Friends of Licorice Fern Natural Area

Today Wednesday April 13 a grandfather with his two grandchildren found a body near a trail in the Natural Area.  He called 9-1-1 and a fire truck came. The firemen quickly found the body, soon police arrived, and the grandfather and his children went home.  No details are available at 10PM from the police as to the cause of this situation, we will update this article as we learn more.  If you have news, please send it to LFNAFriends@gmail.com and I will add it to this article.         — Dass Adams

Update: 5/21/2016       Community Policing returned my call, and told me that the incident had been a suicide.  They said there was no criminal aspect to the incident. And that they were not giving out other information.

We held a workparty yesterday for University Prep middle schoolers, and the park felt calm and welcoming.  Don’t avoid visiting, there is nothing unusual left.

Homestead Trail

We have two new gravel trails

Our Homestead Trail leads from the entrance, past the tools and work area, down to an overlook above Thornton Creek. To get to the creek itself, you must still negotiate a rougher trail.

The 130th Street Trail follows the level of the extension of NE 130th Street to an overlook down into the Natural Area. Under two big-leaf maples  you can view the creek, trees, and birds.

Friends of Licorice Fern Natural Area deeply appreciate the financial support we received in 2014 for improvements to the Natural Area.. Funding and Project support came from:

City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Neighborhood Matching Fund  

• King Conservation District  – Seattle Community Partnership Grant 
• City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation

130th Street Trail

Workparty at the 130th Street Overlook

Come have a hotdog, soft drinks and hear what’s in the works for your neighborhood nature preserve. All ages welcome. The cleanup will involve making repairs to trails and bridges and making sure that the many recently planted native plants get some help for the summer. No planting this time. Fun for kids. Free tours and plant/animal ID. Come when you can. Help or just visit.

Saturday June 21 10AM-2PM .

Our Thornton Creek

Natural Area Entrance – – Kiosk here soon!

Big news this Fall, Licorice Fern Natural Area is getting serious attention from city agencies.

Contract Restoration Started:
Just started this month is restoration of one acre of steep slopes, paid for by the Seattle Parks Department, and performed by the work crew of contractor Frank Maduzia.  The crew will be removing the invasive weeds, installing anti-erosion measures, and planting a wide variety of native plants.  These areas, on the south boundaries of the Natural Area, are steep enough so our volunteers have left them alone.  If you visit, you can see the first area they have worked on, down the slope from the big woodchip piles at the end of NE 130th Street.  The work is scheduled to complete by mid-November.

Grant Support Coming?
We are optimistic that we will be awarded a major grant from King Conservation District, that will support planting 500 conifer trees (cedars, Sitka spruce, and hemlock) throughout the Natural Area , and also support training of groups of students in restoration techniques.  This will be a major boost toward reaching our long-term goals as detailed in the Plan.

School Workparties:
This week is our first workparty and training session with our long-time partner school, University Prep. About 30 middle-school students will visit Licorice Fern for their first workparty and orientation.  Over the school year three other groups of UPrep students will have the opportunity to get outdoors, get their shoes muddy, and do some good work for our forest.

Public Workparties:
We are nearing planting season (November, December) and we will be posting neighborhood workparty announcements on the Green Seattle Partnership’s Volunteer Schedule  Come on out to meet neighbors and enjoy our local forest.

It’s summer, it’s hot and the trees are thirsty.

Baby trees and tender young plants fresh need watering and fresh mulching to keep them moist.

To learn how to water and mulch, please contact KELLY DOLE.