Stone #7, pictured above, sits atop a chunk of tile, a chunk of brick, and an alarmingly white stone.  The puppy wonders if any of them are edible.  In the background is West Seattle.  Four dogs helped with today's investigation of the park: Komu, Kelsy, Karma, and Porter.  Karma is on loan from a friend.  We walked a couple of miles in and around the park.  We saw a ferry boat, riding high in the water with no cars, coming from Tacoma to points north.  It is very unusual to see a ferry outside of one of the normal routes.  About two dozen sailboats slid quietly by.  A common goldeneye is in the picture of the ferry boat, but too small to see at this resolution.

On the walk through, I counted about 70 Douglas-firs over eight inches in diameter, and maybe thirty smaller Douglas-firs.  Douglas-firs dominate the structure of the forest and influence everything else in the park.  While the maples may die out in 300 years, those 100 firs should live to be as old as 1,500 years.  If they live that long, they will change the flight pattern of planes approaching SeaTac because they will be 300 to 400 feet tall.  100 Douglas-firs is not very many for 6 acres.  After we walked through the park, we walked around the block just uphill of the park, bounded by 25th, 24th, 146th, and 149th.  This block is probably about four acres and contains about 17 houses, but it has about 75 Douglas-firs over 8 inches in diameter.  This block also has many expansive lawns, and it does not feel dark and crowded with that many firs.  ELP could have a much higher density of Douglas-firs, but it won't because they need sun to get started.  I have planted a little Douglas-fir in every last little patch of sun.  If these 100 Douglas-firs live another thousand years, they will be surrounded by hundreds of cedars, hemlocks, and grand firs.  Those three species are shade-tolerant.  1,500 years from now, all the Douglas-firs will be gone, unless there is a massive fire or landslide that opens up the forest to sunlight again.


So, for the next couple hundred years, big leaf maple will determine the character of the forest.  From 2212 to 3012, giant Douglas-firs will set the tone as other shade-tolerant evergreens fill in.  From the year 3333 on, Eagle Landing Park will be dominated by Western hemlock, with some cedars and Grand firs.  When those giant Douglas-firs fall in the 31st century, they will make nurse logs for hemlock trees to grow on.  Western hemlock loves to grow on rotting wood.  I wish I could be around to see the forest evolve.  I can peer into the future, in a way, by visiting the last remnants of old growth forest around Puget Sound.

The eagles' nest tree is a Douglas-fir, and so is the perch tree, the only Douglas-fir between the top and the bottom of the staircase.  Before the park opened, three Douglas-firs stood at the top of the property, where 25th Avenue meets SW 149th Place.  To make the driveway, one of the three was cut down.  It is now lying hidden in the salmonberry and thimbleberry, between the street and the parking lot.  Theoretically, that fallen tree is supposed to become a nurse log, where huckleberries and baby hemlocks will grow.  So far, it is not rotten enough.  You can identify Douglas-fir by its rough, thick bark.  This thick bark helps it survive fires.  The reason Douglas-fir was the dominant tree when Europeans arrived in 1850 is that wildfires regularly cleared out patches of the endless forest.  The giant old Douglas-firs were able to survive the fires because of their thick, insulating bark, and because their lowest branches were high above the flames.  After those fires, Douglas-fir was the champion of colonizing those open, sunny, barren places.  With Eagle Landing Park being surrounded by city, it's hard to imagine any scenario where a large fire would be allowed to continue that pattern of renewal. 

So, as Eagle Landing Park becomes healthy, it won't necessarily follow the trajectory of healthy forests prior to 1850.  It will become something new, natural and healthy in most respects, but always somewhat artificial because of its isolation and the proximity of houses.  For now, the main goal in making the park healthy is to remove the invasive species.  Pictured below is stone #7 in the grooves of Douglas-fir bark.