January 2021
Madison Park Times
Serving East-Central Seattle since 1983
Real Estate
MADISON PARK - WASHINGTON PARK - MADISON VALLEY - DENNY-BLAINE - MADRONA - LESCHI www .M adison P ark T imes . com
Far from home
Snowy owl in QA facing urban threats By Jessica Keller
Madison Park Times editor
Photo by Jessica Keller Kersti Muul, a wildlife conservationist from West Seattle and member of the Seattle Audubon Society Conservation Committee, examines a bait box placed in an alley in Queen Anne. Bait boxes contain rodenticides used to kill rats but can harm other animals that hunt them, such as a snowy owl that made Queen Anne its temporary home in November or other raptors. Just recently, conservationist found 45 bait boxes in a .2-mile stretch of Madison Park along Madison Avenue.
A snowy owl has become something of a local celebrity in upper Queen Anne, after moving into the neighborhood from cooler northern climes about a month ago. Among the owl watchers, some with tripods and telephoto lenses, flocking to the side streets of Queen Anne Avenue North, are two conservationists, whose interest in the bird stems from concern. Tanea Stephens, Washington State coordinator for Raptors Are The Solution and Queen Anne resident, and Kersti Muul, a conservation specialist, community naturalist and member of the Seattle Audubon Conservation
Committee from West Seattle, have been regularly checking up on the snowy owl since it has made Queen Anne its temporary home this fall. “The environment makes it sometimes risky for her — the urban environment, as opposed to her natural environment,” Stephens said. Muul said the owl was briefly spotted in Burien and West Seattle in mid-October but moved on to Queen Anne in November, where it has stayed since. It is either a female or a juvenile male, based on the brown flecks in its feathers, and came south from its native Artic region of North America, either because prey was scarce or there were too many
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OWL, FROM PAGE 1 snowy owls competing for food in the area. Since landing in Queen Anne, the snowy owl has settled into a regular routine of napping and ignoring its adoring fans and the crows and other birds intent on driving off the larger predator from its tree branch or rooftop. At around 4:30 or 5 p.m., it leaves to hunt rats and rabbits. While Muul hasn’t been able to track the bird’s hunting grounds, she said the owl would likely choose an environment with wide-open spaces, so it can see the prey below. What worries Stephens and Muul is the prey the snowy owl is consuming. Through their organizations, Stephens and Muul are partnering on an anticoagulant rodenticide campaign to educate people about the dangers of poison bait boxes set out to kill rats, as well as track where bait boxes are set out throughout the city. When Stephens learned about the snowy owl in her neighborhood, she conducted a preliminary survey looking for anticoagulant rodenticide bait boxes. Just in a two-block stretch of the eastside of Queen Anne Avenue North, Stephens found 30 bait boxes, including one next to a home where the owl had been perched. She and volunteers found 40 on the westside of Queen Anne Avenue North. The problems with bait boxes are widespread, however. In her preliminary documentation of other neighborhoods in Seattle, Stephens visited Madison Park’s commercial area on Dec. 29 and found 45 rodenticide bait boxes placed by commercial bait box companies along Madison Avenue, from 43rd Avenue East to McGilvra, an approximately .2-mile stretch. Stephens said snowy owls eat two small rodents a day, and she and Muul are concerned, while in Queen Anne or out hunting at night, the bird will inadvertently consume a poisoned rat, which take up to 10 days to die after eating the bait. A slowly dying rat might be considered an easy meal by the owl, regardless of where it is spotted. As part of her work for Seattle Audubon, Muul is monitoring the bird for signs of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning: lethargy, drinking lots of water, blood coming from its beak and mouth. While bait boxes, set out by commercial pesticide companies, may seem like an easy solution, Stephens said people are often unaware of what is inside or that the poison can kill non-target wildlife, like the snowy owl and other raptors, as well as dogs, cats, songbirds that accidentally wander into a bait box and other animals. The poison is also harmful to humans, as well. “The crazy thing is these rodenticides are showing up all throughout the food web,” Stephens said. Part of what Stephens and Muul are trying to accomplish is educating people who are out looking at the snowy owl about the dangers of using rodenticides, when there are other solutions. Even if the snowy owl doesn’t visit Madison Park, Stephens said in an email, the presence of so many bait boxes in such a small area should be of concern to residents. “With all the tall trees lining the lakeside and Madison Park, there must be raptors that live and hunt in the area,” Stephens said in an email. Muul said this is an environmental problem created by humans, and it is largely unnecessary. Both Stephens and Muul agree the best way for people to prevent rats from entering residences and businesses is by sealing off entries and keeping trash in containers. “Sanitation is the biggest solution, I think,” Muul said.
