Lawton Park: A Volunteer’s Memoir and History
By Barbara Downward
Friends of Lawton Park (FOLP) planted trees; in fact, we planted forests. Enter a ravine at Lawton Park, and you can feel the temperature drop and smell a difference in the air. People call this “forest bathing,” and Lawton Park visitors love it. Under the canopy of big-leaf maple and red alder, the city recedes. Lawton Park has many features: a lovely view north to Ballard, eight entrances, two ravines with trails, surface water, tall trees, beautiful hedges, and a rolling landscape.
Friends of Lawton Park, started by Clint Hall and Jean Wheeler, needed volunteers to meet requirements for their Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Projects Fund grant in 1997. Clint sent my husband, Rick Hemmen, and me an invitation after seeing our names on a list of tree stewards circulated by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Jean and Clint were energetic and fun. The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation and Treemendous of Seattle were partners in Lawton’s restoration, helping Friends of Lawton Park recruit and lead volunteers. We began by publicizing our work in the Magnolia News. In October of 1997, Seattle Parks released a draft of the “Lawton Park Forest Restoration Plan,” written by University of Washington College of Forest Resources (now the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences) student Angela Kimpo. It described Lawton Park and the work needed for its restoration. After the removal of vast quantities of English holly, Himalayan blackberry, ivy, and laurel from the wetland near the 25th Avenue West entrance, a circular wetlands observation boardwalk was completed in 1999. We then planted native species, with an emphasis on trees. Jo Hurley of Treemendous provided large tree specimens for early projects. In 2002, the University of Washington Restoration Ecology Network completed a capstone project around the wetland boardwalk and added two hundred native plants.
Fig. 1. Lawton Park boardwalk under construction, 1999.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
Fig. 2. Lawton Park boardwalk twelve years later in early spring of 2011.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
Ambitious events with Seattle Pacific University cleared large areas of invasive plants. Seattle Parks volunteer coordinators Adam Cole and Teresa McEwen worked with Jean Wheeler to organize projects. After sixty incoming freshmen and seven FOLP volunteers worked clearing blackberries on November 1, 2003, we needed new plants to stabilize the hillsides. Kerry Lasko and Adrienne Caver-Hall of Seattle Parks recommended the King Conservation District (KCD) as a source. Brandy Reed of KCD provided 339 plants after meeting Jean and me at Lawton and getting measurements of the planting areas. She made siting and planting recommendations that aligned with the restoration plan. Rick made a cardboard template so we could space the plants correctly. On December 27, six volunteers got most of the plants in the ground. Christmas bird-counters from Seattle Audubon dropped by too! By January 17, 2004, before breaking bud, all the plants were in the ground and mulched. The King Conservation District remained a partner, providing another large plant donation in 2008. Jean and I also volunteered at their plant nursery in Renton to earn plants for Lawton Park.
Fig. 3. FOLP co-founder Jean Wheeler welcomes SPU volunteers. November 1, 2003.
Courtesy of Rick Hemmen.
Fig. 4. Christmas bird-counters meet a FOLP work party. December 27, 2003.
Courtesy of Rick Hemmen.
After our successful winter planting experience, we began moving from spring to fall and winter planting. Winter planting aligned with the restoration plan calendar and minimized disturbance of the forest during bird nesting season. I preferred to end forest work by the Ides of March, the 15th, then resume in mid-August. Nesting birds need space and privacy. And plants installed in the fall and winter have more time to develop roots in cool weather. During the spring and early summer, we avoided big projects.
Jean Wheeler and I signed participation agreements with Seattle Parks in 2006 and kept detailed records of restoration activities. Parks had a new restoration partner, the Cascade Land Conservancy (now Forterra). They initiated the Green Seattle Partnership citywide and launched a website we used to announce events.
However, it was a cold call to Lawton Elementary School teacher and Walking School Bus leader Lyon Terry that began the best relationship for Lawton Park’s revitalization. We partnered with Lawton Elementary School, which is located directly north of the park, and Mr. Terry started engaging the school in Lawton’s restoration in 2008. He brought his second-grade class and volunteer parents to the park with “gloves on,” and they planted four-inch pots of spruce, hemlock, and ferns. On their next visit, they mulched, drew pictures of their work, and then named it the “Lawton Dolphin Freedom Garden.” It was exciting to have the children outside, in Lawton’s forest, just a short walk from their classroom. Fred Schauer of Seattle Parks’ Central West Division was an experienced volunteer leader and helped us continue our school events with Mr. Terry and other teachers, including Susan Raymond, Peter Hubbard, Peter Howard, and Lillian Ulmer. We had events with multiple classes, too. At one, we mulched the edge of the forest all around the park. On Saint Patrick’s Day in 2009, we hosted Parks’ Superintendent Timothy Gallagher for a grand tour. His visit began with a greeting from Mr. Terry’s class installing plants at the 25th Ave West entrance, Lawton’s low point, and then he walked through the park to enjoy the view north to Ballard. He asked why Parks mowed the top of the steep hills, where mowers are prone to tip over, and visited Lawton’s entrances. In 2015, Lyon Terry was named Washington Teacher of the Year. Soon, Lawton Elementary School achieved a Green School designation.
