Another work party on 22 June, 9 am to noon

The ongoing efforts to control Scot's broom at Kah Tai are especially evident now, in peak Scot's broom season. Other areas of the city and county are covered in yellow, no longer beautiful to look at once you know how invasive it is. But in the south uplands, the only yellow visible is a California lupine, not native but not invasive.  The park looks wonderful.

Our May workparty went to work on the last serious Scot's broom outbreak in the middle of the park, not visible from the highway or the lagoon. A few relatively large and healthy specimens were also extracted from the north side of the berms where they had tucked in behind blackberries.  On 20 June from 9 am to noon, we'll tackle that central area again.

There are many non-native species at Kah Tai which do not seem invasive or unwelcome.  A spring walk might take you past a clump of iris, or daffodils, or crocus, some anonymous contribution to the park. A favorite discovery is a cluster of at least three white lilac shrubs on the southern berms. All bloomed this year. As lilacs are not invasive and do not usually propagate by seed, these were deliberately brought and planted on their berm by unknown hands.

The final transfer of Kah Tai land from Port to City is still underway, although movement is glacial. A single parcel in the northeast section seems to be the holdup. It was listed in records as being owned by the City back in 1980 and so when the County sold all its Kah Tai parcels to the City in 2004, the single parcel wasn't included. It is beneath a right of way and intermittently under water. But it turns out that it belongs to the County after all and so we await the paperwork to transfer this final piece from one government entity to another. On September 22, 1980, the County Commission unanimously voted to transfer Kah Tai parcels to the City if the LWCF grant was funded, - "all underwater parcels and upland parcels as needed". Time to finish the job.

Earth Day workparty at Kah Tai

Kah Tai mirror. Photo by Julie Jaman

There's another work party at Kah Tai next Sunday, April 21st. There's ALWAYS another work party at Kah Tai, but this one is in honor of Earth Day. Humans leave a noticeable footprint on the uplands but it is human awareness and appreciation that will continue to protect Kah Tai. It's a fair trade-off. So many folks take ownership of the park. Much of the trash along Sims Way blows in from the commercial area across the street, due more often to careless customers than to the business owners. Many park users pick up the occasional litter as they walk through.

We just keep working on the Scot's broom. Areas that were once covered with broom now host crowds of Nootka rose.  As the completion of ownership transfer inches closer, more folks show up at the work parties, starting to trust that the park will be intact and it's worth digging some weeds. Kah Tai's future isn't so clouded these days. There's still a little parcel on the north side that has an incomplete solution but it is the same little parcel that confounded those volunteers who created the park in 1981.

We visited a few of those 130+ shrubs and trees that were planted in February. The mock orange and blue elderberry are leafing out nicely. The dogwood are still thinking about it, waiting for a clearer message of spring.

Arbor Day, 2013

Kah Tai uplands, February 23, 2013

Yesterday was officially declared Arbor Day by our City Council so that the planting at Kah Tai would be our official Arbor Day event.

A group of thirteen volunteers planted 130 native plants and shrubs in the uplands. In the woodland, we settled in snowberry, Indian plum and baldhip roses to provide some competition for the invasives recently removed.

Pacific dogwood, mock orange, blue elderberry and red-flowering currant were added along the upland trails.

It's late winter and the park is poised for spring. It is anything but barren. Compare this photo with the one posted in January 2013, an image of Kah Tai from a similar perspective in the late 1970s.  You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

a day of service

Kah Tai uplands, pre-1980. Photo courtesy S Hayden.

Monday was MLK Day, a day of service in our community. Some folks journeyed to Irondale Beach to help the County convert a hazardous waste area into wildlife habitat; much invasive blackberry and ivy were waiting to be removed. Other folks headed up to Fort Worden to work on the invasion of Scot's broom in our state park.

Some of us had our 'day of service' a day earlier at Kah Tai. At least sixteen volunteers showed up and diligently put in a few hours each, pulling Scot's broom. A few new faces joined our ranks. In December, we had eighteen volunteers with several new faces, a record for Scot's broom efforts in recent memory. There've been times in the recent past when a Kah Tai work party would draw the same four people, but now there's a sense of ownership with the park.

In December, a volunteer found  and pulled what is likely the oldest Scot's broom remaining at Kah Tai, a monster over eight feet tall. It was tucked in on one of the berms along Sims Way and when not in bloom it was camouflaged with other similar-sized shrubs. There's still a lot of broom, but it is mostly quite small, often too young to bloom.

For those who think Kah Tai is a failed park, go stand in the uplands, turn to face the courthouse, and see what your view is now. Then compare it to the photo here, taken before the park was created in 1981, when the uplands were young dredge spoils and Scot's broom was about all that would grow. The native plants slowly seeded in and were protected by the hardy broom back then, but time and nature and more than a little help from her friends have brought the park to life.

There'll be another planting party on February 23rd. Pacific dogwood, mock orange, blue elderberry, red flowering currant, twinberry and other natives. We hope to introduce another 130 trees and shrubs into the park.

'of course, the eagles are always about'

David Gluckman's spotting scope

Ten birders participated in an Admiralty Audubon chapter field trip along the southern edge of Kah Tai Lagoon today. Highlights were five raptor species, including a 'very spiffy' Peregrine Falcon perched on a utility pole at the east park entrance.

