2005 – 2020
The Archive
Everything from the original madronawoods.org, kept as it was written: 48 news posts, 226 photos, poems, plans and reports by the volunteers who restored the Woods.
Photo albums
Photos
Updates from the volunteers
News
Work party reports, milestones and stories, newest first.
2017
- · Oct 25Illegal trail construction by one vandal is ongoing in Madrona Woods. Here is a map of the legal trails that we plan to post at both kiosks.
- · Sep 19Summer 2017 has brought heat, fire and death to the Pacific NW. If you think I exaggerate, walk through Madrona Woods and see the dead or dying plants. But it has now rained for the first time in 3+ months, so we’re…
- · Apr 23Alpha Phi Omega is a national coeducational service organization founded on the principles of Leadership, Friendship and Service. This very positive helpful group of young people sought us out, and convinced us that they…
- · Mar 9Judith has drawn a new map of the legal (in green) and illegal (in red) trails in Madrona Woods. She missed a few illegal trails, but this is a very good start in any case. At some point there may be more red than green…
- · Jan 26It’s time for us to reduce our efforts in Madrona Woods. This year we will only have work parties in the odd months. That is Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov if you’re keeping score at home. We will also get rid of some…
2016
- · Sep 6We’re in “maintenance mode” in Madrona Woods. In theory, this is a leisurely, self-congratulatory pursuit, where we keep track of the success of our past restoration work. In practice it is nothing of the kind. This new…
- · May 28Our regular “4th Saturday” work party went well today. It wasn’t too hot. It didn’t rain. We cleared vegetation away from the trails and from 38th Ave. We piled said vegetation to try to block our local trail builder. We…
- · May 16Last Tuesday we hosted 6 energetic UW students who helped us break down the huge piles of wood and composting vegetation near the 39th Ave dead end. This was hard work and some heavy lifting. Good thing it was a nice day…
- · Mar 1On Saturday, Feb 27, we pulled nasty invasive yellow achangel. We planted over 100 conifers thanks to Evergreen Carbon Capture at Forterra. And we were only three volunteers! Imagine what we could have done with more…
- · Feb 1I had nothing to do on a rainy afternoon so I wrote some code to massage the massive spreadsheets produced by the Green Seattle Partnership’s Cedar system, where all our volunteer hours and work logs are supposedly…
- · Jan 23The Green Seattle Partnership has worked to track restoration all over Seattle. This is encapsulated in an online map, where you can search for a park (like Madrona Park, or Lakeridge Park), or just zoom and browse. You…
2015
- · Dec 23Are you (like me) looking to burn off holiday pounds? Tired of the same old boring inside jazzercise, zumba, yoga, rumba, et cetera exercise? Does that person bossing you around while you exercise bother you?? We promise…
- · Nov 10Usually people, appropriately enough, write about rebirth in the spring. But restoration geeks sometimes think a bit backwards. Fall is the opposite of spring. We give damaged nature a helping hand by transplanting…
- · Oct 7Thanks to Jennie Grant for sending me this 1905 map that shows 38th Ave, 39th Ave, and Marion St all cutting directly across what is now Madrona Woods. Plus there is an alley between 38th and 39th. Building these roads…
- · Sep 29On Sept 26, the people in these pictures spent a beautiful morning helping us. They planted 30 really big shrubs. They hauled about 500 lbs of water up from the lake to water the plants. They cleared 500 sq ft of…
- · Sep 25Madrona Woods has been home to a successful nesting pair of Cooper’s hawks for several years. They have fledged 5 young. They nest in the ravine above the haipin turn, where there are no trails. It turns out that there…
- · Mar 17On Sunday March 1, a big Douglas Fir in Madrona Woods got a hot foot! It ended up charred about 20 ft up above ground level. Thanks to the Seattle Fire Department for putting out the fire! Thanks also to the person(s)…
- · Feb 24by Judith Starbuck, Grand Avenue, interview with Peggy Gaynor, Gaynor, Inc. Our Madrona Woods restoration group hopes you’re enjoying the Madrona Creek as much as we are. I especially love the sound of it from the…
2014
- · Dec 16Last Thursday, Dec 11, we had a very big wind storm. The two big casualties in Madrona Woods were pacific madrones, aka arbutus menziesii. These are the “naming trees” for both our park and our neighborhood. Arbutus…
- · Dec 12There has been a lot of vandalism in Madrona Woods in the last 3 years. See our ongoing summary.
