A date  in the history of Shoreline was made on March 23, 2007 when final papers were signed from the Shoreline Water District to transfer the deed of South Woods to the city.

The entire parcel at 150th and 25th Ave. NE is now owned by the city of Shoreline.  All the No Trespassing signs have been removed and it is part of our park system.

    The community needs to be applauded for passing the parks bond issue to make this possible.

    South Woods Preservation Group will now concentrate on creating educational programs to work with both school curriculum and the parks department. There are many existing curriculum and, of course, we all were inspired by Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods which was brought to us by Charlie Brown.

    Speaking of Charlie he is serving on the trails committee which is authorized to spend $2.5 million of the bond money for trails throughout the city. Some of the money will go to improve paths in South Woods. We are looking at materials to protect the understory of the forest from trampling feet.

    Another exciting project is that the city has a contract with Seattle Urban Nature Project which will give us a scientific Urban Forest Assessment. This study will be several of our parks including South Woods.  First, they take aerial views of the existing forest to see different pockets of species.  Next, they take small test sites one for about every 4 acres.

In the city we will be assessing nearly 200 acres of forest with about 50 test sites. This on the ground information will be to identify the quantity of species in a site, physical types of vegetation, proportion of invasive species to native species.  All of this will be done with precise measurements including the size of the trees in the test site.  Because these will be done with scientific precision it will be possible to monitor the site over time to see if we have removed invasives and given native plants an opportunity to thrive.

      Seattle Urban Nature Project will include training volunteers to do this work in the future. A great future project for SWPG members and friends. Their report should be ready for the city council sometime in the fall of 2007.

    An additional exciting bit of information  was a tour  taken to Agren Park on Vashon Island.  Members of the Planning Department, the Parks Commission and Janet Way as Shoreline City Council member were among those who went.  The learning experience was how to manage a healthy urban forest. The project was a 30 acre site. Experience has shown that most of our urban parks are coniferous forests but a natural forest is a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees.  In order to restore the balance of nature it is important to have this mix because deciduous trees that lose their leaves in winter help fix nitrogen in the soil and allow sunlight in to the forest floor for the understory.  Sometimes it is necessary to remove otherwise healthy coniferous trees that are blocking sunlight to restore the balance.

At Agren0 logging trucks of lumber were taken out of the 30 acre park and sold to pay for the planting of the deciduous trees by a contractor.  This site specific thinning of the urban forest has created a healthier forest rather than a monoculture forest.  Walking through the forest the sunlight filters in a dabbled effect and stimulates the growth of the forest floor native plants.

    We are fortunate to have Dick Deal the Shoreline Parks Director and Mike Broili on the planning commission who along with others truly support the environmental preservation of our parks and open space

    We thank the Shoreline School Board, the Shoreline Water District Commissioners and the Shoreline City Council for working together to preserve this urban forest for the public use for many future generations.