Here, in order of sighting, are the 37 species seen: Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Double-crested Cormorant, Glaucous-winged Gull, Northern Flicker, Bufflehead, Mallard, American Coot, Ruddy Duck, Common Goldeneye, Red-winged Blackbird, Scaup species, Pied-billed Grebe, Anna's Hummingbird, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Great Blue Heron, Song Sparrow, American Robin, Red-tailed Hawk, European Starling, Red-breasted Merganser, Canada Goose, (probable) Cackling Goose, Pine Siskin, Eurasian Wigeon, Bewick's Wren, Northern Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, House Finch, Purple Finch, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

A few human slackers didn't show up to look into the spotting scopes and marvel at the abundance of riches. So this photo showed up in the inbox, entitled 'we missed you'. And being slackers made some of us miss out on seeing what would have been our first Northern Harrier. I mentioned the list of raptors to a friend who has the good luck to have a front window filled with a lagoon panorama, and she knew the Harrier was back and was interested to hear about the falcon and the Cooper's.  

'Of course,' she casually added, 'the eagles are always about'.

update on transfer progress

Following is information provided to City Council prior to the December 3 meeting, edited somewhat for tense and clarity.

The Dec. 3 Council agenda included under the City Manager’s report – Update on City-Port Kah Tai Agreement.  The purpose of the report was “update only.” There was no “new news.”

The effort is on track with the Port and state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) to implement and finalize the City-Port Agreement. There haven’t been any glitches or points of controversy. It is taking longer than expected in part due to the number of details that need to be covered.  Staff are working with drafts of 9 new documents, plus an escrow agreement.

1. Quit claim deed (QCD) City to Port for City Dock and Union Wharf .
2. QCD City to Port (non-right of way/non Larry Scott Trail in Boat Haven).
3. QCD Port to City for Port Kah Tai Property.
4. QCD Port to City for Port dedication at Haines Place
5. Amendment to Project Agreement – City Dock.
6. Amendment to Project Agreement – Union Wharf Pier.
7. Amendment to Project Agreement – Union Wharf Transient Moorage.
8. Amendment to Project Agreement – Kah Tai.
9. 6f map delineating the boundaries of Kah Tai – both City and Port property – that would be subject to the federal grant restriction (passive park that preserves natural functions).

All drafts are prepared, and have gone through some early iterations.  The Port has reviewed and approved draft deeds, and commented to the RCO on draft project amendment language.  The Port’s comments are consistent with the City-Port Agreement, including, clarify the grant agreement to allow uses that are consistent with the City’s SMP and that do not interfere with public access, like fish and chips stand (dock/pier access issues).  It is not reported whether the project amendments are being reviewed by NPS or only RCO, but the ball is in their court at the moment.  The draft 6f map (which has gone through a couple of versions) is being reviewed by both RCO and NPS (and ball is in their court on this as well).  The area for the project amendments and for the conveyance of the QCDs is waterward of a now surveyed “demark line” (which is generally the seawall.)  One additional outstanding task might be the need for a survey at Haines Place at the corner of Sims to identify the portion of the Port property being dedicated for future intersection improvements – this is a work in progress.

 The escrow agreement between the City, Port and RCO provides a process spelling out how original documents would be processed and delivered to First American Title in escrow, and then handled by First American. The concept is that signed and approved original documents would be placed in escrow at First American, to be released and recorded as part of an inter-related package. The draft Agreement provides that once documents are placed with escrow, the title company would record the deeds, and then the map and project amendments would be released to RCO as final (they would not be final until the deeds were recorded).

At present, staff cannot predict a likely timeframe. Certainly, 2 months would be the earliest. It’s probably going to take a week or two (or more) to just get docs, once final, circulated for signatures and delivered to First American.

an 'urban refuge' for birds

Flyways Map from National Audubon

The Kah Tai bird survey continues to make friends and influence people. The headline in the Peninsula Daily News this morning is: "An 'urban refuge' for birds; Audubon lauds lagoon".

We had attended a Monday morning County Commissioners' meeting to hand out copies of the report to the Commissioners. The PDN reporter at the Commissioner's meeting accepted a copy, read it and asked a few questions. Then he quoted it extensively and only got a few facts bent a little in the re-telling. It's easy enough to still think that the park is protected because it was purchased with federal grant money, as the article says. The story is more complicated than that. Private parcels incorporated into the park were bought with federal and state funds. Public lands were intended to be included at no cost. But all the land within the boundary is protected if any of it was purchased with federal LWCF dollars. That's how LWCF parks work.

Last weekend, the report was handed to the President of National Audubon and to the Vice President for the Pacific Flyway at a meeting of Washington Audubon in Poulsbo. Kah Tai is a resting, nesting and feeding stop on the Pacific Flyway. That fact was noted more than 30 years ago in the documents supporting the grant proposal that created the park. Recently, National Audubon has re-organized to align with the flyways that migratory birds utilize. Our park is habitat on a migratory flight path that for some species runs from the Arctic to the tip of South America. And it just got a little more recognition.