Seward Park’s old-growth forest is 520 years old. The last catastrophic “stand replacement” fire happened in 1508. A moderate fire swept through in 1701. The forest is resilient, adaptive, self-maintaining.
But now somewhat less so. The planet is changing. Temperatures are rising. Novel plant diseases have been introduced. Off-trail travel and gatherings – however well intended – have destroyed some understory. The Green Seattle Partnership, the Friends of Seward Park and a stalwart crew of volunteers – we all combine forces, intervening a little bit to patch things up. We measure. We plant. We collaborate with plant pathologists. We want to be sure that our interventions are minimal and prudent.
We are now creating a detailed record of the forest in its current state. UW professor Tim Billo leads students in making an inventory of the forest. At each of the red dot sites shown below, they apply the Pacific Northwest Forest Inventory and Analysis protocol. Pictured above is Garfield High School graduate and current Pomona College sophomore Nate Butcher measuring the height of a Douglas -fir. The dataset which emerges allows us, and future scientists, to track changes in the forest over the decades – even centuries – to come.
