First Encounters

Date: 4/8/14
Temperature: approx. 60 degrees
Weather: Overcast

My Observation Spot

Within the Union Bay Natural Area, I am choosing to observe the circled spot on the map:

Here is a photograph of my site, orientated South towards Union Bay:

The pond is very marshy, and their is a copse of primarily Black Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) and Red Alder (Alnus rubra) encircling the pond. This makes sense, as the Union Bay Natural Area is a young forest and alder and cottonwoods usually develop before coniferous forests. Additionally, both species thrive in marshy environments. Here is another photo of the pond, oriented southwest:

Here you can see shoots of Cattails (Typha latifolia) coming up in the shallower parts of the pond. It seems like the cottonwoods around the UBNA are at different stages of leafing out, but here is a photo of what most of the buds look like on the trees: 

Check out those baby leaves! Its amazing how fast trees start opening their leaves once you start paying attention. During finals week last quarter, I went to a park in Issaquah to collect cottonwood buds- you can make something called "balm of gilead" with the sap of cottonwood buds. You infuse the buds in into oil and beeswax and it makes an antiseptic healing salve. What is amazing is that when you infuse the buds they all open up and exude this amazing smell that fills your whole kitchen. One of my favorite smells is the smell of cottonwood buds in the early spring, and I was able to smell them just walking around the UBNA!

The Native and Natural History of the UBNA:

The Union Bay Natural Area has a long and interesting history. Since time immemorial, Native peoples have lived in the area now know as Seattle, but was long before known as "Little Crossing Place" or sdZéédZul7aleecH (according to orthographic land maps of the area, compiled by Coll Thrush in "Native Seattle"). "Little Crossing Place" was a small portage with up to eight longhouses. Up until WWII, Whulshootseed speakers used this name to refer to the modern city of Seattle. There is a lot more here I could tell, but lets focus on the history of the particular grounds of the Union Bay Natural Area. If I walked to what we know as the Union Bay Natural Area about 150 years ago, I would of seen why it was called sHab7altxW or "Drying House." Similar to today, the winds off the bay and the undeterred sunlight hit this area so well that it was an ideal spot for drying salmon. Native peoples probably erected large, open frame structures which would suspend and spread the salmon.  Realistically, my particular pond would have been underwater- the development of urban Seattle has entirely changed the Lake Washington watershed. The construction of the Hiram M Chittenden Locks in Ballard in 1917 vastly changed the Lake Washington Watershed; rather than flowing out South out of the Black River as it always had, the water began to flow North through the locks, and Lake Washington subsequently became 10-20 feet lower. If I had looked east towards the Montlake cut, I would have seen just a trail over land.Before the Montlake Cut, Lake Union was a separate body of water from Lake Washington, and only emptied into the Puget Sound through a small waterway called Ross Creek. Ross Creek used to be a passageway for several runs of salmon; chum, pink, chinook and coho. Now, Ross Creek has been enveloped by the vast Salmon Bay. 

Why does this pertain to our Natural History class? Well, the UBNA was once part of a drastically different watershed. Its land formation and shoreline was once completely different. We don't quite know what this site once looked like- it could have been a cultivated marshland of camas and wapato, or a prairie that was managed through burning, or neither. But this is just the beginning of the recent history of the UBNA. We have not cared for this site as its fore-bearers did. Here's a photo (Kern Ewing, 2014) of the UBNA from the 1950's, when it was known as the Montlake Landfill:

This is pretty bleak. But trust me, it gets better. Around 1998, large scale restoration efforts began: 

Trees! 

This is from 2007:

And now it is its modern-day self. This seems to me like a very effective restoration project. Its important to remember than this ecosystem is less than two decades old, and that most of the older species here were hand-planted by people. 

My Inspiration:

Since I have introduced the history of my site, I should also introduce myself and give my personal history. What I want to share with you most is my first encounters with nature. I grew up on a small farm in Oregon, halfway between the Coastal Range and the Cascade Mountains. My earliest childhood memories are running around the pastures of our land, climbing into my favorite bigleaf maple and cedar trees, and forging our little creek. I loved the unexamined hours in the woods, smelling the stench of skunk cabbage, finding a solo trillum within the ferns, and seeing the birds fly above me as I lay in the tall grass of a field, lost to the world. Now I love to spend time in nature, whether its through rock climbing, mountaineering, hiking, biking, or just sitting outside. I moved to Washington three years ago, and have gotten to see just a few of its high and low points- last summer I climbed Mt Adams and saw the sulphuric clouds at the summit, as well as the lush forests of Mt Baker on my second ascent. 

As a student at the University of Washington, I am pursuing Interdisciplinary Visual Arts (IVA) and Comparative History of Ideas (CHID). Maybe I just like acronyms, but I am pursuing these fields to find an interdisciplinary juncture of what I love most: creative expression and our local environment. I am especially interested in the ethnobiology of the area; where the environment  intersects with the people and culture who live within it. 

Here are some images of my sketchbook: 

I want to come back and watercolor my site next week, but here is a sketch from the general area: 

Additionally, some sketches of Black Cottonwood trees- a comparison between two trees, side by side that were at different maturation stages of the leaves. I'm making a couple guesses, either genetic difference or unequal sunlight access. 

Thats all for the introduction. Whew, what a long one! 

-Cassie