If Eagle Landing Park could speak, what kind of visitor would she like? How can I be a contributing member of her ecosystem? The premise of this Biography is that I can serve the park by being her memory, but as I walked through the park today I thought of other ways I could benefit her on a daily basis. In addition to being a brain for the park, I can also be a white blood cell. As I move through her, I can identify and remove that which does not belong. Today I collected cans, bottles, trash, and ivy.

It occurred to me, a few days too late, that I should have called this project 365 Strands, and every day I could collect another strand of ivy. Well, I think I’ll leave the name unchanged, but the ivy collection is appealing. If every visitor to the park took home a strand of ivy, that would be 30,000 strands gone over the course of a year, which, unfortunately, would still leave plenty of strands for the next year. I am going to make a big ball of ivy with my strands, but other people might make baskets or mats. I took three strands of ivy today, to get caught up for the year.

I collected dog waste, of course, but I don’t think I will make a big ball out of that. It went straight to the trash can. I also picked up bottles and cans today.

Another thing I can collect is mileage. I am supposed to walk 5 miles a day for my health, and a healthy person is less of a burden on the planet and on society. Today, because of time constraints, the dogs and I walked the shortest distance from the front door to the beach without taking any shortcuts off the trail. The distance from the entrance of the park to the beach is about a third of a mile. Adding in the walk to the park entrance, today’s round trip was 1.14 miles according to the GPS. Yesterday we walked about five miles because we walked around Lake Burien with my brother and my nephew after walking through ELP. On January 1st, we walked about 2 miles, just going a little beyond the park. So, that makes 8 miles in three days.

Among today’s interesting discoveries were a yellow fungus and a yellow mushroom. The slimy fungus thing I had seen before. If my Googling is correct, it is called Witch’s Butter, Tremella mesenterica. The little orangy-yellow mushroom might be Rickenella fibula but I’m not certain. It looked like a tiny yellow flower blooming beside the trail. It is pictured with stone 3.

So, I think I have established a pattern for the year.

1. Collect a stone.

2. Collect an ivy strand.

3. Collect miles.

4. Take pictures.

5. Tell something about the park.

This will help me build a symbiotic relationship with the park, where I am a beneficial member of my local ecosystem. The park gets healthier, I get healthier, I spend time with my dogs, I enjoy time in the woods, I learn something new, and some aspect of the park is recorded and preserved for history.  This is the essence of a symbiotic relationship: that all parties win, and that the components of the relationship become something more than what they would have been alone.