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Discovery Park

Discovery Park is a 534 acre natural area park. It is the largest city park in Seattle, and occupies most of the former Fort Lawton Military Base. Situated on Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers views of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. The site includes two miles of protected tidal beaches as well as open meadow lands, dramatic sea cliffs, forest groves, active sand dunes, thickets and streams.

Himilayan Blackberry takes advantage of sun gap in the forest canopy.

Site

The project site borders the Park’s North Loop Trail in an upland forested habitat. The site is relatively flat with damp, well-drained soil. Red Alder and Big Leaf Maple are the dominant overstory species in the forest, but the site exists in a sunny clearing in the canopy that may have once been a parking lot. The majority of the site is covered in a mix of non-native Himalayan Blackberry and native stinging nettle. Large woody debris is present throughout the site. The outskirts of the site have a healthy diversity of native shrubs including salmonberry, red elderberry, Indian plum, sword fern, and trailing blackberry.

Site Goals

Enable the healthy surrounding forest to outcompete the existing invasive blackberry
Restore the overstory canopy with native conifers
Provide new understory habitat for birds and mammals
Increase species diversity of site

Action Plan

Team meets on site:
- Prep site for volunteer events
- Monitor success of site through monthly monitoring
Host volunteer events:
- Ivy “survival ring” Work Party
- Mulching Work Party
- Planting Work Party
Request Profession Crews:
- Brushcutting blackberry patches
- Cutting and treating invasive trees
- Planting in sensitive areas

Work Accomplished

(as of 3/31/08)

95% Himalayan blackberry has been mowed and grubbed from site
More than 200 native trees and shrubs installed
Hosted 2 work volunteer parties, including one with 45 local high school students