Western Washington has a mystique. It's a unique blend of snow-capped mountains, misty rain forests, waters everywhere (an inland sea, bays, lakes, rivers), whales, elk, salmon and mild, mosquito-free climate. All Western Washington's diverse natural elements are entwined in a complex, self-sustaining order. The threads of its beautiful tapestry began to weave together about 13,000 years ago when the 3,000-foot-deep Vashon Glacier retreated.
Unfortunately, after thousands of years of perfect primal coordination, this mixture of natural wonders is falling apart.
A textbook example of why this is happening to our once perfectly aligned environment is little Lake Union, now one of the most heavily altered water systems in western Washington.
The first residents of Lake Union were about 100 Duwamish people. In the basin of Lakes Union-Washington-Sammamish there were approximately 2,000 more. A balanced relationship was reached between the plants, animals and humans. Today about 500,000 people live around the lake and about a million live in the basin. A growing human population creates buildings, highways, bulkheads, docks, dams and parking lots that all challenge its region's ecological equilibrium. The process of filling a part of the South Lake Union shoreline in 1962 forced the lake's bottom to rise up, creating a mountain of muck. Now a red navigation buoy is moored to indicate the peak of the lake's pinnacle, about 10' below the surface.
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Dick Wagner, a founder of the Center for Wooden Boats, signs his book, Legends of the Lake, Volume 1, at the 2009 FHA Annual Meeting. This article was originally published in Shavings, CWB’s magazine, as one of a series Dick is writing on the history of the lake. He has recently gathered many of these stories into a book, which is available through the CWB, cwb.org, 206-382-BOAT. Photo by Marilyn Robertson |
The filling of Lake Union's shoreline and building of docks and bulkheads began in 1870 and continued until 1967, which marked the completion of construction of the Lake Union sewer. Between the lake's Fremont and University Bridges is 700 acres of water. It used to be 900 acres. The fill displaced shallow water that was incubator, home, hotel and restaurant for a chain of plants and animals. Small fish, including minnows, salmon and trout fry, used the shallows to feed. The plants on and adjoining the lake included Wapato, Skunk Cabbage, Nightshade, Cranberries, Elderberries, Smartweed, Lady's Thumb, Nettles, Spirea, Miralus, Forget-Me-Nots, Yellow Mustard, Water Celery, Pond Lily, Camas, Oregon Grape, Coltsfoot, Yarrow, Duckweed, Cattail, Willow, Cottonwood, Alder and Indian Plum.
Birds feeding in the shallows included Killdeer, Flycatcher, Redwing Blackbird, White-Crowned Sparrow, Towhee, Robin, Black Swift, Kingfisher, Osprey, Cooper Hawk, Chickadee, Tule Wren, Red-Backed Sandpiper, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Great Blue Heron, Goldfinch, Bittern, Virginia Rail and the Seagulls: Herring, Short-Billed, Ring-Billed, California and Glacous-winged. Nesting waterfowl were Pied-Billed Grebe, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant and Meadowlark. Migrating waterfowl that found food in the shallows were Red Breasted Mergansers, Greater and Lesser Scaups, Wood Duck, Pintail, Bufflehead, Eared Grebe, Western Grebe, Common Loon, Baldpate, Blue-Winged Teal, Shoveller, Green-Winged Teal, Gadwall, Dowitcher, Bald Eagle, Black-Tailed Plover, Whistling Swan and Canada Geese.
The shallows were home to frogs, tadpoles, turtles, snails, crawfish, mussels, dragonflys, damsel flys, nightjars, protezoans, mice, muskrats, weasels, otters, minks and beavers.
When creatures lose their usual places for food, nesting, hibernation or refuge, they will leave. There are no more meadowlarks around Lake Union because there are no more meadows. Fortunately, even though the salmon population has dramatically declined in Lake Washington, there still are enough near-shore habitats for the Lake Union Sockeye fry to linger for a year. My litmus test is that the Great Blue Herons and Kingfishers still hang out in the shallow areas for a good meal of young Sockeye. On the other hand, a litmus test is not needed in 2009 to prove that the waterfowl population, both permanent and migrating, is virtually wiped out on Lake Union. The only birds now seen are a stunningly reduced number of Canada Geese, Mallards, Coots, Seagulls, Kingfishers, Great Blue Herons and Cormorants. The weasel and mink are gone. There are small numbers of muskrats, otters and beaver. In the late 1960s our oldest child's first words were "quack quack", mainly because the ducks casually walked through our houseboat, looking for a snack. Mallard talk on Lake Union is virtually lost, but not forgotten.
In the beginning Lake Union's connection to Puget Sound was Ross Creek at the lake's north end, which emptied into Salmon Bay, an inlet of the Sound. The 8' to 20' flood tide pushed up the creek to its mouth where the Fremont Bridge now stands. The brackish water of the creek and Salmon Bay was an environmental adjustment for the salmon coming home from the ocean to spawn in the lake's freshwater streams and also for the salmon fry waiting to grow big enough to swim in the Pacific Ocean. Native legends refer to whales entering Lake Union through a hidden tunnel. Any of them could have done it riding the tide into the lake. It's probable that the fish-eating Orcas would be tempted to ambush the home-coming salmon at the mouth of Ross Creek.
