Beginning as soon as the week of April 15, WSDOT will perform geotechnical investigations in the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA). Crews will be taking soil samples and installing monitoring well equipment in and around the parking area to study soil and groundwater conditions. The information gathered helps us better understand the composition and characteristics of the ground in this area to prepare for future wetland mitigation work. 

If you have walked around Shoveler’s Pond in the Union Bau Natural Area this month you have seen the area undergoing a flurry of activity from plowing to bulldozers moving dirt.

The January 2013 edition of BGjournal features an article on the restoration work UW students have accomplished as part of the Restoration Ecology Capstone course sequence. The capstone works with community partners to accomplish restoration projects in and around Seattle. Capstone projects have helped to restore 15 acres of the Union Bay Natural Area, a former landfill.
To learn more, read the full article:
BGjournal 10.1 

 
Amphibians are the canary in the mineshaft, warning-systems for deteriorating ecosystems and yet this species was found in the former-landfill, Union Bay Natural Area, in January 2013.  Nestled beneath woody debris and in hibernation mode, it was accidentally discovered by a volunteer during a work party to remove Himalayan blackberry.  Why isn’t this one “red-backed”, you ask?  That’s because although most commonly having an orangey-red dorsal stripe, this species occasionally presents a yellow one instead. 

Greetings! I’m excited and grateful to be the 2013 UBNA graduate student manager for winter and spring quarters. I will be leading volunteer groups maintaining restoration sites throughout the natural area and this season we have begun an internship program with students from Edmonds Community College!
The interns and I are working every Tuesday and Thursday through early June, so if you have any interest in getting dirty, releasing some pent up aggression on the proper objects (weeds!), and basking in the beauty of urban nature, we’re happy to have individual folks join us.   

Did you know that the Camas bulb with its stunning blue and purple star-shaped flowers is native to the western US?
We recently spotted some Camas in bloom in the Union Bay Natural Area near parking lot E5. Go have a look! 

One of the many engaging courses offered to the undergraduate and graduate students at the Center for Urban Horticulture is the Restoration Capstone Sequence. In this course, students of different academic backgrounds work together to complete a local ecological restoration project. Students plan, design, install, and monitor a restoration project while working in teams over the course of eight months, beginning in fall of each year. 

In the managed landscape, there are several species and cultivated varieties of Salix that are highly attractive.

Marilyn Smith Layton has created a book of images called Seasons of Lifein the Union Bay Natural Area, and she is donating the profits from the sale of the book to projects in UBNA. The cost of the book is $60, and $20 of that will go to help the natural area.
You may purchase a copy in the Miller Library (cash or check only). 

May Fieldtrips
The two days that GROW high school students visited CUH and
the UW Farm were full of sunshine. Students from Susan Barth’s horticulture class at Nova High School and students from Jessica Torvik’s horticulture/ecology classes were introduced to resources for their GROW projects through scheduled tours and activities. Maggie Roses’ science classes from Ingraham focused on working with Lisa
Haglund and Patrick Mulligan on the site prep and plant installation in the
newly restored storm water garden at CUH.