I wasn't able to make the walk to the beach today because other commitments didn't allow me to get to the park before sunset.  I had to harvest stone #12 and a strand of ivy from roadside boundary of the park in the dark.  I spent most of the day with Karma, the search dog, looking for a lost cat in Snohomish.  We did not find the cat we were looking for. 

During the search, I followed Karma through acres of rural land and woods.  Where the woods had been left intact, they were very healthy, with a minimal amount of invasive species.  Out of this healthy forest, most property owners had bulldozed away every native plant to put in grass.  One man planted a palm tree.  In that neighborhood, they seem to have a tradition of making paths through the forest and underbrush by eating their way through on some sort of large mowing machine.  Karma and I walked on a path carpeted with deer fern.  I have tried on several occasions to re-establish deer fern in Eagle Landing Park.  I don't know why, but every attempt has failed.  These people were trying to kill deer fern, mowing it down to an inch high, and it was growing back healthier than ever. 

I like native plants for many reasons.  I enjoy them purely for their beauty, diversity, and character.  I appreciate that native plants are part of a healthy ecosystem, whereas non-native plants cannot contribute in the same ways because they did not co-evolve.  Most people seem to view native plants as the thing you get rid of so you can plant good plants.  This way of thinking is completely alien to me.  I have worked hard, for years, to make ELP a healthy ecosystem of native plants, just barely making progress against the constant pressure of invasive species.  Meanwhile, people with healthy forest in their own back yards are mowing it down with contempt. 

Eagle Landing Park should not have been made into a park in 2005.  It would have been much better for the environment if these woods had been bulldozed and 18 condos had been built on this land.  That way, 18 homes would not need to be built in healthy forest land in Black Diamond or Redmond.  People living in these condos in Burien would be closer to the city than if the lived in those fringes of suburbia.  18 condos could have been built while saving 70% of the land as natural habitat.  These six acres of unhealthy forest could have been sacrificed so that 18 acres of healthy forest could have been preserved.  Since that didn't happen, and a small local park was created, then the next best situation, in terms of the environment, would be to make ELP as healthy as possible.  It is just unfortunate and sadly ironic that it will take so much effort to make this forest healthy when they are bulldozing healthy forests elsewhere in the county.