- · Mar 14The last few days have shown us that Spring can come. Amid news of a Crystal Mountain ski lift getting wiped out by an avalanche, it’s nice to see Madrona Woods reliably regenerating itself: osoberry, red-flowering…
2013
- · Jun 19Warm days and the flowers in the picture tell us that summer is here. During this season, the song tells us, “living is easy.” We hope so, since we have finished our grants for our SE Madrona Woods restoration project…
- · Mar 15Madrona Woods offers an ever-changing display for us to enjoy. During this Earth Day month, we can all take pleasure in the last of the early-blooming skunk cabbage and Indian plum, and in the salmonberry, thimbleberry…
2012
- · Nov 14We’ve planted nearly 1,000 trees and shrubs so far this season. Only 2,000 or so to go! Green Seattle Day on Nov 3 was a great kickoff to the fall planting season. The next Saturday an excellent Seattle Works group came…
- · Oct 16Friends of Madrona Woods will be selling living holiday trees this December to raise funds for long-term maintenance and also to provide more trees for ongoing restoration. After the holidays you can either plant the…
- · Jul 13The UW is currently holding its fourth International Conference on Climate Change. Thanks to Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, 15 people at the conference volunteered to work in Madrona Woods. Blessed by beautiful…
- · Jun 13A big thank you to the helpful folks from several local offices of Deloitte. They did a huge amount of volunteer work for us last Friday. Their tasks included clearing ivy, hauling wood for composting platforms, and…
- · May 14We’ve received three of the grants we applied for, and this will allow us to move forward with clearing, planting, and maintenance in the last piece of the restoration of the entire Madrona Woods—the 1.5 acres in the…
- · Apr 16On a beautiful Saturday 11 energetic volunteers from Seattle Works helped us clear 2,000 sq ft of HUGE blackberry bushes near the car. We hauled mulch up the steps to cover a couple of hundred sq ft as well. Thank you…
- · Mar 18We had a rare nice day, so Robbie and I went to check out the car, which is in our proposed SE Woods project area. The car is a 1940s era Ford. It has been in the Woods for a very long time – see how it is kind of…
- · Mar 11Most Madrona residents haven’t YET enjoyed a work party in Madrona Woods. Here’s a sketch of what goes into making a work party happen and what to expect WHEN you join in the fun. When you arrive at the tool box near the…
- · Mar 6The Seattle Parks Foundation is FOMW’s fiscal sponsor for our SE Woods restoration project. To make a tax-deductible gift to this project online, click here, and select Madrona Woods from the donation designation drop…
- · Feb 27We are putting together grant proposals for a project to restore the final unrestored 1.5 acre SE corner of Madrona Woods. We also plan to add a kiosk and some interpretive signs. As part of applying for a Department of…
2011
- · Jun 8Those of us who have invested so much in the Madrona Woods restoration are getting a grand payoff now as we watch nature take over where we’ve provided openings in the woods, the ravine, and the natural area. The plants…
- · May 3A spring-fed stream now flows from the steep ravine above Madrona Woods, under 38th Avenue in a pipe, through the Woods in the ravine along Spring Street, under Lake Washington Boulevard, through Madrona Park’s restored…
- · May 3Since 1998, Friends of Madrona Woods has teamed up with the Green Seattle Partnership to turn this nine-acre urban forest into a welcoming place for people and wildlife and to encourage its return to a more natural and…
2010
- · Jun 8We bid a fond farewell to students who have been working with us throughout the school year. Lauren Honican from Garfield and Letha Penhale from Nathan Hale came faithfully on the second Sunday of each month to remove…
