Join us to improve bird habitat

Most work parties will be on Thursday mornings; some will be on Saturdays. Tasks will vary but often include removing invasive plants like blackberries and English ivy. Contact Jody Pritchard or Jim Evans if you’d like to participate.

Meet at the Judd Creek Loop Trail trailhead on the east side of 111th Ave. SW in Paradise Valley. (Note that this is NOT the parking lot off 111th that is close to 204th SW.) We recommended that you wear sturdy shoes and work gloves and dress for the weather and encounters with blackberries and nettles. Bring water and snacks, and senses of humor and purpose!

Why are we doing this?

Songbirds are vanishing from North America because they’re losing vital habitat due to human activities. To demonstrate our commitment to resilient songbird habitat in our community, Vashon Audubon is partnering with the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust to restore and care for part of the Judd Creek Preserve in Paradise Valley.

We’re calling the area where we’ve chosen to work the “Paradise Valley Block.” The block is seven adjacent properties encompassing about 40 acres in Paradise Valley, located east of 111th Ave. SW, part of the Land Trust’s Paradise Valley Preserve. The block has about 2,000 feet of the mainstem of Judd Creek, about an equal amount of a major tributary, plus short portions of several smaller tributaries.

This is one of the most vibrant places on Vashon. The habitats along the stream corridors are in good shape (thanks to major work by the Land Trust over the years). The property is also home to wetlands, second-growth forests, and forest restoration projects going back 10 or more years. The creek hosts chum, pink, and coho salmon, and the native plant community is diverse. The skunk cabbage wetlands along the Judd Creek are spectacular!

These features make the place vital habitat for songbirds and other Vashon wildlife. The land provides excellent opportunities for improving wild bird habitat as well as being an outdoor laboratory and classroom.

The block is also a high-profile public-use site and a keystone part of a Judd Creek habitat corridor linking Island Center Forest to Quartermaster Harbor. It’s a place where our work will be visible and will matter.

Respecting your ecosystem might start with discovery and understanding, but it eventually requires manual labor.

John Marzluff, Avian Conservation Biologist, University of Washington.

Photo of Judd Creek by Susie Fitzhugh