Ballinger Creek Habitat Restoration Work at Brugger's Bog Park 19553 - 25th Ave NE
Future dates will be posted on our Calendar of Events. This is an all-volunteer effort. If you enjoy the improvements, we encourage you to email your comments to City of Shoreline Parks Director, Dick Deal at ddeal@shorelinewa.gov. Watch Our Progress! |
| |
| 10-18-08 - Special thanks to our great October 18th Crew: Deb, Vida, Jessica, Jerri May, Jaden, Ross, Yanne, Margie, Londa, Tom, Alex |
|
| 10-18-08 - In our first 50-feet of restoration, we unearthed a swordfern, a salmonberry, a red twig dogwood and a hemlock seedling and planted 30 new natives, including deer fern, grasses, and currants. |
| |
| 10-12-08 - Our goal was to get our first strips of 6-foot wide coir netting laid in and staked with wooden ecostakes so that our work can be inspected by Planning Services for proper technique before we continue. We did it! |
| |
10-12-08 - Our work party on Sunday,
October 12th. Another beautiful day, with much progress made. Special thanks to Ballinger neighbors--Margie, Michelle, Steffen, Ken, Tom and Londa and Community Wildlife Habitat Coordinator Boni Biery, who workd diligently until 4pm. |
| |
| 10-5-08 - Here we are hard at work! Councilwoman Janet Way and Bettilinn Brown of Briarcrest Neighborhood were among the first to come out and give us a hand on Sunday, October 5th. The weather was perfect. |
| |
| Here's a view of the first section of the creek just before restoration work began in early October 2008. |
Why It's Important that We Do Stream Restoration
Ballinger Neighborhood folks are in a unique position to serve as Shoreline's gatekeepers for two freshwater creeks that flow only through our neighborhood--MacAleer Creek and the west fork of Lyon Creek known as Ballinger Creek.
In 1930s, folks living along Lyon and McAleer Creeks scooped salmon up in buckets. We know that less than 50 years ago salmon spawned in Ballinger Creek. In the sixties, habitats like Brugger's Bog were teaming with frogs and all kinds of bugs and microorganisms. Today, the frogs are silent. The only streamlife observed in Ballinger Creek are some water skippers skimming the top of the water and an occasional dragonfly.
Within our grasp is the ability to preserve and improve the quality of these streams and help educate each other so that our creeks are again a healthy source of water and food, and salmon may someday return this far upstream. The work we do today will indeed benefit the work of streamkeepers downstream, who have been successful in getting salmon back into lower Lyon Creek and McAleer Creek.
Come help us shape this new urban frontier!
Some Wildlife Still Exists
Since we've begun restoration on the creek bed, we've observed a variety of birds, including a hawk, two pairs of nesting mallards, and a blue heron. During our first work party, a rat slept peacefully in the crook of a nearby tree until a squirrel rousted him from his nap in the sun. Neighbors report seeing a coyote recently, too. And a white rabbit!
The Threat to Brugger's Bog and Ballinger Creek
Massive thickets of invasive Himalayan blackeberries and purple nightshade dominate the few remaining native plantings of willows, alders, twig dogwoods, and salmonberries.
Illegal dumpers and vandals also threaten creek habitat at the park. Levels of fecal coliform and heavy metals are increasing from urban density. Lawn fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals to run into the creek and impact the viability of streamlife. We have much to learn about stream health!
And So It Flows...
Ballinger Creek (also known as the West fork of Lyon Creek) originates Snohomish County and flows through Ballinger Open Space. Before it enters Brugger's Bog Park, it meets with an unnamed stream from the west. Ballinger Creek flows southeast across Brugger's Bog and picks up flow from two unmarked tributaries flowing in from the east. As the creek exits the park, it enters a network of pipes at 25th Ave NE and daylights again on the southeast corner of 25th Ave NE and NE Ballinger Way. From there it flows under Ballinger Way into the city of Lake Forest Park, where it enters the main branch of Lyon Creek near NE Ballinger Way and 35th Ave NE. Lyon Creek flows into Lake Washington at Sheridan Beach in Lake Forest Park.
What we choose to do upstream directly impacts the work of those restoring creek habitat downstream.