August 27

Help bring back our bees! Wolf Creek Ravine restoration work needs volunteers

Community Group, Gardens, Parks

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Empty Bee Spot

Beehive spot sans beehive – but they’ll be back!

Last week on a walk through the Queen Anne P-Patch, I noticed that the beehive was gone. A fixture of the P-Patch, the hive has been literally buzzing lately with summer bloom activity, so it seemed odd that it disappeared.

I emailed my P-Patch contacts and got in touch with the hive steward. Good news – the hive will be back, it’s been relocated to West Seattle in preparation for a restoration of Wolf Creek Ravine, the natural space that borders the P-Patch to the north.

Wolf Creek Ravine blackberries

Blackberries and knotweed to the north of the P-Patch

The Green Seattle Partnership project is focused on the Wolf Creek Ravine Natural Area, where blackberry vines and invasive knotweed will be removed and replaced with native plantings.

The team also met with P-Patchers to get their feedback, and they suggested a realignment of the fence along the east edge of the P-Patch. The blackberries will remain as a buffer to the neighboring homes, but sight lines in the P-Patch will be improved with the fence move. You can see the fence realignment in the map below, the pink dashed line is the existing eastern fence-line, the dashed green is the new fence line for the P-Patch:

QA P Patch plan

The same wire and post fencing along the north of the P-Patch will be removed for the Wolf Creek Ravine work. In the aerial image you can see the work area outlined in orange:

Wolf Creek NA

The Green Seattle Partnership can’t do this work without volunteers – and this is where you can help make a difference. Attend a meeting next Thursday, September 4th at 5:30pm to discuss the plans and provide feedback. The meeting will be held at the P-Patch at 3rd Ave N and Boston St. Volunteers are welcome (and needed) to help with the restoration.

Work on Wolf Creek will begin shortly after the public meeting, and knotweed control should be complete by early Fall. The project length will be dependent on volunteers – so consider helping out and attend next week’s meeting. With volunteer help, work on the steeper part of the ravine could happen as early as next summer.

And, the bees will return home soon thereafter!


Tags

P-Patch, restoration, volunteers, Wolf Creek Ravine


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