Fig. 5. A young volunteer admires her newly planted sword fern at Lawton Park, fall 2017.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
The Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) also helped us procure plants. WNPS teamed up with Rory Denovan, Seattle Parks’ Plant ecologist and liaison with Green Seattle Partnership plant stewards, for a program to teach volunteers about “live staking” in 2009. It changed our approach to creating native plant hedges, or hedgerows. Many native plants can easily be propagated with live stakes during the winter. After their leaves have fallen, growth hormones and carbohydrates move to the branches before the leaves break bud, often in February. We could trim a hedge and use that material at other sites around the park. By cutting a stick the thickness of your finger at an angle to be 12–15 inches long, then sticking it 4–6 inches into the ground, we could revegetate a slope without digging or importing dirt. Dirt is potentially full of weed seeds or plant pathogens, and it is much heavier than a stick. Here is a list of shrub material we successfully live staked at Lawton Park:
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Black twinberry (Lonicera involucrata)
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Red osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)
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Common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
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Pacific ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus)
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Mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii)
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Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana)
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Ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor)
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Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)
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Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
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Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
We also had some success with osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis) and red currant (Ribes sanguinium). We trimmed all budding tips off the stakes.
Fig. 6. A bird’s nest in a Lawton Park red currant. April 3, 2013.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
Lawton Elementary School parent and volunteer Kassi Bradberry proposed an after-school enrichment program dubbed the “Junior Urban Forest Stewards.” We started in winter of 2015 with thirteen sessions; she organized the school side, and I worked with Parks. We never got rained out! Parents and grandparents often joined us. Kassi provided journals, snacks, and stamps. Crafting dream catchers, writing haiku, climbing trees, and running back and forth to the school were popular activities. Each session had a theme, a plant, and a bird of the week. For instance, the February 23 theme was BEES! Queen Bee Missy Anderson, a mason bee farmer and speaker for King County Master Gardeners, visited and captivated the children from the moment she placed the bee antennae on her head. We finished her program rolling mason bee nest tubes. The plant of the week was salmonberry, and the bird of the week was the chickadee.
Our March 2 theme was bare root plants, so we learned about planting bare root and potted plants. That week’s plant was snowberry, and our bird was the robin. For our March 30 theme, great blue herons, Mike Marsh of Heron Habitat Helpers led us on a walking field trip to Commodore Park. He helped us view herons through telescopes before the alders leafed out. Cedar was our plant of the week, and the osprey was our bird. For the Cooper’s hawk theme on May 18, we had a presentation from Martin Mueller of the Urban Raptor Conservancy.
Green Seattle Partnership project manager Andrea Mojzak elevated annual site visits with reports of accomplishments, goals, and maps marked up with details of park work. Annual site visits included the Green Seattle Partnership plant ecologist and (ideally) Parks district staff to discuss park issues in person. Dedicated, hardworking volunteers made impressive changes to Lawton’s landscape, clearing invasive species and replanting with natives all around the park. The Green Seattle Partnership channeled University of Washington Ecology 101 students to us so they could complete their required field time. I signed completion documents for a range of volunteers fulfilling community service hours requirements. Boy Scout Troop 166 participated at Lawton starting in 2012. One member of Troop 166, Richard Hemmen (Rick’s relative), completed his Eagle project at Lawton’s Mount Suribachi flower meadow. It was set up to be a green event that generated no waste and had no out-of-pocket costs. With 182 hours of work, the volunteer scouts and Friends of Lawton Park cleared ivy and blackberry, downed wood in the surrounding forest, created a debris windrow, then distributed burlap and mulched at the site.
In 2015, a Microsoft group partnered with Friends of Lawton Park for the United Way Day of Caring to start renovation of the southwest edge of the park. We cleared a mountain of blackberry canes and roots from the steep slope, generating a long, large debris pile that stretched along the base of the hill. Friends of Lawton Park replanted the area after fixing burlap with eco-stakes to the hill, cutting slits for the new plants, and mulching. In four steep areas, professional crews came in to do restoration between 2009 and 2015. Crews also came to Lawton to perform sweeps of larger areas to clear persistent weeds and plant more trees. In 2011, Central West Division of Seattle Parks led improvement of the Williams Ravine Trail, or the 28th Place West unimproved right-of-way, adding a gravel base. In 2012, Seattle Parks, led by senior gardener Rosellen Brittenham, added water bars at the south end of the trail.
