“The staff tried using a ‘pond leveler,’ basically a pipe under the dam, because the water was rising up to the level of the bridge between the ponds,” Potter says. “That didn’t work very well, so now our grounds crew is physically removing the sticks and accumulated sediment. They try to move the materials farther out each time to discourage expansion of the dam.”

Potter tells us that Parks employees will continue to monitor the dam.

Earlier: Fire crews and the Coast Guard have responded to Golden Gardens for a report of a capsized sailboat. Silver is posting updates from the scanner in the forum as we gather more details.

This August, Golden Gardens Park celebrates one year of stewardship under the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP). Golden Gardens area originally used by native American people who for hundreds of years as a shoring station for canoes and a transfer station for freshwater boats. Harry Whitney Treat developed Golden Gardens Park as an amusement park in 1908. giving its current name at that time. Seattle purchased the park, including its woodlands, or Upper Forest, in 1923 creating Golden Gardens as we know it now.

Neighborhood groups and organizations such as EarthCorps have engaged in activity to maintain the park’s lush vegetation since its creation. In August 2010, Rhonda Goebel and Alessandra Carreon began to serve as the park’s newest forest stewards. Under their stewardship, more than 13,000 square feet of invasive plant species have been removed, hundreds of native plants have been introduced Over 600 volunteer hours so far, and they will continue their stewardship efforts because they know much more needs doing to maintain the park’s natural beauty!

Golden Gardens has suffered serious forestry issues which the stewards have given much time to address. Serious landslides in the woodlands have occurred over time. An effective drainage system was installed in 1974 after three homes were damaged along View Avenue. More recently, a landslide brought down part of the road wall along the eastern edge of the park. In an effort to curb this erosion, forest stewards Rhonda and Alessandra have planted, mulched and stabilized park slopes. In addition, non-native species planted in the park have invaded and still cover a sizable portion of the Upper Forest footprint. However, in one year, the park has undergone significant improvement due to volunteer effort which we welcome.

Every second Saturday of each month, join the Golden Gardens Reforestation and Trails (or GGREAT) project from 9 am to 12 pm in service work parties. GGREAT meets at the offleash area near the upper parking lot. Golden Gardens thanks its community neighbors for all their help in revitalizing this important gem of a Seattle park! Learn more and stay current with park activities here.

The Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication and Health (BEACH) program is monitoring the water and will notify the public when bacteria results are high and will educate people on preventing sickness while playing in the salt water. “We are trying to make beach health information more accessible,” said Jessica Bennett, acting coordinator of the BEACH Program. “People need to know about the risk of illness at Washington’s beaches so they can make informed choices before they hit the beach.”

From BEACH, ways you can help keep the beaches clean:

Scoop and bag pet poop and throw it in the trash.

Inspect and maintain your home septic system.

Pump your recreational boat holding tank into an authorized pump
station.

Pick up all of your trash at the beach, especially diapers.

You can receive information on the beaches’ health in a number of ways:

The program is jointly coordinated by the Departments of Ecology and Health. It is implemented by local health agencies, tribal nations and volunteers.

The pup, nicknamed “Sparky” by volunteers, was dehydrated and had wounds on her flippers and body when PAWS brought her in Saturday. Now, Moss tells us, the wounds are healing nicely and she’s responding to antibiotics. Because she has teeth, they suspect she’s about three weeks old and weened from her mother, Moss says.

PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitator, Nicki Rosenhagen explains, “We give them the stuffed animals in their tubs for comfort and enrichment.”

Since coming to PAWS, Sparky has been swimming and lounging around, Moss tells us. They are tube-feeding her at this point and hope to feed her fish by the end of the week.

Photo of Sparky courtesy Marilyn, a volunteer with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Moss tells us that once rehabilitated, the plan is to release Sparky back into the wild near Golden Gardens. Since they don’t know exactly how old she is, “We mostly look at behavior,” Moss says. The factors they look for are whether she can catch fish, eat on her own, has all her teeth and is gaining weight.

“It is normal for the mother to ’strand’ her pup while she goes out to eat for the day,” explained Marilyn, a volunteer with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network that evaluated the harbor seal at Golden Gardens. “Normally, she will come back to nurse and take the pup with her. However, if there are too many boats, people, activities she may feel too threatened and not return to the pup.” She said volunteers nicknamed the pup, “Sparky.”

After two days on the beach in poor health, Marilyn said the decision was made to take the pup to PAWS. “Hopefully it will survive,” she said. PAWS said it’s too early to offer a prognosis. “We just have to wait and see what happens,” says Cindy. “She’s alert, you know, she’s kind of feisty, so that’s kind of a good sign.”

A section of the beach was cordoned off to keep beachgoers away from the seal. “I would like to thank the Parks department for their help in ’seal sitting’ in the evening and into the night for the past two evenings,” Marilyn said. “Also a big thanks to the public for respecting the boundary around the pup.”

Adds Amy in comments below, “People were being extremely respectful. A few times, as the tide caught up to the pup a big crowd would gather and were treated to seeing the wee pup scoot up the beach. The pup also shuffled down to the water and then back up the beach a few times.”

Marilyn said the Marine Mammal Stranding Network has received many calls all over the Puget sound this year and expect it to continue to be a busy seal pup season. We’ll keep you updated on Sparky.

(Thanks Marilyn and Amy for the photos!)

