HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

...Off to Mars

I hope everyone had great Thanksgiving celebrations and time for family and friends. I know many had the chance to enjoy the West Hylebos Park during the break. I had hoped to go Sunday, but after concluding the daughter's soccer tournament, all I had left was the energy to curl up (That's just a figure of speech; these old bones don't curl very well anymore) with James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia. I don't usually read crime stories, but I enjoy Ellroy's writing and the story is compelling (although quite gruesome).

Here's an interesting thing I discovered this weekend: hi-resolution photos of Mars here and here. Although the bulk of my time is devoted to thinking about life on Earth and ways to improve this planet, it is fascinating to see images of alien worlds. The quality of these hi-res images offers a view of the red planet that affords a sense of what the landscape truly looks like. It is both starkly alien and beautiful.

Yuck!

The New York Times continues its excellent investigative serious on the nation's water pollution problem with another installment of Poisoned Waters, this one examining the problem of combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times analysis shows.

One of the driving factors in this growing problem, has been the destruction of the land's natural ability to absorb rainwater. That sounds familiar...

As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches.

Given the amount of money that's estimated to be needed to build and rebuild sewage treatment systems, I have to wonder whether the time isn't right for a green jobs package, this one based on protecting our communities' health and clean water?

Kudos to a Couple of Hylebos Volunteers

We're fortunate to be associated with some fine young adults in our conservation efforts. Today, I'd like to recognize two Hylebos volunteers who were named to the South Puget Sound League all-league teams for girls soccer.

Kendal Feider, who has been a water quality intern this year, was selected as Honorable Mention as a midfielder, while Kasey Carrel (who also gets mucho thanks for making me breakfast today. what a kid.) was also named to the team as a Midfielder (although she played most of the season in defense?!) in the Honorable Mention category. Kasey has volunteered with habitat restoration projects and every Ruby Dance we've had.

Both ladies are helping make their community greener and healthier, while demonstrating excellence on the soccer field. Congratulations!

Photos from Lower Hylebos & Beaver Evidence

Here is a slideshow of photos I grabbed yesterday at the Marsh showing the Beaver Pond, chewed on alder stumps and water flowing over beaver dams.

Remarkable Day in The Hylebos

Today, Lili Allala (New Restoration Coordinator) toured several key Hylebos sites, including Lower Hylebos Marsh, Spring Valley Ranch, West Milton Nature Preserve and the Spring Valley Open Space. While I thought we would likely get rained on hard like the day before, the weather let up, and we were treated to sunshine and relatively warm, dry conditions.

Here is Lili at the Lower Hylebos Marsh. You can find out more about Lili on our Staff page.

Also, Wednesday's paper has a front page article on the forest health problems in Federal Way. It's nice to see the word getting out about this challenge.

I'll get some photos up later in the day from Lower Hylebos Marsh. The beavers appear to have been busy (surprise!). I counted at least 5 structures on the mainstem and around the marsh area. Water flow, though, was high and all dams were overtopped. Also, the beavs are taking out some of the excess alder trees on the site, so I'm very pleased with that. If we can just get them to focus on the alders, they'll actually do us a big favor.Remarkable Day in The Hylebos

At the Spring Valley Open Space, we surprised a great blue heron that must've been in a nearby tree. I didn't notice him until I heard a repeated sqawking and looked up to see the bird flying over us, insistently sounding his displeasure with our intrusion on his private Hylebos.

Usually herons are rather reticent with people, but this guy was so mad, he circled back to land in a tree nearby and casatigate us. I told him that we were sorry to have surprised him, and would leave shortly, but this didn't satisfy the heron. He blew a a few more rasberries our way, then took flight and headed south to Spring Valley Ranch.

Hylebos In The News

The Federal Way News has a piece online about our recent forest health news.

My First Coho Sighting of the Season!

