falling victim to sharp thorns, and we did the math that told us that we had found a cane that was the length of 5,000 sisters head to foot if she were to lie down next to it. We stood six feet from one another and realized that was close enough to feel the warm presence of a…
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Summer 2020 Maintenance
Wallace Swamp Creek Park / Kenmore, WashingtonSaturday, August 1, 2020Maintaining our habitat restoration area / before and after
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February 2020 Work Party
There was the story of the tires – SO MANY TIRES – and how we kept finding them as we dug deeper and deeper into the earth. Who put them there? How long ago had it been? How would we carry them all out of the wetland? There was the story of Sally the salamander told in another post, which turned out to be a story about discovery, connection, and delight. Before that, there was the story of the biggest worm some of us had ever seen, and it turned out to be a story much like the one in which Sally appeared. There were so many stories. The story…
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Swamp Creek Salamader
I have so many things to share with you about our habitat restoration work party at Wallace Swamp Creek Park this past weekend! I am in the process of selecting the best pictures to share with you, but I couldn’t wait to share Sally (named by a fantastic 8 year old). I love that said 8 year old shouted out my name through the trees and Himalayan blackberry canes to share in the excitement of discovery. And that when that didn’t work someone came to find me. These moments of connection and delight are part of why I love gathering at Wallace Swamp Creek Park with you. Look for more…
