And now, a word about dog poop.  If it was just one or two dogs, it wouldn't be a problem.  When people bring their dogs to the park, they only see one or two dogs, and they might think it won't hurt anything if they don't pick up after their dogs.  Well, it's not just one or two dogs leaving a mess.  It's dozens every day.   Dogs like to use their noses, especially my youngest, and he points out every pile of poop on our usual two mile walking loop.  It's a lot.  I mean, like, alarming.  When you actually notice how much canine feces there is in one little neighborhood, and you multiply that by all the little neighborhoods in the Puget Sound watershed, that is a mountain of poop.  No wonder the whales are sickly and declining. 

Walking along the trail in Eagle Landing Park, you can't go ten feet without encountering a pile of crap.  If you don't look down along the edge of the trail, you might not notice it.  I have to watch the edge of the trail because I have to make sure that none of my four dogs eats a cigarette butt or any other detritus along the way.  Especially on days with sunny weather, I'm looking at a parade of poop.  Maybe this has something to do with my general dislike of people.  Once you get to the beach, you are going to find poop there as well even though the tide washes it away twice a day. 

Cleaning up after a dog isn't the most fun thing in the world, but if you adopted or bought a dog, that's what you singed up for.  It's a shame that, after reading Jennifer Hahn's book on foraging, I can't sample a little bit of the seaweed in Eagle Landing Park just to see what it tastes like.  The ducks and the fish and the little crabs and sea creatures don't have a choice.  They have to feed in these shallow waters no matter how much dog poop washes into their home.  And it all washes down there eventually.  Even if you let your dog out into your back yard and don't clean up after him, it ends up in the storm drain and eventually empties into the Sound. 

Many people let their dogs swim in the Sound at Eagle Landing Park, regardless of the leash law.  If you do let your dog swim there, that's even more reason to clean up after your dog.  Puget Sound is a cesspool.  Besides the dog waste, there is all the oil from dripping cars, the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez oil spill every other year.  Also, all the brake dust from a million cars winds up in the sound, with copper and other toxins.  If you let your dog swim in the Sound, be sure to give him a bath later.  And clean up after your dog. 

I don't like warm, sunny days like today.  I prefer rain.  I am more comfortable in the rain, and it keeps the crowds away.  On sunny days, more damage happens to the park.

I have been told I am too negative, that if I want to rally people to the cause of protecting the park, I should focus on the park's positive attributes, make people fall in love with her.  Well, I have been doing that for five years with the web site dedicated to the park, www.EagleLandingPark.org.  That web site has hundreds of pretty pictures of the native plants of the park, and pages of helpful information.  If it has had a positive impact, then that must mean the park really would have gone to hell without the web site.  If people cause unnecessary damage to the park and I try to stop it, I am viewed as being too negative.  If I would speak for the park, serve as her voice, what should I say?  Should I say that nature is happy to be degraded if it gives a fleeting thrill to a thoughtless person?  Even if we forget about what nature wants, there are other park patrons to consider.  Some people, a few or many, come to Eagle Landing Park to enjoy nature.  We can't do that at the skate park or the basketball court or the soccer field.  If I tried to build a native plant garden in the middle of the baseball diamond, I would be arrested for vandalism.  If I walked into a bar and started planting trees, I would be thrown out.  The only local place that nature lovers can feel at home is in quiet places like Eagle Landing Park.  Yet, if I dare to ask people to ride their bikes, swing their sticks, drink their beer, smoke their drugs in some more appropriate place, then I am the bad guy.

Mothers are the worst.  You expect vandalism from boys of a certain age because that's what they do.  Mothers, however, have the shield of motherhood, and because they are ostensibly caring for children, you are expected to accept anything and everything they allow their kids to do.  Parents have allowed or encouraged their children to trespass on neighboring property, tear out plants, trample sensitive areas, and take home bags full of rocks and shells that they are just going to throw out sooner or later.  Mothers look on with pride as their children blaze new paths through the native plants or hack up a sword fern with a stick.  They encourage their children to scream.  If you dare to suggest they ask their children not to damage or disturb the park, you will be greeted with scorn or rage.  There are certainly parents who teach their children respect for nature, but they are not in the majority.  Most of the mothers expect their children have a right and even a duty to destroy public property.  That's what it's there for, so their children can have a moment's idle entertainment.