This week, I'll be introducing Lili Allala (pronounced Ayala) as our new Restoration Coordinator. Lili will be joining Hillary (who moves to the position of Restoration Speciliast) in our restoration program. As part of Lili's orientation, we visited several of our project sites, including Brooklake.

Immediately upon arriving at the creek, we saw a 14-16 inch male coho at one of the lower pools. We watched as he climbed the rock ladder, each one of successive difficulty. Finally, at the last jump, a thick log raised almost entirely above the streamline, he made a first attempt but was battered back down into the pool by the force of the water and the height of the jump.

We waited while he rested, building his strength for the second jump. In my mind, i thought it might take him more than a couple tries to clear the log, but that second jump was pure athletic brilliance and poetry! He exploded from the pool in the same location, but with more velocity. It still wasn't enough to clear the log, but as his body connected with the log, he pushed off with his entire body, flipping his head and tail in a way to propel him in a diagonal but forward path, over the log and into the pool. It all happened in a flash and was absolutely spectactular to see.

I couldn't help but think of some of the great human athletes: Michael Jordan, Thierry Henry, Usain Bolt. This little coho was right up there in terms of pure physical brilliance. Wow!

Weekend, Weekend, Where Are You?

Well, it's a late Friday night. An unusual situation, but hey, in conservation you do what it takes. I was invited to sit down with a subcommittee of FW's Parks Commission that is doing some thinking about trails. They're interested in connecting the West Hylebos Wetlands to other parks via trails, and that sounded like a good think to talk about. So, I'm in the office, finishing up dribs and drabs of projects, answering emails (and yes, blogging) while I'm waiting for the 6 PM meeting start.

Let's see what else? I have been receiving positive comments around the community about the presentation at the Parks Committee Tuesday. Much more than I expected. And, Jacinda Howard is working on a piece in the FW Mirror about the presentation and the issue, so that's exciting. I believe this is the beginning of building recognition in the community about the problem of forest health and the need for addressing it.

Other than that- and this is totally off topic - I have been in a Tom Waits mood all day long. I have been listening to his CDs while working on the computer today (probably driving the rest of the staff crazy).

Have a great weekend. Check out the Hylebos. Don't forget to look for salmon. The coho are at Brooklake!

Forest Talks This Week

I was going to post this earlier, but, well time got away from me...Tuesday night was a FW City Council Parks Committee meeting. Committee Chair Jeanne Burbidge kindly invited me to talk to the committee about the city's forest health problem. They were very generous with their time - and had a big agenda.

I gave my forest health presentation and included some information we've just assembled about Dumas Bay and Poverty Bay Parks. Both forests have "arrested succession," meaning they are dying. We have to take action to prevent this from happening!

I told the committee about our upcoming Dumas Bay Forest Health Pilot Project. We'll be initiating ivy removal efforts - focusing on Dumas Bay as it is the most threatened of our forests. We have an initial pair of grants from Boeing and King County to get the work started. Subsequently, we are looking for funds to continue the work and trying to expand to Poverty Bay Park, which is also dying.

Concurrently, I am working with city staff to try to develop plans for a long-term, comprehensive approach to forest health. That means survey and mapping of all public forests in the city, health assessment, and development of prioritized stewardship actions. I'll have more to report alter, but for now, the ball is rolling to at least get trees saved from imminent death!

Contact me if you would like to volunteer or otherwise support this effort.

Audits and Sunny Days

I am in a good mood. The sun is shining. It's beautiful outside in this lovely Puget Sound Watershed we inhabit. And I just had a meeting with our auditor and was very happy with the results.

We've been working with Brantley Janson Yost & Ellison for several years on annual audits. Make no mistakes, audits are not fun to go through. In fact, they make most Executive Directors old before their time.

But over successive years, we've able to utilize the information and recommendations from our audits to improve our financial management (which is a huge priority for me as well as our board). The final drafts I reviewed today were clean, and showed the results of our work to always work toward the best possible management of the funds that you entrust us with.

So, usually audits make me frown, but today, it fit right  in with the sunshine!