Restoration work on the 6-acre swamp began more than 15 years ago as part of a UW capstone course taught by , a professor in environmental and forest sciences. The swamp was overrun with invasive plants, including reed canary grass and English ivy, and a stronghold of Himalayan blackberry made most of the area impassable.

After mowing down some of the blackberry thickets, Ewing decided to try a less mechanical approach: Plant young, fast-growing willow trees to cast shade on the sun-loving invasives and eventually kill them.

Those initial plantings took hold, grew tall and served as a starting point for robust restoration work. Now, swamp-loving conifers and other native shrubs thrive in the area that has far fewer invasive plants than a decade ago.

“I think people assume a natural area will just heal itself, but in a city, that just doesn’t happen,” Ewing said. “There’s always going to be some restoration needed in Yesler Swamp. It’s great, because we wanted a project that would have an ongoing need, and to involve students in meeting that need.”

Swamps are wetlands with trees, and conifers such as Sitka spruce and western red cedar would have colonized the Yesler Swamp area. Most of Seattle’s original swamps have been logged, drained or filled, and this swamp is one of the only remaining ones along Lake Washington.

“This swamp provides a habitat type that’s rare,” said Zac Mallon, a recent UW graduate who helped with the restoration work. “It provides habitat for wetland birds, migrating salmon and other fish species and amphibians in the Seattle area.”

About five years ago, the swamp’s Laurelhurst neighbors formed the group and began the boardwalk trail project that protects sensitive habitat and keeps walkers’ feet dry when the lake level rises. The boardwalk trail also makes it easier to do ongoing restoration work.

The group raised more than $400,000 to build the 1,500-foot boardwalk, designed by SB&A Landscape Architects. The UW will now assume responsibility for ongoing maintenance and monitoring restoration work within the swamp.

“It is wonderful that the Friends of Yesler Swamp wanted to take on the trail and boardwalk project,” said Fred Hoyt, interim director of UW Botanic Gardens. “It is providing all-year access for the students to work on projects, learn how to deal with restoration and report to the state agencies. The area is an excellent outdoor laboratory that allows us to work hand in hand with the community on a range of activities.”

Hundreds of students have been involved over the years in work parties and research projects in Yesler Swamp. UW students, local elementary school and high school students have taken their turn at pulling out invasives. A number of UW graduate students also have completed thesis projects using the swamp as a convenient test bed.

“For UW students, this is a place to run experiments, to learn about restoration and to try new things,” said Kat Cerny-Chipman, a UW master’s student in environmental and forest sciences. “It’s a forever project, but since this is a place to learn about restoration, that’s actually OK.”

Henry Yesler’s 1800s-era sawmill used to occupy the land now known as the swamp. After the mill burned down, the UW bought the property in 1927 and it sat for years, accumulating a dense, impassable thicket of invasive plants. Now the land is teeming with native plants, a resident beaver (and dam) and more than 100 bird species sightings.

“Because the swamp was forgotten is why we can have this resource now,” Cerny-Chipman said. “I think the specialness of the swamp is really hard to put into words. I encourage people to get out and see it.”

Yesler Swamp is located on the east side of the UW’s . It is free and open to the public.

When you look at a map of Ballard, something surprising might jump out — there are very few public natural areas for residents to enjoy.

The Seattle neighborhood has its fair share of single-family backyards and gardens, but for the increasing number of residents who live in apartments or condos in Ballard’s downtown core, there aren’t many public green areas.

A ÌìÃÀÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½ graduate student saw green-starved Ballard as an opportunity to call attention to areas in the neighborhood that have restoration potential. Her new report, the “,” identifies 55 sites that could be restored as natural areas for people and wildlife, increasing the neighborhood’s total amount of accessible green spaces.

The report also identifies landowners and contacts for each site to make it easier for residents, community groups, the city or nonprofits to tackle a restoration project in Ballard.

“My goal is to put this information out there and show people the possibilities in case they want to do a project,” said , a UW graduate student in environmental and forest sciences. “I think it’s important to give people a connection to nature. If you’re not surrounded by it and can’t experience it, you’re not as likely to see its intrinsic value.”

Ballard is one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Seattle, with more than 700 new residential units built in its urban core in 2014 alone. Increased density and development squeezes the amount of natural areas residents can enjoy, which also prompted Yoder’s project.

“Not everyone has the ability to leave the city and experience nature — that’s why I feel these urban restoration projects are so important,” she said.

The sites described in the report include wooded lots, existing parks with underused areas, street dead-ends, unused Seattle City Light substations, public school grounds and even private residences that have environmentally critical areas.

Yoder first used Google Maps to find all of the open spaces or vacant land throughout Ballard, then visited each site to check the potential for restoration. She whittled down her list if sites were slated for development.

She then visited each site a second time and collected specific data from each location, including photos and observations about vegetation, tree coverage, public access routes and more. She used City of Seattle’s GIS data to gather other details such as zoning, ownership, potential landslide areas and places where the slope would be too steep for a project.

The final report lists this information for each Ballard site as well as recommendations to further restore the land.

Each site described in the report could use restoration work in some way, Yoder said. Some of the sites are obvious natural spaces and others are forested sites that ran wild. Some look totally unworkable. Many of the schools and parks in Ballard could be improved with more native plants and habitats, she said.

Nearly two-thirds of the sites are on public land and range from larger areas such as North Beach Park, Soundview Playfield and Salmon Bay Park to more obscure sites like the vacant corner lot at Northwest Market and Northwest 55^th Street or the Greenwood Triangle. The report also suggests a number of street ends, traffic islands, medians and substation lots that could be improved for public use.

“I think Theresa’s work provides a really good overview of what is possible in terms of creating some enclaves of native vegetation and natural ecosystems,” said , a UW professor of environmental and forest sciences and one of Yoder’s faculty advisers, along with . “Greater Ballard is going to change, so why not embrace the change with thoughtfulness about environmental amenities?”

Finding each site’s landowner and the appropriate contact information was a difficult process, Yoder said. The report lays out the best-available contact for each site, and she hopes that reduces the barrier for individuals and organizations that want to tackle a restoration project.

Yoder plans to compile a Seattle-wide list of contacts in the various public agencies and departments that manage other sites around the city that might also have restoration potential.

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For more information, contact Yoder at sylph@uw.edu.