Cowen/Ravenna Park

Daily Account: Cowen Park
Monday, 4/23/12
12:00-1:30pm
Temperature: 70s, approx. 73, Sunny, blue skies

Today we went to Cowen/Ravenna Park in the Ravenna neighborhood north of the University. Cowen and Ravenna park, actually have a pretty interesting history I’m discovering only now after having been there hundreds of times before. Apparently, the parks (connected by a trail leading through the middle) were formed by the melt-off from the Vashon glacial sheet was retreating north. It first left a lake called Lake Russel which disappeared in the glacial retreat, however, after this the Green lake basin, left over from all the melting emptied through the Ravenna ravine into lake Washington. I’m wondering first of all how closely the Greenlake basin is related to the man-made lake millions of people visit we now call green lake, and whether the basin was in the same general area. Also, is the trail through the center of the park the remnants of the ravine? There are creeks on both sides of the trail, and large, almost canyon like sides (banks?) running up until one again reaches the road and civilization. There are also two bridges built over the park. I don’t know how old these bridges are, but I’m wondering whether they were initially built simply to fill the gap, or how recently there was water running through the ravine they call the Ravenna ravine. If the ravine emptied the basin into lake Washington, which way did the water flow? Southeast? And how long ago did all this happen? It must have been a few hundred years, because there are some redwoods in the middle of the park that look pretty darn old. According to what I’m reading, the “deeper pockets of the basin become Bitter, Haller and Greenlakes.” Again what is the correlation with Green Lake? I know we’ve named community centers after Bitter and Green lakes, so it would be interesting to know how long ago all this happened. Apparently, the ravine deepened, becoming what it is today? From what I’ve seen, it is still a relatively wet habitat with lots of water loving plants.* (*After I say water loving, however, I think back to the Greenhouse at the UW and the fact that those desert plants did like water, they just couldn’t compete with the other adapted plants, from what I understood.) Here we go; another park history says the basin continued to drain through 1911. There is a lot more information on it on the Seattle Parks’ website, however, I think I can conclude that what I saw today is probably a fair amount different than it was back a hundred years ago. Though now I wonder how the plant life has changed or remained the same over the years. I wonder whether the same species were there in the same places then or if not where and how did they get to where they are today?
Anyway, today was beautiful and there were lots birds singing and bees buzzing. Now, I’ve been to this park hundreds of times because I went to nature camp for the lengths of a few summers when I was little. I probably learned a lot then, but a lot of it I’ve also forgotten and I didn’t realize how many different species of plants inhabit the park. There was a lot to see, many things in bloom, and many things I recognized but had to re-identify. First, the park was abundant with Horsetail (Equisetum arvens), with erect stems about a foot tall, especially in the wetter places near the creeks that run on either side of the trail. There was also some Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) scattered at the beginning of the trail, though I didn’t see it much through the rest of the walk. Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), found itself underneath the bridge about 30-50ft away from the creek, the only place I noticed it, which makes sense because the floor there is more disturbed than other parts of the park. There was a stretch of 3-4 plants I didn’t recognize such as one tree/shrub 5’-20’ tall with opposite leaves looking like sets of four from above. Another plant had purple flowers and sedge-like leaves (perhaps Spanish Bluebells?), followed by what I think might have been a Western Yew, growing with Salal, Sword Fern, Horsetail, and neighboring a Beaked Hazelnut Tree (Corylus cornuta), the latter which had very soft leaves, but no hazelnuts yet. Under a second Hazelnut we found to my surprise some Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa), actually a pretty large patch occupied the side of the trail next to a young red cedar, maybe 60’ away from the creek. Closer to the creek we found Money plant (Lunaria annua) though I’m still not convinced of this identification as there was no money on it. There was also what I think was Trailing Black Currant (Ribes laxiflorum) growing next to the cedar nearby. Another plant, that which I didn’t know at the time, had very shiny, translucent, rubbery leaves and was covering the ground near a section of the park where the creek gets wider. Intuitively I guessed Wild Ginger, with the feeling that this wasn’t right, and now know this was False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum). Finally, nearby the False Lily was a tree-like plant, one which looked very alive, but was growing horizontally and I still can’t figure out what it was, but it had “bushels” or bunches of needles coming outward, and the center of the needle bunch began as yellow but graduated into green on the ends, looking to me like new needles, unless the tree had fallen or was recently cut down.
This was as far as we got today, a question I might have would be: what kinds of animals live in Cowen/Ravenna park? I’m trying to remember whether the Northern Flicker or Woodpeckers inhabit the park but I can’t remember and would like to spend some time one day checking into this.

Species List:
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense)
Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium)
Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Beaked Hazelnut Tree (Corylus cornuta)
Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)
Money plant (Lunaria annua)
Trailing Black Currant (Ribes laxiflorum)
False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum)

Posted on May 1, 2012 07:00 AM by aclay232