Adopt-a-Park Program

Shorewood on the Sound Community Cares for City of Burien’s Shorewood Park.
Park Stewardship Begins Close to Home.

Jean Spohn, a Director of SOTSCC, a member of the Burien Parks and Recreation Board and the initiator of the SOTSCC's 'Adopt a Park' for Shorewood Park leads monthly work parties there for volunteers and has done some ongoing wonderful work.

Recognizing that invasive plant removal from forested areas is an undertaking beyond the scope of city funding, the City of Burien established an Adopt-a-Park program to augment care for city parks with citizen help. In January 2007 the Shorewood on the Sound Board voted to adopt local Shorewood Park. During the first year we hosted 10 work parties and an average of 8 volunteers per party removed tons of invasive plants and restored damaged areas with native plants. Work parties continue in 2008! Join us for a work party at Shorewood Park - 10:00AM on the third Saturday of every month. At the work parties volunteers pull piles of the worst invader, English ivy. We also mark other invaders and plant native plants in damaged areas.

You might wonder - Why is English ivy a problem? English ivy is a woody, climbing vine that has been used extensively in the Pacific Northwest. Ivy used to be found in roadside plantings, on steep banks, as ornamental decoration and climbing on buildings, fences and other vertical surfaces. But English ivy is not native to the United States and has no natural predators or pests to keep it in check. It easily escapes from planting areas and invades natural areas, parks and urban forests. It creates "Ivy Deserts" - areas so dominated by ivy that no other vegetation survives. Ivy affects trees negatively, especially when it climbs into the canopy. By adding weight to limbs and reducing air flow around the tree's trunk, ivy makes a tree more susceptible to canopy failure, wind stress and disease. It can also strangle trees around their base and reduce the flow of nutrients up and down the tree.

English ivy does not provide a significant food for native wildlife, but does provide habitat for rats. And banks covered with ivy are prone to landslide.

What can you do? Do not plant ivy. Remove ivy, especially from vertical surfaces where it seeds and is spread further by birds. Remove ivy from your yard. Participate in a Shorewood Park work party.

The first Shorewood Park Work Party of 2008 happened on February 16th, a lovely Saturday morning.  Seven volunteers pulled Ivy from a side path that leads towards the school near the upper entrance to Shorewood Park. Areas close to the park boundary have the heaviest Ivy mats of infestation and so huge mounds of Ivy were built.  These Ivy mounds will be left to rot and turn into soil.  We found native Salal, Vine Maple and Oregon Grape  struggling to survive underneath and so gave them a much better chance of survival.