“With all the tall trees lining the lakeside and Madison Park, there must be raptors that live and hunt in the area.” — Tanea Stephens, Seattle resident and Washington state coordinator for Raptors are the Solution Stephens and Muul hope the interest in the snowy owl and other raptors in Seattle will generate awareness among residents about rodenticides. Stephens said, on one hand, she understands people want some happy distraction, which the bird provides, but on the other hand, they need to be aware of the dangers the owl faces while snowbirding in warmer climes. She said she has left brochures informing people of the dangers bait boxes present near where the snowy owl has been seen, while Muul has been more direct, talking to people. “People are just ignorant, and I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Muul said. “They just do not know. Education is the No. 1 solution.” To learn more about Raptors are the Solution and safe alternatives to rodenticides, go to www.raptorsarethesolution.org.
Photos courtesy Kersti Muul Local wildlife conservationists Tanea Stephens and Kersti Muul are closely monitoring the welfare of a snowy owl that moved to upper Queen Anne in early November, much to the delight of residents and the annoyance of local birds. Muul and Stephens are concerned about the dangers the country bird faces while visiting the city, specifically the owl killing and eating a a poisoned rat. As part of a joint effort between the Seattle Audubon Society and the Seattle chapter of Raptors are the Solution, volunteers are tracking the usage of bait boxes, which contain rodenticides dangerous to more animals than just rats. Recently, Stephens found 45 of the containers in .2 miles in Madison Park.
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Serving our neighbors since 1900
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12 0 years! BETSY Q. TERRY & JANE POWERS 206.322.2840 ewingandclark.com luxuryrealestate.com
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f there is one thing that may be said about 2020, it’s that it challenged us. We navigated the onset of a global pandemic, rode a wave of economic
uncertainty, and faced a divisive presidential election, but most importantly, we came together as a community. I am so proud of the way that our Madison Park, Broadmoor, and Washington Park families, clients, and businesses coalesced to support one another and am grateful as ever for those I had the pleasure of assisting with their housing needs. I am so grateful for all your support and I look forward to continuing to bring the very best of my brand and my passion to our community in 2021. Here’s to a safe and healthy New Year!
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JANUARY 2021
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Chris Sudore “As a Madison Park Resident, I care about your home‘s value.”
We would like to thank our clients, family, friends and community for your trust and continued support. Here‘s to a brighter year in 2021. LD SO
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What gardening will look like in 2021: Hot tubs, weed and wildlife
THERESA TRUEX
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JANUARY 2021
very fall forecasters and writers round up the likeliest trends for the coming year’s garden-makers. In hindsight, we need to give the 2019 crew a pass. No one could have predicted the wild ride that the novel coronavirus pandemic made 2020 — not least in the garden industry, which has a record-busting year. Unprecedented demand forced online vendors like Territorial Seed and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs to close sales to catch up. Facebook gardening groups blew up as people scrambled to create COV-ictory Gardens to ensure food security and have a healthy lockdown activity. So, let’s see how 2020’s alternate reality has shaped the look of gardening going into 2021. Some pre-existing trends just got bigger, like the houseplant parenting craze, growing organic produce, reducing lawn, and gardening for pollinators, as climatechange awareness increased. Unfortunately, dolphins never did move into the Venice lagoons, as some false memes claimed, but quarantines gave people a lot more time to walk the empty streets and glimpse the wildlife we had driven away with traffic and noise pollution — with positive results. Garden Media Group (https:// gardenmediagroup.com/), who titles 2021’s report “The Great Reset,” concurs with the pro-Nature currents, quoting landscape architect Claudia West: “Nature doesn’t live ‘out there’ anymore” — because “out there” is gone — “It lives in our backyard ... or it doesn’t live.” As a result, we’ll be planting for wildlife with an eye toward