Fig. 7. South bank of the creek near 25th Avenue West park entrance. December 3, 2011.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
Fig. 8. Same vantage spot with a new street sign. March 16, 2016.
Courtesy of Barbara Downward.
Community participation was key to improving open spaces citywide and at Lawton Park. Lawton Park seemed like a microcosm of challenges that concerned all of Seattle. Sometimes we called for help outside Seattle Parks, including going to the Seattle City Council. The Department of Parks and Recreation fully implemented district-based funding in 2016, after voters approved the creation of a funding source, the Seattle Parks District, in 2014. With that change, long-standing arrangements with other City departments, including SDOT, came under discussion. Sites like Lawton Park’s Williams Ravine Trail, which crosses SDOT property at its north and south ends, had an “authority gap.” In May 2016, Seattle Parks told Friends of Lawton Park they would no longer support the Williams Ravine Trail, which is part of the Walking School Bus route to Lawton Elementary School. Walking School Bus leader Mark Langley estimated his group made 1,674 trips along the trail in the 2015–16 school year, and other community uses increased that number. His advocacy for the trail, along with photos and video, helped clarify the issues. Appeals made their way to councilmembers, and Mark’s presentation won the day. On July 11, 2016, Chukundi Salisbury, Parks’ Trails Program manager, emailed us a map labeled “Williams Ravine Trail” with the trail route drawn in bright green and wrote: “I am confirming that the official trail is something we look to keep, maintain and will remain a part of our system.” Eric Sterner, Seattle Parks’ Green Seattle Partnership plant ecologist, repeated confirmation of the Williams Ravine Trail’s status in an email to me on September 12, 2019: “Also, to clarify this trail is a Parks owned and maintained trail.” According to Seattle Public Schools, 47 percent of Lawton Elementary School students “get to school in an active way.”
Fig. 9. Mayor Wes Uhlman helps dedicate Lawton Park. The Seattle Times, December 7, 1969. Courtesy of The Seattle Times.
The summer of 2012, Cooper’s hawks perched in the trees along the trail to 25th Avenue West. I had seen one several times. Big like a crow, but stealthy, they nestled deep in the forest. Starting up the trail on a mid-August afternoon, I spotted a Coop on the ground. I froze to watch it and realized it had a dead crow in its talons, black feathers scattered around. The hawk didn’t care about me, and I stood very still. Then, one at a time, three more Cooper’s hawks flew into the trees on the west side of the boardwalk, all calling and menacing the hawk on the ground. What a scene! The hawk on the ground screamed back and tented its wings over the kill. It looked like this bird didn’t want to share its meal. I think it was a parent, letting its offspring know they had to feed themselves.
Fig. 10. A Cooper’s hawk. July 2024.
Courtesy of Elaine Chuang.
I had to let everyone know! And I wanted to get my identification right—were they Cooper’s or sharp-shinned hawks? Size is a variable field mark, but tail configuration is reliable. The bottom of a sharpie’s tail is straight across, while the bottom of a Coop’s tail is c-shaped. I was checking that out as the seconds ticked by, enjoying the gift of this moment. Once home, I contacted everybody, including Seattle Parks’ Penny Rose, program manager at Discovery Park. Martin Muller, one of a dedicated group of hawk experts and banders, came to Lawton the next day, starting at the 25th Avenue West entrance. He was able to trap and band two hawks in the early-morning hours and saw three at one time during his session. He sent a report to Penny. He decided that these birds were not from a nest in Discovery. In fact, people in Lawton that first morning told him the birds had been active at Lawton for weeks. Cooper’s hawks have nested at Lawton Park every year since 2012 for thirteen consecutive years. According to the Urban Raptor Conservancy, over that time, they produced fifty-three fledglings. The nests moved to the Williams Ravine, high up in the trees. About two-thirds of the Cooper’s hawks of Seattle nest in parks and greenbelts.
Lawton Park and its forests provide no shortage of surprises. I had another close encounter with Coops one day. Walking south on the Williams Ravine Trail, I could hear birds high up in the canopy and stopped to observe. I saw two hawks perched together, and suddenly, one took off and plunged into the bushes ten feet in front of me. It was stunning! I peered into the bush, the leaves rustled, and surprise! The hawk popped up, shook itself off, and flew away. Learning to fly is a process.
“Dreams only live by love’s patient labors” –Anonymous
Barbara Downward is a lifelong Seattleite who lives in Magnolia. In 2004, she completed the Washington Native Plant Society’s Native Plant Stewardship Program. She retired from Seattle Parks volunteering in 2020.