Today, two women walked up the trail with three boys flailing at the bushes with sticks.  My youngest dog tends to get excited when people make sudden, inexplicable movments near him, so I moved to the side to get my two dogs far away from the stick-swinging boys.  One of the women made a comment about one of my dogs.  I kept my attention on the dogs in order to help the puppy feel calmer in the presence of the boys, and also to avoid telling the mothers they ought to respect nature.  For keeping quiet, I got told I was rude.  In the eyes of many, the family is so sacred that any transgression must be overlooked.  In fact, we are supposed to praise the disruption a family causes because they are happy, which is the important thing.  Okay, then, what about the family of eagles that has to abandon a place named Eagle Landing Park in order to find a little peace?  What about the families of the Douglas squirrels and the robins and the flickers?  Oh, only human families count.  And if I even dared to think otherwise, it is proof of my antisocial behavior.  People who destroy nature are normal, and people who think nature should be protected are negative.

I can certainly put it in a positive way, as I have been doing for five years.  If you treat nature with respect, then it will still be here for you to visit in the future.  If you would like to engage in sports where you can throw things and swing sticks, the taxpayers have provided facilities exactly for that purpose.  If you would like to do illegal drugs, no one will know or care if you go to your own home and do them.  If you want to have sex, then I think that's great!  You can have sex with any man or woman who consents, and you can go do it at home where you don't have to trample a restoration project.  And I applaud your use of condoms as long as you don't leave your used condoms in the park for any child or dog to find.  I think it is great that you are riding a bike, and there are miles of road where you can do that.  If you want to ride your bike on dirt trails, nearby facilities have been created just for that purpose.  I want you to engage in any recreation that pleases you, and you will better be able to enjoy that sport if you go to the facility expressly created for that purpose.  If you want to enjoy recreations specifically suited to a nature park, you can engage in bird watching, geocaching, beach combing, or simply walking in peace and quiet.  You can walk your dog on a leash, which keeps him safer.  You can take your dog to the off-leash park if you want him to run free and play.  I suggest people learn to treat nature with respect for their own benefit and enjoyment.  Nature is endlessly wonderful and fascinating, and the more you appreciate it, the richer your life will be.

If I were to speak for nature and be the voice of Eagle Landing Park, I guess I should say something like this.  "All are welcome here.  If you treat me gently, I can be a benefit for you in the future.  I am utterly at your mercy, and I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy my many unique features found nowhere else in the city.  We can work together, and I can benefit you as you benefit me.  Any damage you cause me will take years to reverse, and I will appear degraded in the mean time.  If you help keep this a beautiful place, then you will always have a beautiful place to come to.  If you want this forest to look like a junkyard, then that is your choice.  I can only be of value to you if you treat me as valuable.  This fragile beauty is yours to embrace or discard.  If you hurt me, you are only hurting yourselves, depriving yourselves of something that cannot be found elsewhere."

stone 37

I had to find today's stone by the roadside because a busy day kept me from walking through the park during the hours it was open.  Many people ignore the posted closing time, but I can wait until the next day.  I can see my forest from the outside, and I imagine the damage by the beer drinkers and fire builders will probably be minor.  We will go tomorrow.

The bald eagle could see for miles on this clear day as she scanned the waters from the perch tree in the middle of the bluff.  They don't seem to be using the nest tree this year.  I have seen an eagle's nest a quarter mile north, and I wonder if they just moved to a new location.  I have also seen neon green airsoft pellets in the park.  The pellets might not physically injure the eagles, but they could cause them to look for a better neighborhood, without the nuisance. 

The bald eagle population in the 48 states was about 400,000 a couple of centuries ago and they were reduced to about 400 breeding pairs by the middle of the 20th century.  Hunting was one of the main causes of death even after hunting eagles was outlawed.  Pesticides and habitat loss contributed to the decline.  there are now over 100,000 eagles in the 48 states because those who care about their welfare have been able to exert more influence than those who still wish to kill them. 

Eagles had nested in the land where Eagle Landing Park is since about 1989.  It is sad that they had to move away since the land was made into a park in 2005.  It is possible they could move back again if those people who wish to protect the eagles would exert their influence over this few people who choose to harass them and drive them away.  Besides the kids with the pellet gun, eagles can be driven away by excessive noise, such as people screaming as they walk along the trail.  I have no idea why people feel the need to scream in the forest.  It seems like they wouldn't be too inconvenienced if they were asked not to scream in the vicinity of the eagles' nest.  If some people would like the eagles to come back, then they should say it is not okay for these few people to drive the eagles away.  If the friends of the eagles remain silent, then a thoughtless few will wield disproportionate power over our environment.  If anyone besides me wants the eagles to come back, they should speak up. 

