This 3000 square foot landscape is a beautiful little “green island” in the middle of the Magnuson Park Historic District.
Between 2006-2009, Magnuson Nature Programs director and landscape designer Emily Bishton led the project and guided dozens of volunteers from Seattle Works, King Co. Master Gardeners, Campfire, and other groups to transform an unsightly and unsustainable landscape into an oasis for humans and birds to visit!
The landscape was designed to fulfill 5 important goals:
- To provide food, shelter, and nesting sites for the resident and migratory birds that inhabit the Magnuson Park Historic District.
- To inform and educate the public with a backyard-size demonstration of a bird-friendly, low-maintenance, low-water-use landscape, on a scale that can be used as a model for home gardens.
- To enhance the beauty of the Magnuson Community Center landscape in a way that would be sustainable over the long-term by volunteers and Seattle Parks grounds crew staff.
- To provide an educational and encouraging starting point for families who check out the “Birds of Magnuson Park” Family Explorer Packs from the Community Center.
- To provide an inviting and nurturing spot for birds and birders alike.
We hope you’ll come visit and enjoy the result!
These bottom 3 photos are what the landscape looked like in the fall of 2015, approx. 6 years after being planted! This landscape, and the Resource Conservation Landscape are now under the care of the Seattle Parks/Magnuson grounds crew.
