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Spotlight on Bonnie Miller
Where she works: the Yesler Creek headwaters, Burke-Gilman Playground Park
Time as a Creek Steward: 10 years
Mode of Work: Outreach, work party coordination, and education
What brought her to the Creek Steward Program: Bonnie had been working with the site for some time when a friend mentioned the Creek Steward Program. Seeing another opportunity to help out the park she contacted Creek Steward Program and introduced herself. Now Bonnie has another ally in her battle to restore Yesler Creek to a more natural condition.
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What Creek Stewardship means to her: One person can make a difference. Bonnie knows this and wants to make sure that other individuals learn it too!
What she does when she’s not battling blackberry: Bonnie is active in her surrounding community as both a Chair of the Magnuson Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA) and a Trustee on the Hawthorne Hills Community Council.
What keeps her going out every month: The long term goal is to create a natural green area where people can come and enjoy the park’s calming effects. The Burke-Gilman Playground Park in surrounded by the neighborhoods of Laurelhurst, Ravenna Bryant, Hawthorne Hills, Belvedere Terrace and Windermere, yet Bonnie feels like it is an orphaned park with nobody really seeing it as their own. She wants future generations to be able to come to the park and enjoy it, while listening to birds singing in the trees.
Bonnie’s most hated weed: There is a three way tie between ivy (Hedera helix), holly (Ilex aquifolium), and knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum).
Bonnie’s most beloved native plant: The Arbutus menziesii, or Pacific Madrone.
Memorable Creek Steward Moments: One morning Bonnie had a group out at the park and they were all enjoying a quick breakfast when they heard crows in the distance making a lot of noise. She told the group that sort of noise often means there is a raptor nearby. She motioned upwards and as they looked a Bald Eagle appeared above the tree tops, fish clutched in its talons, with an entire murder of crows harassing it. The eagle chose this moment to rest on an upper branch right there in front of the entire group. Needless to say they were all enthralled by the event. Afterwards, the group was more than ready to pull out some invasive weeds!
Want to help out? Visit our Adopt-a-Site page for available sites in your neighborhood watershed or check the Creek Steward Events page for upcoming volunteer events.
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