Most people who cause damage to the park wish to remain anonymous.  I would like for them to say, publicly, "My name is _______, and I am proud that my dog crapped on the public beach every single day of the year.  I think it is my right as an American to exploit the environment for my personal convenience."  If people would come forward with the reasons they cause damage, maybe we could discuss how that would work out.  If the environment is gone, because proud Americans used it all up, is it just too bad for Americans who come later?  That's what they get for being born after us?  I know I would like to see a land where there were giant trees everywhere you looked.  I would like to see the wilderness of 1849, when the environment was healthy.  People who came before me took away that chance.  Our economy, and my ability to live my current lifestyle, is based on the destruction of the environment.  I am not proud to say I am one of those people who is using up the planet's resources faster than they can be replaced.

The people who damage Eagle Landing Park will not come forward publicly and declare they have a right to do so.  They conduct drive-by environmental crimes, knowing that no one is watching besides me.  And what am I going to do about it?  I can't punch everyone in the face who needs punching.  By law, I am required to sit by and allow degradation of our public spaces.  I can observe and report, but no police or local agency will respond.  The taxpayers of Burien will not pay for protection of the environment. No significant group of people will approach the City Council and demand enforcement of laws that protect our common good.  If I am the only one asking for enforcement, then I can be easily ignored.

"He who is silent is assumed to consent."  "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing."  I would agree with both those statements.  I don't want to be silent.  I don't want to stand by and do nothing.  What can I do?  I am trying to help the park, my local environment, by making the park better every day.  I do this by taking pictures, hopefully raising awareness, and by removing a little ivy every day.  I would like to stop the damage that occurs daily.  I have not found support in the community for enforcement of environmental laws.  My goal has been to see the park healthier by the end of the year.  At the rate people are working against this goal, I will not succeed. It may be a Sisyphean task to carry my 365 stones up the stairs.  Perhaps it is my punishment for being a member of the generation that destroyed the Earth.

Stone 34

Stone 33 with eelgrass

Jennifer Hahn spoke to the Washington Native Plant Society last night about her new book Pacific Feast.  Her talk was entertaining and informative.  I learned a lot about the strange seaweed species I see on the beach from time to time.  I am not an adventurous eater, so I can't see eating most of the plants and animals she talked about.  Even if I wanted to, it would not be legal or healthy to eat these things in Eagle Landing Park.  Except for the berries.  If people want to eat Himalayan blackberries, they definitely should.  The environment would be better served if people removed the whole blackberry plant rather than just eating the berries.  As for clams and seaweed, it is not legal to harvest them in Eagle Landing Park, and the water is too polluted.  I wish she had a recipe for English Ivy Casserole.

Hahn emphasized stewardship, which is good.  Her thesis is that eating local is good for the environment and good for your health.  The main problem with this is that people should not be foraging for food on public lands near population centers because those lands need protection from overuse and abuse.  If you go to the wild, remote areas where Hahn's advice could be followed, you are no longer very local.  You've used those resources to travel 30 miles for one meal, or five meals.  This is not environmentally sound or sustainable.  I could see Hahn's book being useful for people who are going hiking or camping anyway.  I don't see how the majority of people could get a benefit from her book, or benefit the environment, unless they are eating dandelions and blackberries. 

Hahn suggested that when we take from the wild, we pause to say thank you to the environment for its gifts.  This puts one in the right frame of mind, acknowledging that the Earth does not belong to us to exploit and that we have a duty to be good stewards.  I support her suggestion, and I would be grateful if more people had that mindset.  However, a better way to say thank you to the environment is to stop destroying it.  The lifestyle of the average American is not sustainable or environmentally sound.  I would venture to say that most environmentalists have not achieved a lifestyle where they do more good than harm to the planet.  I know that is my goal, to be a part of the solution and not the problem, and I have not achieved that goal.  Rather than pausing to say thank you to the environment when you take a fish or a clam or a handful of berries, it would be better for all if you said thank you by not driving your car or buying that new TV.

When I lived in Colorado, I missed the forests and beaches of Washington, but I did appreciate the open sky and sun sometimes.  I am glad to be back home.  The darkness of the forest feels like home, and I can walk out onto the beach at low tide to get 360 degrees of sky and sun.  The beach is part of Eagle Landing Park.  It is important to the health of the forest in its own way.  Eagles fish in the shallow waters, and nitrogen and calcium from digested fish fertilize the forest.

In the picture above you can see some little specks that are actually ducks.  They eat the eelgrass growing on the sandbar.  It is just at the right depth where it can get lots of sun and where the ducks don't have to dive too deep for it.  This sandbar is maintained by landslides and by the constant erosion of soil into Puget Sound.  At low tide, you can see where the eelgrass grows.  It only becomes exposed to air, briefly, when the tide is -3 feet or more.  Eagle Landing Park extends out about 300 feet westward from the high tide line, and the half acre of eelgrass, Zostera marina, is an important component of the park's ecology. 

Stone 32