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Friends of Madrona Woods
How do you come together and share a resource?
Friends of Madrona Woods came together in 1996 as neighbors of Madrona Park/Woods to restore this urban park in central Seattle to health and safety from its overgrown, neglected, and unsafe condition. The Friends, along with people and agencies from all over the city, have accomplished the following successes: restored and built safer trails, removed tons of invasive plants; planted tens of thousands of native plants; run an environmental education program involving three neighboring schools, including producing booklets about restoration for children; built a waterfall to deal with eroding spring water; daylighted a creek that formerly flowed into Lake Washington, returning its waters to the lake and re-creating an estuary and natural area at the lakeshore to replace the concrete bulkhead and lawn and providing a resting spot for migrating baby salmon. In 13 years the Friends, along with other neighbors and volunteers from groups throughout Seattle, have given tens of thousands of hours to make the park a safer, healthier, and more welcoming place for all its users–people, animals, and plants.
How would your group use the award money?
A team of University of Washington students has chosen Friends of Madrona Woods (FOMW) and Madrona Park as its restoration project for the ‘09-’10 school year. The UW Restoration Ecology Network Capstone program provides the students with experience and knowledge of restoration practices and principles. Under the tutelage of UW instructors and graduate students, the team will design and implement a viable restoration project for FOMW. The six students on the team will be preparing and helping implement a plan for restoration of the overgrown hillside on the west side of Lake Washington Blvd. from a waterfall installed in 2000 to the culvert placed under Lake Washington Blvd. to carry a newly daylighted stream into Lake Washington in 2008. They will also investigate ways to connect spring water from the hillside to the daylighted stream. Because of its difficult terrain, this hillside is the last major area to be restored. The possibility of adding water from the waterfall and hillside to the flow into the lake’s new estuary is both a bonus and a challenge the students want to undertake, but FOMW must provide the funding for everything beyond students’ labor.
Peggy Gaynor
As the landscape architect/designer working with Friends of Madrona Woods since 1998, I can assure you that this is a very worthwhile and visible urban habitat restoration project with a strong educational component. Friends of Madrona Woods is an incredibly organized, effective and accomplished non-profit community organization that has completed several successful restoration projects in Madrona Park over the past decade. FOMW recently received a Denny Award for Community Stewardship from Seattle Parks and Recreation. UW Restoration Ecology/Capstone program is well-regarded and a great fit with FOWM given the community group’s interest and emphasis on hands-on environmental education.
I urge the cooperative to fund the FOWM/UW Restoration Ecology Capstone project proposal.
If you have any questions, please feel welcome to email me. Thanks for this opportunity to comment and support this worthy project.
Cynthia Wilson
I have known of FOMW for many years and often have marveled at the unfailing dedication of a few people who care about the natural envirnment enough to give countless hours, first to learn what needs to be done, and then to do the hard work of restoration with their own labor. They do it because they believe it’s the right thing to do. In the process, they have taught literally hundreds of school children over the years that citizens do not need to be elected to office to improve the world in which they live, nor do they need to wait for someone else to do it. Everytime I walk or drive past the point on Lake Washington Blvd. where the efforts of this group are most visible, I feel grateful. If FOMW are not worthy of a grant, I don’t know who is.
Sally Page
FOMW have transformed an overgrown blackberry and ivy tangled area used mainly for drug dealing into a beautiful, wildlife and people friendly park.
The hours of planning, coordinating work parties, feeding work parties and caring for young plants are beyond price. The educational aspect is a bonus that already has, and will continue to, enrich the lives of many children. To fund the Restoration Ecology Capstone project would extend this effort to another level in addition to bringing the park restoration closer to completion.
Roxanne Bartlett
FOMW has been a worthy group for many years and deserves support. The participants have worked hard for years and included numerous student groups who have benefited from their exposure to nature and conservation. Funding for the Restoration Ecology Capstone project would widen the scope of this work and enable it to be completed. I strongly recommend this group for funding.
Joanna Nelson
I am a Project Manager for Green Seattle Partnership. I have been working with the Friends of Mardona Woods for the past 4 years through our Forest Steward program and I would highly recommend supporting this project. This community group is very experience, well organized, committed and technically savvy. I have also worked with several UW Restoration Ecology Network teams. This is a well supported program that gives students important hands on experience needed to fully understand the process of a restoration project. This is a perfect opportunity to really leverage support from Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union with an outstanding group of volunteers and students.
Steve Orser
I am so impressed with all the work that has gone and continues to go into reclaiming this green, open space gem in this urban environment. My family so enjoys trapsing through on our way to Lake Washington, or just walking through and enjoying the reclaimed watersheds and habitat. We are so lucky to have this nearby and be able to once again enjoy nature despite the close proximity of nearby downtown. Thanks to all those that have put so much effort, money and sweat into making this happen for our wonderful neighborhood!
Lauren Honican
All of the dedicated volunteers who make up Friends of Madrona Woods (FOMW) have done such an amazing job transforming the Madrona Woods into a beautiful place for all people in the community to enjoy. As a student who works with FOMW, I am confident that the University of Washington students and the greater Seattle community would benefit greatly if FOMW received this grant. FOMW has made the restoration of the Madrona Woods an educational process for many students – kindergartners through adults – enriching the lives of all.
The Gaissers
Our family has enjoyed hikes in the Madrona Woods and followed the progress of the Friends of Madrona Woods with interest over the years. We are awed by the dedication and incredible amount of work the FOMW put in to making the Madrona Woods a healthier place. Children of all ages, our young ones, student volunteers and now hopefully the University of Washington students in the Restoration Ecology Capstone Program will continue to learn from the experience of working and playing in the Madrona Woods, an important and special place now and in the future.