North Creek Wetland Restoration Project

Having read Winona LaDuke's article "Wild Rice. Maps, Genes and Patents" a while back, I remembered that she mentioned that the "US Army Corps of Engineers began massive wetland draining efforts to make room for farms and building sites" (184). This reminded me of a wetland that wasn't a wetland not too long ago.

North Creek Wetland at the University of Washington, Bothell/Cascadia campus.

The site area lies within the former territory of the Sammamish Indian band, which is considered to be part of the Duwamish group. When lake levels were highest the area was a shallow part of a very large lake that included contemporary Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington.

• In 1872-1873 the area was bought out by Truly Farms and Stringtown areas. Logging, agriculture, and dairy farming were predominant activities.
  In 1880 the area was converted into a log plume, the creek was streightened to send timber upstream to the Sammamish River.
• In 1916 the land became a 500 acre farm, and the excesive drainage ditches were constructed to improve farming.
• Through the sixtees, seventees and eightees continued ranching, growing alfalfa, clover, and corn for the cattle.
• As recently as 1993, hay was harvested, corn grown, apples picked, and the annual round up was held.

Restoration Project:

http://www.uwb.edu/admin/fpdc/wetlands/Restoration_Project.xhtml

Prior to the restoration North Creek channel was straight, channelized, and confined within artificial levees. This resulted in a lack of contact time of floodwaters with the floodplain and had direct consequences for maintenance of water quality, and flood and cover resources for anadromous and resident fish in the North Creek ecosystem. The structure of then existing plant communities did not provide the variety of habitats found in native forested wetlands.

In 1998, the first phase took place, which involved stripping and grading all areas east of the existing channel, excavation of the new channels and placement of floodplain features. The new main channel was designed with bed and bank features, meanders, and a variety of in-channel habitats, including pools, riffles, and large wood. The rest of the site was regraded to create micro-elevation changes similar to those found in local wetlands. Now, North Creek Wetland is one of the largest wetland restoration projects in the State of Washington.

Cascadia Community College's Stewards for the Environment link:
http://www.cascadia.edu/CampusInformation/environmentalstewards.asp

I attended Cascadia from 2002-2005. I've written two papers about the North Creek wetland and the restoration project. I volunteered at the wetland in 2004 and really enjoyed my experience there. Planting trees, learning about the wetland, helping the environment and observing the wetland from within were all very benefitial to me, because I feel its very important for me, for the school, for the community and most importantly… for nature.

More Information about North Creek Wetland:

http://www.cascadia.edu/CampusInformation/WetlandsPresentation_11-07-07_files/frame.htm

by: Alex Mark