When the Locks were completed in 1916, a comfortable connection between the lake and the Sound was provided. There was no more transition between salt and fresh water. This was an inconvenient connection for salmon and even the whales. In addition, road and trolley tracks were installed on fill around the lake. As the outlets of the salmon spawning streams were filled and bulkheaded, the streams were redirected into culverts, which lacked a bed of pebbles where the salmon's fertile eggs were expected to be laid.
As the lakeside developed, the shallows disappeared. Bright street lights were installed. The sounds of motor vehicles, seaplanes, trolleys, sawmills and boatyards replaced the calls of birds. The forests around the lake were logged. This cut-and-build development expelled the nesting places and sealed off the sand and gravel that was the habitat of small fish, frogs, salamanders and turtles.
Because of the Locks and because the logged lake basin allowed stormwater to drain into Lake Union, the lake was deliberately lowered 2½' each fall and raised 2½' each spring. The change of depth impacted remaining marshlands. In addition, during our rainy season the stormwater pipes overflowed and added street and sidewalk detritus to the lake. The lakeside didn't have a sewer system installed until 1967. But because of the steady flow of the Cedar River through Lake Union, the streams in culverts and the underwater springs, the lake was relatively clean. Crayfish were so prevalent in the lake that they were commercially fished through the 1970s; crayfish will not live in toxic waters.
There was little or no direct human predation of the plants and animals of Lake Union but new species introduced to Lake Union caused unexpected impact. The Norway rat was probably the scourge of the shoreside. They ate the bird eggs in the marshland nests. The rats came from Europe via trade vessels. Carp were contributed by Asia via Europe. They root up the shallow water plants and roots that are food for waterfowl. There are now 24 non-native fish that have been introduced to the lake, including Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, which eat juvenile salmon. The non-native Eurasian milfoil dominates much of the near-shore waters and the non-native Himalayan blackberries have smothered many historic waterside plants.
When the lake was at its prime many shoreline plants were of value to the birds and fish and also to the human inhabitants. Oregon Grape was used for food, dye was derived from its roots and infusion of its bark was used for skin and mouth sores. Yarrow was used for hair wash, perfume, colds, stomach trouble and general tonic. Skunk Cabbage roots were an emergency food. The raw root is as hot as a pepper. It was also used as a blood purifier and for stomach and bladder trouble. The leaves were made into a healing poultice and also rolled into berry containers or drinking cups. The blossoms, when heated, were applied to rheumatic parts for relief. Springtime Skunk Cabbage was gobbled by the elk.
The leaves of Nightshade were used to make a drink for liver and yellow jaundice. The berry juice thinned blood. A poultice of Nightshade leaves was used for rheumatism, skin diseases and abscesses. Lady Fern and bracken roots were cooked and served with salmon eggs. Nettle was peeled into thin strips, which were twisted into strong twine and used for securing bone and stone tool handles and duck nets. Spirea stems also were used to make twine. Pond Lily roots were heated and applied to rheumatic body parts.
When the Wapato was lost, so was lost a cash cow that needed no cultivation. Wapato is the root of arrowhead, an edible tuber. The Duwamish women felt for the roots walking with bare feet in the shallows. They put the bulbs in their canoes. Back at their longhouse, they were roasted. This "baked potato" was considered haute cuisine. Their Lake Union crop was so plentiful that there was a surplus to trade. Wapato was the chief part of the Duwamish economy.
What Lake Union was we will never see again. Even if there was a Skunk Cabbage farm on the lakeshore, the elk wouldn't dare try to cross the congested traffic to get a nibble. What we can achieve is a lake sustained to the best possible state of ecologic balance. How can CWB participate in lake therapy? After all, we are in the education business and we have access to the lake's shorelines in traditional wind- and human-powered boats. We teach the cultural history of our boats and how we can preserve that history; so shouldn't we teach the natural history of what our boats float on and how we can preserve that history? Through scheduled expeditions by our boats we can have reports on the revival of historic shoreline plants and purity of the lake.
We can crusade to build no more bulkheads at lake's edge and add no more roads (the cause of all congestion around the lake.) We should advocate that all non-native plants be removed and introduce no more non-native fish. Then seed-by-seed, drop-by-drop, bird-by-bird, fish-by-fish, Lake Union can recover some of the elements that were integral parts of the Northwest mystique.
About 50 years ago Dick and Colleen Wagner, founders of The Center for Wooden Boats, were introduced to Lake Union. It took them about 30 seconds to decide to live and raise a family on the lake. They have seen many changes. The wooden boat shops are now an endangered species on the lake. The migrating flocks of waterfowl are down to a meager few. The clickety-clack freight trains alongside Westlake Avenue are a memory and you can't learn to fly seaplanes on the lake anymore. But the lake itself will always be a special place for its vibrant natural and cultural features: the colors, reflections, vessels moving to and fro, houseboats, the Sockeye run and the Duck Dodge sailboat races. They shall be there eternally.
This version is Dick's complete article as it originally appeared in Shavings.