- · May 8We’ve heard from a couple of people who were disturbed by recent activities in Madrona Woods involving maintenance of trails—raking leaves off the trails in the autumn and adding thick, compacted gravel on one trail in…
- · Apr 8We’re so proud of two of our Friends of Madrona Woods team for their recent awards. Congratulations to Joan Scott for her Lifetime Resident Award from the Madrona Community Council on Neighborhood Appreciation Day. Her…
2009
- · Dec 9Students from the University of Washington and Garfield High School will be helping us clear new areas now that the creek daylighting project is finished except for more planting and continuing maintenance. A team from…
- · Jul 18We did it! Friends of Madrona Woods called the community out on a sunny July day to celebrate the completion of the Madrona Park Creek daylighting! About 25 neighbors and supporters joined members of the FOMW board and…
- · Apr 14Join Friends of Madrona Woods, Seattle Urban Nature, and Eastside Audubon for a walk through Madrona Park at 10:00 a.m., Sunday, April 26. See and hear about the latest restoration projects, admire native plants as they…
- · Mar 9With the addition of the stream flow from the Madrona Ravine above 38th Street in October, the completion of the bridge over the stream at the main trail entrance at Spring and Grand in January, and the planting of…
- · Jan 15WNPS Daylighting Talk (PDF) Last week Peter Mason gave a brief talk about the daylighting project to the Washington Native Plant Society’s Central Puget Sound chapter.
About Us
How a few neighbors "adopted" the Woods in 1996.
Documents
Plans, reports and maps.
Ecosystem
The battle against invasives; native trees, plants, birds and animals.
Environmental Education
School programs from 1998 to 2010.
Get Involved
Ways to help, circa 2012.
Home Page (2011–2014)
The front page of the original site: "Nature Takes its Course," awards, and thanks.
Madrona Woods
Location, boundaries and entrances.
Madrona Woods History
From the Lake People to the trolley park, 1855–2014.
Musings
Poems written in and about the Woods.
Ongoing Restoration
Mulching, monitoring, the ravine and the natural area.
Partners
The organizations that funded and supported the work.
Projects
The four original restoration goals.
Restoration History
The story of the restoration, 1996–2013.
Stream Daylighting
How Madrona Park Creek was brought back to the surface.
Tasks for Fall 2016 and Beyond
Trouble spots and maintenance needs as of 2016.
Trails
Trail building from 2000 to 2008.
Vandalism in Madrona Woods
A log of illegal trail building, 2011–2017.
Volunteer
An invitation to volunteer.
Work Party Schedule (2015–2018)
Past work party listings — with a math problem of the month.
Plans, reports and maps
Documents
Plans
- Restoration Master Action Plan PDF
Peggy Gaynor, approved by Seattle Parks in 1999 - Woods Habitat Map PDF
Peggy Gaynor's habitat drawing for the Master Action Plan - Lakeside Planting Specifications PDF
Plant list and sizes for the lakeside natural area (2007) - Lakeside Canopy Tree Plan PDF
Locations for large trees like Douglas-firs (2007) - Lakeside Understory Tree Plan PDF
Locations for small trees like vine maples (2007) - Practically Easy Landscape Maintenance PDF
Peggy Gaynor's 2006 guide for Seattle Public Utilities on caring for native plants
Reports
- Seattle Urban Nature report PDF
Ecological assessment, February 2007 - Seattle Urban Nature final report PDF
Including monitoring protocols - Evergreen Carbon Capture planting report PDF
Conifer planting, 2016 - Cooper's hawk study thank-you letter PDF
Urban Cooper's hawk nesting study, 2015 - Daylighting talk to the Washington Native Plant Society PDF
Peter Mason, January 2009
Trail maps
- Madrona Woods trails map PDF
Official trail system (2012) - Legal trails map for the kiosks PDF
October 2017 - Legal and illegal trails PDF
Judith Starbuck, March 2017 - Illegal social trails PDF
January 2014 - Seattle Parks incident report PDF
Vandalism summary, October 2013