cohabitation, designing ecologically. In addition to appreciating nature itself, we are seeing the importance to our health and well-being of being out in nature daily. Forest-bathing and nature schools, which had gained footholds in 2019 — Washington became the first state to license outdoor preschools that year — are emerging as safe ways to get exercise and education when schools and businesses are closed, as well as an antidote to the high doses of tech all ages are getting through Zoom meetings. GMG predicts more gardeners will grow their own food in any space available, create back yards to live and de-stress in, and include the kids in the process. Offering instant gratification in the tiniest spots, small plants will be big inside and out, like “Micro Tom” tomato and “Baby Ball,” the world’s cutest beet. In May, designers told Archi-
Erica Browne Grivas Get Growing tectural Digest magazine that people will be asking for multipurpose outdoor living spaces. (https://www.architecturaldigest. com/story/these-are-the7-features-clients-will-be-requesting-post-covid-19?utm_ source=onsite-share&utm_ medium=email&utm_ campaign=onsite-share&utm_ brand=architectural-digest) These “fresh-air havens” will incorporate water, fire, lighting and “natural” plant species (perhaps they mean “native”?) to work out, dine or just nap in your staycation destination. GMG likewise imagines that people will transfer their unused travel budgets into hot tubs, trampolines, and fire pits. On a larger scale, GMG says vendors will get better at pivoting to offer quality over quantity and easy one-stop shopping, and we may see more suburban farm communities built, which foster community, access to nature, and self-sufficiency. Some forecasts are built on the backs of surveys from 2019, like the annual National Gardening Survey which surveys households. (https://garden.org/newswire/ view/dave/2/2020-NationalGardening-Survey-Released/). That report, released in May, saw a decrease in overall engagement in “lawn and garden activities” in 2019, particularly among those below the age of 45 years, a swing which 2020 looks to be reversing. As many as 16 million people started new gardens during the pandemic, says a June national survey by box-store retailer Bonnie Plants. (https://www. oregonlive.com/hg/2020/06/10tips-to-help-novice-gardenersreap-a-successful-harvest.html) Many of them were under 35, which is good news for the industry. The NGA is the only one to mention this notable outlier: the increased need for weed — that’s cannabis, not dandelion. “As state laws governing cannabis continue to become more permissive, about one-third of
“ So, again, we are seeing a clear message: Garden anywhere you can, but with a conscious mind and a looser hand that cooperate to welcome Mother Nature rather than fence her out.” — Erica Grivas
respondents say they would be definitely or probably cultivate cannabis if it were legal to do so,” according to the release. Most were interested in psychoactive cannabis but some were interesting in hemp/CBD cultivation. It’ll be interesting to see what next year’s survey has to say about 2020’s influence on that marker. Garden Design magazine (https://www.gardendesign.com/ trends/2021.html) seconds most of the above, with gardening itself leading the list, and adds monochromatic gardens (all one color), which are a.) simpler to coordinate than a varied palette, and b.) soothing to the eye and mind. Garden Design doesn’t specify its method in collecting these trends, but cites a “surge in popularity” for one-color gardens. I find “moon gardens,” usually shades of white offset by lime, blue and silver foliage, being highly visible in the dark, especially welcome in Seattle’s often overcast skies. In the United Kingdom, a group named Love the Garden (https://www.lovethegarden. com/) trawled spiking Instagram hashtags to reveal these top trends, many of which dovetail with the above: inside/outside decorating, balcony and windowsill gardening, small-space gardens using plants with multi-season interest, white and gray gardens meaning in hardscaping and pots, wild gardens, cottage gardens, which mix edibles and ornamentals and let annuals sow around in a carefree way, and permaculture. So, again, we are seeing a clear message: Garden anywhere you can, but with a conscious mind and a looser hand that cooperate to welcome nature rather than fence her out. If you have space for a sheshed/hot-tub/parkour station with Wi-Fi for your Zoom calls, go for it. — Columnist Erica Browne Grivas is an avid gardener and Seattle resident.
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LESCHI WATERFRONT ESTATE
ICONIC VIEWS IN QUEEN ANNE
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