Groundswell NW Events

Wed, 03/02: Groundswell NW Annual Meeting and Dessert Potluck

Please join us in welcoming Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, chair of the Parks & Seattle Center committee, to discuss the outlook for parks in NW Seattle in light of the tough budget cuts and exciting upcoming levy projects. The parks discussion will be followed by officer elections and Local Hero awards.

Feel free to bring a dessert of you wish, or just come to partake and learn more about our efforts to create community parks and habitat in NW Seattle.

Sat, 03/05: Ballard Corners Work Party

Wed, 03/16: Friends of Kirke Park Meeting

Other Events

Sat, 03/05: Heron Habitat Helpers Annual Meeting

Welcome the Herons Home

Join Heron Habitat Helpers at our annual meeting on March 5, 10:00 a.m. at the Discovery Park Visitor Center. Accomplishments, goals and herons will be discussed and we will tour the edges of the ravine in hopes of seeing the herons. Light refreshments will be served. Everyone welcome at this free event.

Sat, 03/12: Upper Golden Gardens Work Party

Please join Golden Gardens Reforestation and Trails (GGREAT) for their monthly work party. We will be working on removing invasives (ivy, bindweed), planting and mulching throughout the Upper Forest. All are welcome and no RSVP is required for this event.

Note: if you're interested in planting trees, now is the time to come! We will refrain from further planting after March until the fall.

Please bring sturdy work shoes, long sleeves, long pants and water. Warm clothes are also important this time of year. We will provide gloves and tools. While we love them, please be sure to leave pets at home. Please email us with any questions or concerns, and visit our new website to stay posted on park activities.

Sat, 03/12: Crown Hill Glen Work Party

Crown Hill Glen Neighbors are planning a work party in the park on Saturday, March 12, 2011, from 10 am until 4 pm.

The park is located at NW 89th Street and 19th Avenue NW. For more information please contact: Joyce Ford, (206) 789-1394.

Wed, 03/16: Friend's of a Park Blvd on 14th Ave NW Monthly Meeting

Sat, 03/19: Carkeek STARS Work Party

Join other enthusiastic volunteers for a fun morning of forest restoration and trails maintenance. We have a wide variety of tasks you can help with. We provide gloves and water (we encourage you to bring your own bottle of water, to reduce plastic waste). Please wear sturdy shoes. Suitable for teens and older. Follow the STARS signs to our meeting place. We’re here the third Saturday of every month. Welcome!

Wed, 03/23: Salmon Bay School Playground Open House

I want to personally invite you to our upcoming open house, where we will present our final concept and be on hand to answer any questions about the design, as well as our plans for the future. We'll have pizza, too, courtesy of Snoose Junction. And as always, children are encouraged to come.

If you're a neighbor of ours, it would be immensely helpful if you could spread the word to other neighbors! This is truly (another) the-more-the-merrier event, and is another chance to ensure that the design expresses the needs and dreams of our entire community, not just parents and staff at Salmon Bay. This is a playground for all our kids!

Thank you all for your support of our project. Without you, it wouldn't get done!

Robin Wise Lofstrom

Project Manager | Salmon Bay Playground Renovation

Wed, 03/23: Seattle Parks Development Plan

Sat, 03/26: Golden Gardens Work Party

Golden Gardens will be holding an additional work party for the month of March!

Saturday, March 26, Golden Gardens Park will host an additional work party from 9 AM to 12 PM. We will primarily focus on getting our last potted plants and seedlings in the ground throughout the park. All are welcome and an RSVP is not required for this event.

Note: if you're interested in planting trees, now is the time to come! This is our last planting opportunity until the fall.

Please bring sturdy work shoes, long sleeves, long pants and water. Warm clothes are also important this time of year. We will provide gloves and tools. We will meet near the off-leash area and parking lot (outside of the restrooms). While we love them, please be sure to leave pets at home. Please email us with any questions or concerns, and visit our new website:https://sites.google.com/site/goldengardensseattle to stay posted on park activities.

Hope to see you there!

-Golden Gardens Forest Stewards

Mon, 04/04: Crown Hill 'Hood Hunt

The Crown Hill ‘Hood Hunt is a map-based scavenger hunt with checkpoints that you must find using a map that has no street names. Use your map reading skills to keep track of where you are.

Here’s how it works: Come to the Crown Hill Center at 10 a.m., get a map and question sheet. The map covers about a square mile and contains twenty-five checkpoints from 85th Street to 100th Street. Find as many checkpoints as you can on foot in 75 minutes, and return to the finish. There are no items to “scavenge”, only a question to answer about something you will see at each checkpoint. Afterward, participants will gather for refreshments and share routes, stories, and answers.

You can go solo, or with a team of friends and family. It’s a great event for people who like to walk or jog and it’s a way to get to know your neighborhood and neighbors.

Start and Finish at the Crown Hill Center, 9250 14th Ave NW
$5 donation per team requested, but not required

Sat, 04/09: Golden Gardens Work Party

Join us for a restoration work party at Golden Gardens - See website for important details on what to bring and where to meet -- greenseattle.org.

Sat, 04/09: Work Party at Baker Park on Crown Hill

Work party with the Ballard Garden Club on Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 9 - 12.  Bring tools for removing dandelions.   Dress for weather.

Wed, 04/13: Disaster Preparedness Presentation

Debbie Goetz of the Seattle Emergency Management Operations Program, will provide information on emergency preparedness, with a focus on individual household, family and home preparedness.

