Restoration, Stewardship and Education in the Fauntleroy Creek Watershed
In 1989, community volunteers initiated the restoration, stewardship, and education activities that continue today in the Fauntleroy Creek watershed. The Fauntleroy Community Association serves as the umbrella organization for Friends of Fauntleroy Creek, a network of advocates, educators, and young people acting to preserve, enhance, and maintain this mile-long urban creek system through the heart of our West Seattle neighborhood (see Watershed Map).

The fish ladder - the most visible restoration project on the creek - has been a neighborhood point of interest since the fall of 1998. Although Coho salmon had been returning to the creek since 1994, they could not get through the culvert under Fauntleroy Way S.W. Community advocacy compelled Seattle Public Utilities to videotape the culvert and its deteriorated condition convinced city engineers of the need for emergency replacement. Because the community could document the presence of salmon in the creek, state law required that the new culvert be fish-passable.

With the addition of artist Tom Jay to the design team and more advocacy by the neighborhood, SPU maximized the education and public-awareness potential of the fishway by using textured concrete and extensive native landscaping to give it an increasingly natural appearance. Tom is shown here giving students from Southwest Youth & Family Services a preview of elements of his installation. Hundreds of visitors a year enjoy the view, as well as his "Stream Echo" art on the viewpoint plaza. It's an especially popular destination between Halloween and Thanksgiving, when the Coho return to spawn.

Silt is the bane of urban creeks and Fauntleroy Creek is no exception. Paved surfaces and sparsely vegetated yards tend to send dirty runoff into the creek, where it covers the gravel that salmon need to spawn, smothers their eggs, and chokes fingerlings. Reducing dirty runoff is a long-term project. Friends of Fauntleroy Creek has a long history of providing meaningful and challenging work experiences for troubled teens. In cooperation with Adopt-a-Park volunteers for Fauntleroy Park (the creek headwaters), the community has welcomed summer crews from Consejo Counseling & Referral Services to weed the park of invasive non-native plants, such as the Himalayan blackberries these boys are attacking.

in cool weather, young children follow in their footsteps with beneficial natives, including plants they have propagated. Such service-learning projects exercise several skills introduced in the classroom, give youngsters a well-earned sense of contributing to a better environment, and get the job done with many hands. Over time, this continued attention to beneficial native plants will improve the habitat for wildlife, reduce silting of the creek, and enhance public enjoyment of this natural park in our community.