The year 2022 seems to have just flown by, due in a very large part to the dedication and accomplishments of our hard-working board members. With the year almost over, there is little time to reflect – work on ongoing projects will continue, as well as the starting up of some new ones. We have continued to catch the attention of our King County representative, Rod Dembowski (District 1), as he has encouraged us to apply for Flood Reduction and WaterWorks Grants.
Under the label of accomplishments, a major one was winning a Flood Reduction Grant worth $100K for a long overdue hydraulic study of Little Brook Creek, in the flood prone areas between NE 137th and 143rd Streets. Kudos go to Jonathan Frodge, Muriel Lawty and Jeff Laufle for their efforts on securing this grant.
In another effort to win King County grant money, TCA has launched a multifaceted effort to improve wildlife migration between two sections of the Beaver Pond Natural Area, as well as pedestrian safety in the vicinity of 8th Ave NE between NE 105th and 106th Streets. For this project, the first phase of this effort would be to secure a grant to survey the affected neighborhoods regarding the desirability of such an ambitious project. The resulting information would then serve as the basis for writing the scope of a second and larger grant to actually make modifications to the existing culverts under NE 105th St and 8th Ave NE and explore ways to make pedestrian use of 8th Ave NE safer.
Our board adopted a more committee-driven mode after the 2021 election, when it increased from 11 members to the full limit of 16. Formed were the Land Use Committee headed by Membership VP Ruth Williams, the Communications Committee headed by our former secretary, Richard Newman, the Thornton Creek Walks Committee headed by Dass Adams, and later in 2022, we formed our Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Committee headed by our Treasurer, Gary Olson. The committee heads will get a chance to discuss their accomplishments and future plans for 2023 at the next public meeting to be held on January 26… Stay tuned!
We hope those of you who have attended our public meeting presentations in 2022 (as brought to you by Judy Olson, VP for Programs and Education) have enjoyed them. I thought the one in October by David Buerge about Chief Seattle was especially interesting.
Looking forward to early 2023, the Community Science program will commence sampling with “squares” (R- cards) rather than the liquid media we have used over the past four plus years. We have also finally gotten results for our eDNA samples, which have been mixed with a large proportion coming from ungulates, some avian in origin and some human.
Also in early Spring of 2023, the Addams Swale project should come to life with vegetation planting and placement of curb stops along the street edge of the swale by SDOT. Hopefully we will have seen the last car slide into the channel and have to be pulled out.
The Kramer Creek NA project will continue in a maintenance mode until March when the team will gather to plant a variety of native shrubs and groundcover species with revival of the pollinator patches.
One of the Board’s annual internal tasks, updating the Work Plan, has been completed and will be shared with membership at the next public meeting in January 2023. Basically, the board voted to continue its historical course but focus more energy on supporting our Communications Committee and forming a new Finance Committee. Of the various activities that were prioritized, 57% were in the high priority category with 37% rated as moderately important and 6% of low importance. So, the Board will be busy.
Lastly, TCA had a brief brush with fame when the BBC contacted us to help them do some filming of beaver activity in Meadowbrook Pond. However, due to difficulties encountered with smoke and fires in the areas where they were working with the Tulalip tribe to film beaver relocations, they were unable to fit us in. Shucks!
As can be seen, TCA is highly involved in projects that serve the betterment of the watershed and as always, membership is welcome to join in most activities. We will be actively searching for more volunteers to staff our committees – please reach out if you are interested.
All the best!