This is the first in a series of two programs on disaster preparedness to be offered to the Ballard community at the Sunset Hills Community Club. The second presentation, scheduled at the same location on May 18th, will repeat some of this information and also address the neighborhood and community organizing aspect of disaster preparedness.

Thu, 04/14: Salmon Bay School Playground Meeting

This Thursday at 6pm, the playground steering committee will answer these questions and more, and stakeholders (that’s you!) are invited to attend, as well as stay for the 7pm meeting to follow.  At that meeting, our parent group will approve how the project will proceed in the coming months.  Background materials are posted online, and include the proposed budget, Phase 1 and Phase 2 images, an outline of fundraising strategies and potential grants, and an outline of the outreach efforts we’ll be doing next fall:  http://sites.google.com/site/letsplaysalmonbay/

Please join us, and help spread the word about this exciting project!  Thank you!

Robin Wise Lofstrom

Project Manager | Salmon Bay Playground Renovation

Thu, 04/14: Movie Screening. The Dark Side of Chocolate

In collaboration with our friends at Equal Exchange & Theo Chocolate, join us for a viewing of The Dark Side of Chocolate, a 43 minute documentary examining allegations of child labor, trafficking, and slavery in the international cocoa industry.

The film will be followed by a discussion about fair trade and the cocoa industry led by event sponsors Equal Exchange Espresso Bar, Theo Chocolate, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Sustainable Ballard, Seattle Good Business Network, and Fair Trade Seattle.

This Event is Free, No Reservations Required

Sat, 04/16: Carkeek STARS Volunteer Work Party

Join other enthusiastic volunteers for a fun morning of forest restoration and trails maintenance. We have a wide variety of tasks you can help with. We provide gloves and water (we encourage you to bring your own bottle of water, to reduce plastic waste). Please wear sturdy shoes. Suitable for teens and older. Follow the STARS signs to our meeting place. We’re here the third Saturday of every month.

Welcome!

Sat, 04/16: Garden Tour at Lori's

Sunset Hill Community Association offers a Garden Tour at Lori's on April 16, 10-2 pm.

This event is free, but a donation to Ballard Food Bank is greatly appreciated.

Corner of 32 Ave NW and NW59th Street. Just drop in.....

Sat, 04/16: Greenwood Park Work Party

Saturday, April 16th at 10am we will attach several donated birdhouses to posts in Greenwood Park's northwest lot along Fremont Avenue.

This will also be our first work party of the Spring. We hope to finish clearing the site of the new Community Garden, and at future work parties build a tool shed, compost bins and prepare the lot for the construction of over 40 p-patch plots later this Spring.

Hope to see you at Greenwood Park this Spring!

Thank you for your continued support,
VGP Steering Committee

Sat, 04/16: ebca Adopt A Street Cleanup on 14th Ave NW

Wed, 04/20: Friends of a Park Boulevard on 14th Ave NW Monthly Meeting

Thu, 04/21: Planning Meeting for Urban Trails

Seattle Parks and Recreation is hosting two public meetings to invite ideas for park trails. Both meetings will take place from 7 - 8 p.m.

• Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at Rainier Community Center, 4600 38th Ave. S, Seattle 98118
• Thursday, April 21, 2011 at Meadowbrook Community Center,10517 35th Ave NE, Seattle 98125

These meetings are an opportunity for trail enthusiasts to provide input and ideas on how to preserve and develop Seattle Parks and Recreation soft surface walking and hiking paths. Trails and related activities rank very high on the list of activities that Seattlites enjoy, and these meetings will provide essential direction in how Parks protects and improves these assets.

"Trails are the entry way for the public to enjoy our urban forests,", said Mark Mead, Seattle Parks Senior Urban Forester. "While the user groups vary greatly from joggers to bird watchers to folks getting from one side of the neighborhood to the next, this process will allow us to connect better with them on a common thread: safe and accessible trails."

Parks is using its trails inventory to not only plan work for the next five years and beyond, but is taking this opportunity to work with stakeholders, citizens, and community organizations to develop partnerships and a vision for our trail system.

For more information on Seattle Parks and Recreation Trail system, please visit http://seattle.gov/parks/trails.asp or contact Chukundi Salisbury, Seattle Parks and Recreation Trails Program Coordinator, at 1600 South Dakota Street, Seattle, WA 98108, 206-684-4122, or Chukundi.salisbury@seattle.gov.

Sat, 04/23: Crown Hill Glen Work Party

There will be a work party in the park at Crown HIll Glen, on Saturday, April 23, 2011.

Crown Hill Glen is located at NW 89th Street and 19th Avenue NW. The event begins at 10 AM, and ends at 5 PM.

Come help your neighbors weed and mulch this great little green space!

For more information, please contact Joyce Ford, (206) 789-1394.

Sat, 04/23: Volunteer Event: Golden Gardens

Join EarthCorps and the Green Seattle Partnership as we continue efforts to restore this amazing park. Today we will be performing maintenance on past restoration sites and removing invasive plant species such as English ivy. This is a Green Seattle Partnership project.

A park with a view, Golden Gardens sits on the shore of Shilshole Bay and over looks the Olympic Mountains. Who would think that such a tranquil scene would be the sight of a struggle of epic proportions? Within the forests of Golden Gardens, the invasive plant English ivy is crowding out native trees and shrubs and making the survival of native seedlings extremely difficult.

See our website for more information and to sign up.