Unit 86 Donation Helps Fund Restoration of Arboretum Creek

Volunteers from the Friends of Arboretum Creek on planting day. (Photo by Larry Hubbell)

Arboretum Foundation volunteer Unit 86 was formed in 1966 to recruit and train the Seattle Japanese Garden’s tour guides and to be the main volunteer support group for the Garden’s annual cycle of cultural events—and its important work continues today! Plus, the Unit helps the Foundation raise funds for maintenance projects in the Japanese Garden. For example, last fall it donated $8,000 to pay for the very specialized annual pruning of the Garden’s spectacular pine trees.

Unit 86’s generosity also extends beyond the fence of the Japanese Garden! Recently, the Garden Guides donated $1,000 to the Friends of Arboretum Creek to help the local non-profit purchase native plants for the restoration of the larger watershed in the park.

This makes a lot of sense, because the Friends’ Headwaters Project (now being managed by Seattle Parks and Recreation) aims not only to provide year-round fresh water to the creek from surrounding neighborhoods but also—by redirecting stormwater—prevent localized flooding in the Japanese Garden.

New vine maple planted along Arboretum Creek. (Photo by Niall Dunne)

With oversight from UW Botanic Gardens, the Friends used the Unit 86 funds to purchase an array of native trees, shrubs, and sedges, and in early May, they planted them along the creek in the Pinetum section of the Arboretum (about a third of mile north of the Japanese Garden) during one of their monthly volunteer work parties.

The plants include Sitka spruce, vine maple, salmonberry, Pacific ninebark, red elderberry, evergreen huckleberry, slough sedge, and Pacific crabapple. Before the planting took place, the volunteers spent time prepping the site by removing Himalayan blackberries and other invasive weeds.

In early June, I met Friends’ co-founder and Arboretum Foundation board member Larry Hubbell at the planting site. He was scooping water from the creek using a bucket and irrigating the new plants to help them get established. And he was very excited about his new charges.

“The crabapple, huckleberry, and vine maple are in the top-ten keystone species of Pacific Northwest native plants and trees” said Larry. “They are part of a small subset of native species that are abundant hosts for the larva of butterflies and moths. In turn, these caterpillars provide critical nutrition for young birds in their nests.”

New red elderberry planted along Arboretum Creek. (Photo by Niall Dunne)

Some of them, like the red elderberry, also directly attract birds, continues Larry.

“Just last week, I saw young Wood Duck ducklings excitedly leaping off the water to pluck the berries off mature elderberry plants that grow down near the mouth of Arboretum Creek [photo below]. At the same time, band-tailed pigeons and American crows were feeding near the top of the plants. In the past, pileated woodpeckers have been seen eating the berries.”

“In early Spring, the new salmonberries here will bloom at the same time that our native, migratory Rufous Hummingbird will be returning, having spent the winter in Mexico. Hopefully, the abundant blooms will entice them to nest along the creek.”

“We’re very grateful to Unit 86 for their generous gift, to all our volunteers for their weeding and planting, and to the UW Botanic Gardens, Arboretum Foundation, and Seattle Parks and Recreation for their guidance and support. It really does take a village to revitalize the ecology of the creek,” says Larry.

Most of the new plantings are near the small stone bridge that crosses the creek by the larch collection in the Pinetum, just east of the East Newton Street entrance to the Arboretum. A small parking lot abuts the site along the west side of Lake Washington Boulevard, On June 2, members of Unit 86 toured the planting site.

Jeanne Peterson, a longtime Garden Guide, says “We visited the lovely area near the small stone bridge, where Larry gave us a wonderful overview of the Arboretum Creek project and showed us the native plants our donation purchased. We learned about the special qualities of the trees and fruiting plants and the birds they will attract when the habitat is restored. Then, water will flow freely, and the Japanese Garden will be more protected from flooding. A few of us were even inspired to sign up for creek restoration work parties!”