Parks Updates for the Past Year

Leschi Natural Area

We are pleased to report that the Leschi Natural Area (LNA) has made considerable progress this year. We’ve especially benefited from the help of a group of a dozen or more UW international students, who often join us at our regular 1st Saturday of the month work parties. Additionally, park steward Rich Appleton’s almost daily visits have provided a tremendous boost forward in the park’s improvement.

Sadly, we were unsuccessful in our grant submission to Patagonia this year, but they have encouraged us to apply again for next October’s decision. In the meantime, we will begin another fund raising project within the Leschi neighborhood in early 2016.

Work completed this year includes mulching of both the upper and lower areas of the park, clean-up and trimming of many overgrown trees and bushes and planting of more than 200 native plants. These plants are provided by the Parks Department and Forterra, the state’s largest land conservation, stewardship, and community-building organization and without their help we could not afford them.

A major change this year was the removal of the residential structure in the property formerly located between two LNA green spaces. We now have a fully contiguous, larger area of open space. Still to be done is the removal of the cement walkway and other architectural features from the residence. We have been in contact with the Parks Department regarding this matter and they have provided us with the following information: