2020 Successes for Delridge Wetland Park

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The Delridge Wetland Park is a community project spearheaded by DNDA to restore a former Seattle City Light substation and preserve the natural wetland habitat to improve water quality in Longfellow Creek, decrease local flooding and provide an outdoor classroom for youth environmental science lessons. In partnership with Louisa Boren K-8 STEM school, students and educators have been active in all stages of the project, including conceptualizing the park’s design and utilizing the space for hands-on science lessons. Within walking distance from the wetland site, Louisa Boren’s 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade students participate in earth science and life science lessons like tracking plant growth, monitoring water quality and testing soil substrates.

Here is some of what we accomplished in 2020. All photos below, by Savanna Marlee, are from the wetland!

Additionally, the Washington State Department of Ecology upgraded our Delridge Wetland Park from Category 4 to Category 3, a result of the work our team has done. Recent emergent revegetation includes small-fruited bulrush, sawbeak Sedge, slough Sedge, and Camas flower. The mallards have returned to the wetland zone for the rainy season, and we have spotted red tail hawks, and a female Cooper’s hawk occasionally. Through our hard work, and thanks to partners like you, the wetland is now home to a diverse mosaic of habitat types, including emergent wetland, scrub-shrub wetland, and forested wetland.

We invite you to check out the park yourself! The Delridge Wetland Park Teaching Garden is located within Delridge Wetland Park at 23^rd Ave SW and SW Findlay Street – one block east of Delridge Way . To learn more about the ways this space is being transformed into a hub of outdoor education and community, visit dnda.org/wetlands. Thank you, Waste Management, for funding the Delridge Wetland Park and the Teaching Garden.