For many years the West Duwamish Greenbelt has been the home of Nature Consortium’s restoration work. This year we are excited about the work that has started at our new sights – Long Fellow Creek and Camp Long. These new sites are allowing us to increase our impact and increase our engagement with many more youth and community members living in Southwest Seattle as well as the broader Seattle area.
The West Duwamish Greenbelt, Longfellow Creek, Camp Long and the forest that surrounds it are part of a pathway that connects to the Duwamish River and provides a path for clean water to reach the Puget Sound. And, as inhabitants of Seattle and King County our health and our well-being is connected to the Puget Sound. Through forest restoration, arts and environmental education Nature Consortium is creating a pathway to learning about nature and creating a more sustainable future. But the future we envision requires that we effectively engage all corners of our community.
Nature Consortium’s Urban Forest Restoration Program has been successfully restoring the West Duwamish Greenbelt since 2003 with community members that live in and around neighborhoods near the greenbelt. Last year we engaged nearly 3000 youth and volunteers during regular weekly work parties and special events. Despite our success engaging thousands of community members we recognized barriers that prevented many of our community members from participating in the program opportunities that we have offered over the years.
Through the completion of a community needs assessment in 2014-2015 we identified that transportation to restoration sites in the West Duwamish Greenbelt have limited who can participate in our programs. Many youth and families in Southwest Seattle and urban unincorporated King County are economically disadvantaged. Additionally, many schools located in the Southwest Seattle community are under resourced and meaningfully challenged in terms of logistics and cost if chartered transportation is required to get students to the forest. As a result, engaging youth and families in out-of-school programs has been challenging. Cultural and language barriers have also had a negative impact on our ability to increase our engagement of ethnically diverse community members in our forest restoration program. Thanks to the support of partners like NUCOR Steel, NBBJ, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Housing Authority, The Boeing Company, Sustainable Path Foundation, Horizons Foundation, 4Culture, The Russell Family Foundation, the Dr. Maxwell Hurston Foundation and so many more we have launched our new restoration efforts at sites closer to Delridge and High Point and to become a stronger part of these communities.
We project that our new sites at Longfellow Creek and Camp Long will allow us to engage 800 to 1000 currently un-served youth and adults over the course of this year. Longfellow Creek is within easy walking distance to 3 community centers and 3 local public schools. These centers include Highpoint Community Center, Neighborhood House Family Center, Delridge Community Center, Arbor Heights Elementary, Boren K-5 STEM, and Denny Middle School. Nature Consortium’s mission is to connect people, arts, and nature. Our goal as an organization includes realizing the presence of a healthy urban forest and enhanced wetlands. But beyond that we envision creative communities where all people care and connect to nature.
Nature Consortium is dedicated to engaging and empowering everyone in our community, including low-income, immigrant, and ethnically diverse communities, in environmental learning and action, and to establishing relationships of trust and respect. Like our forest and our waterways, everyone in our communities plays a vital role in creating a healthy, beautiful, and sustainable world.
“Our communities are a lot like soil. They provide the nutrients we need to grow. When our soil is healthy, we can grow tall, we can be of service to others, and we can show our colors.” – Nature Consortium on YouTube
