The Tox-Ick campaign feels very grateful to have Liz Dunigan bring our stormwater education and outreach program into Ballard!  Watch our website for her upcoming events.  Liz has experience in soil microbiology, mycology, Whole Systems Design, and is a LEED accredited professional.  So, she’s uniquely qualified to teach her neighbors about solutions to stormwater pollution like rain gardens, natural yard care, and use of mushrooms to mitigate pollution.

Photo by Thom O'Dell http://www.djc.com/news/co/cis.html?id=12009476

Speaking of mushrooms… we hope that other community volunteers with a passion for Puget Sound will help this outreach campaign mushroom in their communities by becoming Tox-Ick Ambassadors. We have all sorts of free resources available for outreach volunteers including our 45-minute PowerPoint presentation, this website, posters, and tri-folds.  If you know of potential advocates, direct them to cate@tox-ick.org.

Some community members in West Seattle’s Barton Basin are a little skeptical of King County’s plans to install rain gardens and plant trees in the public right-of-way along the roads.  A point-by-point analysis of the concerns raised by community members can be found on Sightline Daily.

The picture below shows examples of the types of planting the County and its designers would like to install in the Barton Basin area.  The purpose of the installation would be to help the landscape absorb more water so that we have fewer Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s).  Ultimately, these designs are intended to help clean up Puget Sound.

West Seattle resident Michelle Gaither won a pollution prevention prize of native plants at one of the Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster events.  To the right is a picture of some of the salal she planted in her front yard.

Native shrubs are a key tool in combating the Tox-Ick Monster because they help retain stormwater on-site.  They are much more effective than lawns at keeping stormwater on-site.  In fact, urban designers calculate lawns as 98 – 99% impermeable.  Native shrubs are great, especially in combination with organic soils, because microbes in the soil can help break down some of the pollutants found in stormwater, and the plants help the landscape act like a sponge and absorb water.

According to King County’s Native Plant Guide: “The single best ground cover for northwest gardens, salal is a do it all plant. Long recognized as one of the best foliage plants for flower arranging, it is also one of the most adaptable in the native repertoire. It can be grown short, if pruned back, hedged into wave like drifts, allowed to grow rampant and irregular to five feet or more. It will also grow where almost nothing else will, in deep understory forest groves, moist or dry soils, in full sun or deep shade. It does have a harder time in full sun, but if well watered or near the coast, it can survive. It does not transplant well, but it is generally available at garden centers.”

Other good native shrubs (pictures courtesy of Mariposa Naturescapes) to consider planting in your yard include:

Sword Fern

Pacific Rhododendron

Evergreen Huckleberry

People For Puget Sound has a new documentary called Sound and Vision.  They are inviting communities to host screenings of the movie.  This is a great way to introduce your community to the issues impacting Puget Sound.

Excerpt from the People For Puget Sound website:

“Sound and Vision, a film in eight parts, explores issues facing the near shore environment. It is a film about the oceans, told through the stories of people working to clean up, protect, and restore habitat in Puget Sound and beyond.” Learn more!

On Thursday, March 22nd, Sustainable West Seattle awarded The West Seattle High School Earth Service Corps $1,000 toward a new rain garden for the school.  The Corps earned the award through its public outreach efforts by getting more than 40 new people to attend a Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster education event.

Sage Taber, WSHS student, and her fellow Earth Service Corps members have built momentum for the rain garden at the school.  The Corps will coordinate with Stewardship Partners and Sustainable Seattle to plan and build out the rain garden.  We will be putting out a call for volunteers to help plant the garden in the next month.  Once the garden is built, the Corps will work with Sustainable Seattle and Friends of the Cedar River Watershed to integrate the rain garden into the school’s science curriculum.

Thursday, March 22nd, 7-8PM West Seattle High School Library

Sustainable West Seattle has issued a challenge to the community… if 50+ people attend an hour-long presentation about simple things we can all do to restore Puget Sound, we’ll award $1,000 toward a school rain garden.

The school’s student-led Earth Service Corps is coordinating the rain garden project with other local nonprofits including Stewardship Partners and Sustainable Seattle. Rain gardens are an excellent first line of defense against the polluted runoff that threatens the health of Puget Sound and its most emblematic wildlife: salmon and killer whales. The students’ aim is to turn the rain garden into a permanent feature that can be used for science education for years to come. Please help them attain their vision!

West Seattle High School is at 3000 California Avenue SW

For those following the Tox-Ick Monster… the tox-ick.org website has just been revamped.  The new structure is now:

• Home
• Events
• Simple Solutions (with resources integrated into the page)
• Learn More (video and website links)
• Tox-Ick Presentation (for community groups interested in adopting the Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster campaign)
• Press
• Blog

I welcome people to send cate at sustainablewestseattle.org information to post on the Blog or Events page or links to include under Learn More.  This site was developed to become an open resource for people/groups that want to educate their communities about steps individuals can take to reduce polluted stormwater runoff.

Thanks for your interest!

Cate

Sustainable West Seattle’s first phase of its Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster campaign is winding down.  We created a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation about solutions to stormwater pollution, we trialed the presentation at a number of community venues, and now it is time to help other groups throughout the region adopt the campaign so that they can teach their communities stop stormwater pollution.

The next steps we are taking to help other groups adopt the campaign include:
•    March 11th introduce Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster campaign at Sustainable Communities ALL Over Puget Sound (SCALLOPS) Spring Forward Meeting.
•    March 30th workshop on using the Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster campaign in your community at the Storming the Sound Conference.
•    Develop video segments of the presentation that will be available on this website as a basic education resource and to help train new groups that want to adopt the campaign.

If you, or someone that you know, would like to bring this campaign to your community, contact cate at sustainablewestseattle.org

On Thursday, March 8th, Sustainable West Seattle teamed up with the Garden Cycles and Puget Creek Watershed Alliance to teach the community about stormwater pollution.  We put a challenge to the community to get 50 people to attend an event at Sanislo Elementary. The reward: $1,000 toward a native plant education project at the school.  We are happy to report the challenge was met!  (see WS Blog coverage )

Our next West Seattle Don’t Feed the Tox-Ick Monster event will be held on Thursday, March 22nd, from 7-8PM at West Seattle High School.  For this event, if we get an audience of 50 people or more, we will award $1,000 toward a rain garden for the high school.  Free Pizza will be provided.

Seattle performing artist Stokley Towles is bringing his performance piece “Stormwater: Life in the Gutter” to West Seattle.  The West Seattle Herald has called the piece: “fun, gross, and informative” (see article).  The one-hour act is designed to shed light on our city’s sewer system.  Stokley will explore where the water from our toilets, showers, sinks and storm drains goes.

The two FREE performances in West Seattle will be held:

SAT. Oct. 29th, 12-1PM at the High Point Branch of the Seattle Public Library, 3411 SW Raymond Street

THUR. Nov. 3rd. 6:30-7:30PM at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW