gratitude – Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project

November 25, 2022November 29, 2022

three years

Today marks the three year anniversary of Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project.

We do this work on the ancestral land of the first peoples of this region — the Coast Salish, the Muckleshoot, the Duwamish, the Sammamish, the Stillaguamish, the Suquamish —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 ecosystem where native insects, fish, birds, and mammals, including humans, can be sustained and thrive for generations to come.

We grew our human family this past year as more and more of us emerged from the cocoon of our homes and pandemic pods. The connections have felt easy and meaningful. We learned to identify English hawthorn, common teasel, and black locust, and once we did, we saw them everywhere. We are removing them, or making plans to do so, as we go. We continued to maintain our original restoration area and made good progress on our second, moving as far north along 73rd Ave NE as we are comfortable until we determine the location of the park property line. While we wait, we are working into the park from 73rd and battling back another tangle of blackberry behind our original restoration area. We planted the first tree to come officially from the habitat restoration project — a volunteer Douglas fir from the yard of a friend who knew the tree would need more space as ki grew. We grew. So much.

My gratitude to project co-founders Deputy Mayor Melanie O’Cain and Kenmore resident Linda Phillips for the vision and faith it took to manifest this project; to the City of Kenmore for permission to work on City land; to City Manager Rob Karlinsey and City Staff Stephanie Brown, Quinn Proffitt, Jennifer Gordon, Justin El, and Rita Moreno for their behind-the-scenes support; and to Sno-King Watershed Council, this project’s non-profit heart and home, with special gratitude to Eric Adman and Jeremy Jones for their mentorship and support. My gratitude also to my mother and my kiddo — they’ve either been out digging in the dirt with me or home together so I could be clipping and digging myself.

If not for the individuals of all ages who have volunteered their time, we would not have built what we have over these past three years — a place of community and belonging, where we are embraced just as we are, where we learn and grow together, where we are healing ourselves as much as we are healing the land. We are all so needed in this work and everyone who has ever volunteered these past three years is permanently etched in my heart.

Without us, I could do little. With us, so much is possible. Here’s to another three years.

Love and peace.
Tracy Banaszynski

November 26, 2021November 27, 2021

two years

Today marks the two year anniversary of Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project.

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 thrive for generations to come.

This project is about many things, perhaps as many unique things as there have been volunteers tending our restoration areas at Wallace Swamp Creek Park over the past two years. One of my reasons for working in the park is salmon, a keystone species and bellwether of watershed health. Pacific Northwest salmon are threatened, and we need them–for culture, for sustenance, for the way they hold our ecosystems together–as much as they need our help recovering them. Every bit of watershed health we restore helps salmon recovery efforts.

I would love to hear your reason(s) for working in the park.

Much has happened in the past year. Sno-King Watershed Council officially brought the project under their wing, giving us access to liability insurance (we’re growing up!) and their 501c3 non-profit status. We’ve started in on a second restoration area, tackling another enormous tangle of Himalayan blackberry (and knotweed, holly, and scotch broom!), and we continue to visit our first restoration area to monitor and maintain our work. The pandemic has given us the unexpected gift of keeping the groundlessness of our situation front and center, reminding us to hold at once tightly to our overarching vision and loosely to our progress toward those big goals.

I remain grateful to every person who has touched this project in any way–from my co-founders, Linda Phillips and Kenmore City Councilmember Melanie O’Cain; to the City of Kenmore, especially city staff Stephanie Brown, Quinn Proffitt, and Jennifer Gordon; to Kenmore City Council; to those who have dropped off cardboard; to those who have cheered us on with a wave or a friendly hello as they’ve driven or wandered by. I am grateful most especially for the community who has gathered month after month, through seasons, though all kinds of weather, through this wretched pandemic, for showing up and showing me the resilience, joy, and connection that exists in our community and in me. Without each other, where would we be?

Thank you for being in this work with me. I’m excited to keep going with you.

With love and gratitude,
Tracy Banaszynski

November 27, 2020November 27, 2020

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 thrive for generations to come.

Swamp Creek will once again run a brilliant rainbow of Pacific salmon someday.

Thank you to my co-founders, Linda Phillips, who loves Wallace Swamp Creek Park as fiercely as I do, and Kenmore City Councilmember Melanie O’Cain, who believed in this project before she was an elected official and who has been my enthusiastic, big YES person since I met her.

Thank you to the City of Kenmore for their collaboration on our community-led project. Official approval to tend to the park, access to a well-stocked tool trailer (pre-pandemic), and wood chip drops have been invaluable to our progress. Thanks specifically to city employees Stephanie Brown, Rita Moreno, and Quinn Proffitt for their support.

Thank you to the Kenmore City Council for supporting volunteer projects in our community and for rolling up their sleeves and hacking away at invasive plants side by side with us. Councilmembers Melanie O’Cain, Joe Marshall, Corina Pfeil, Nigel Herbig, Debra Srebnik, and Milton Curtis all attended one or more habitat restoration events over the past year.

My deepest gratitude to our community for volunteering their time and labor at restoration events, for donating cardboard, for being my co-conspirators in the quest for said cardboard, and for holding the project in heart and mind every step of the way. Thank you for whatever you have been able to do–it all matters so much. This project is truly possible only as we/us. I wish I had written down each of your names from the very beginning so that I could say them now; I didn’t, but I do remember your faces and your spirits and you are all forever part of my heart.

We are currently on pause again as we weather a winter spike in COVID cases, but we will be back. And we’ll keep going for another year and more.

With love and gratitude,
Tracy Banaszynski