Botany students from Ballard High School have teamed up with Antioch University Seattle to raise awareness about keeping the water clean in Salmon Bay for both locals and the salmon that live there.
Faculty members and students from Antioch University, Ms Carlson’s BHS botany classes, BHS Earth Service Corps, and the Tierra Madre Fund’s Gen7 youth group came together to paint and install colourful signs featuring salmon along 11th Ave NW. The signs depict the salmon in their natural environment and display messages about the dangers of polluted runoff. To get the creative juices flowing before the sign installation local Lower Elwha/Klallam artist Roger Fernandes hosted an interactive art workshop about NW Native American art and design.
A group of local supporters met on November 16 to install 20 hand-painted plywood signs on 11th Ave NW from NW 65th St down to Market Street. “The salmon sign project is a visual reminder that over 100 years ago, a small salmon-bearing creek flowed through E. Ballard; it was eventually put into a pipe,” says Cari Simson from the Faculty of Research at Antioch University. Though this project the team is eager to connect people with the history of our area and how individual actions can have a huge impact.
The team at Antioch University are currently planning and designing a voluntary rain garden project between NW 56th and NW 58th Streets on 11th Ave NW. This rain garden, according to Simson, “will absorb and filter roadway runoff in planted swales, beautify the street and build community.” The rain garden project is a collaborative project funded through The Russell Family Foundation in partnership with Antioch University Seattle, Surfrider Foundation and East Ballard Community Association, with support from King County Wastewater and Seattle Public Utilities.
Photos courtesy of Antioch University Seattle.
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