(Thanks Kat and Marina for the photos!)

There are a number of circumstances which could have caused the blunt force trauma– boat collision or another type of negative human interaction, transient orca attack, a fight with another sea lion, a fall from a rocky resting spot, etc.  The external injuries, which were noted on the beach, were determined to be old wounds that had healed.

More tests are being done and those results may take several months.

Earlier: Sea lion moved to Point Defiance | Came ashore on Sunday
West Seattle: Dead whale had eaten 20 plastic bags, sweat pants

Although the sea lion has been practically motionless since last night, it did got up and move around as he was prodded into the cage.

NOAA officials tell us the animal will be taken to Point Defiance for evaluation.

Earlier: Seal Sitters respond to sea lion at Golden Gardens
Last night: Injured sea lion comes ashore at Golden Gardens

The sea lion that we first reported on Sunday night is still on the beach at Golden Gardens. It will sometimes move its head or a flipper, but that movement was rare when we were there Monday morning.

Robin Lindsey, a first-responder with Seal Sitters, a conservation group based in West Seattle, headed out to Golden Gardens Monday morning. She tells us that this is a thin male California Sea Lion. “They don’t come on a city beach too often. That’s what makes suspicious. When they do, that perhaps something is wrong,” Lindsey says.

Although there are reports of an injury, biologists need to analyze photos to determine if that’s the reason for coming onto the busy beach.

First thing Lindsey did was cordon off the area around the sea lion. The perimeter is not just for the safety of the animal, but for people as well. “If he’s injured or sick, he could be aggressive if he doesn’t have the ability to get away,” Lindsey tells us. “They have rather fierce teeth and they can create a serious wound to somebody.” Lindsey adds that it is against the law to cross the perimeter and get closer to the sea lion.

The plan right now is to leave him where he is. “Just let him rest before we can determine what’s going on with him,” Lindsey says. She will send her photos to biologists to get a better idea of what happened to this animal.

Seal Sitters does not have a volunteer group in Ballard and Lindsay tells us they’d be happy to train people to be responders when something like this happens. For more information you can contact her at info@sealsitters.org.

Curious and worried onlookers gathered around and watched as the animal collapsed a couple feet out of the water. After noticing a gash on its side, several people called animal control, NOAA and a seal help line, and others contacted a nearby police officer, who in turn contacted Fish and Wildlife.

Photo of sea lion at 9 p.m.

As night fell and the crowd dispersed, the sea lion lay nearly motionless — except for a moment when a TV photographer shined a light on it, and it climbed a few more feet up the beach. Two onlookers remained behind, including Katherine Lewis, who gathered sticks and logs to create a makeshift barrier around the animal, to keep curious people a safe distance away.

“At the beginning, there were so many people watching, and they were very, very close to him,” said Lewis. “I wish that more people were like, what can we do, we shouldn’t be that close to him, let’s give him some space.”

As of 9:30 p.m., a police officer on scene was waiting to hear back from Fish and Wildlife to see if they would respond at night, or wait until the morning hours. “We’re hopeful that he’s just needing to take a rest here and head back out into the water,” Lewis said. We’ll keep you updated.

The first community meeting will be Wednesday, April 7, 2010 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the Golden Gardens Bathhouse, 8498 Seaview Pl NW. There will be a second design meeting later in April with a third meeting during the middle of June, Hassinger says.

The design work is scheduled to last through this year, with construction starting in January of 2011 and a completion of May 2011, Hassinger tells us. This project is funded through the 2008 Parks & Green Spaces Levy.

Lunchtime at Golden Gardens from Andrius Simutis on Vimeo.

Andrius sent us this video. “I was down there for lunch yesterday and came across a crew from the parks department who dragged the boat out, smashed it into pieces and carted it off to the dump,” he writes in an email, “The employee I chatted with says they get a few of these a year throughout the parks and that they log their hours and costs involved and bill it to the owner of the boat.”

My Ballard reader Blaine emailed us Thursday to report that he saw the sailboat floating off shore. “It’s been there and visible for at least three days and today it is mostly submerged,” he said. A few days before that, Dan emailed to say he saw the boat “submerged to its cabin,” and the Coast Guard had checked to ensure there were no people in danger.

We’re checking with the Parks Department to see what they plan to do with the beat-up boat. (Thanks Eric, Tom, Blaine and Dan for your tips!)

Sometimes, one photo says at all.

Officially, the water temperature was 49 degrees, and the wind was blowing at full tilt. And some folks, believe it or not, went back for a second plunge.

But most couldn’t wait to get out of the water and stand by the fire.

It wasn’t the only polar bear plunge in Seattle: our friends at the West Seattle Blog videotaped a similar event at Alki today, and over a thousand people made the plunge into Lake Washington at Magnuson Park.

Earlier: Need a little jolt to kick the year off right? Head on down to Golden Gardens at noon on New Years Day for a polar bear plunge. There will be a bon fire, hot chocolate and costumes are encouraged. Some of the events include “Dive For It” and the “Goin’ Long Football Catch” as well as “Ooops, I Forgot My Bathing Suit.” And after the festivities, participants can down a free drink at the Lock & Keel to warm up (5144 Ballard Ave NW.)

We’ll be there snapping photos, and we’ll post them here on My Ballard.

His name was Scotty; his boat was (a beautiful 1952 Danish wood lapstrake called The Abigail) and unharmed. He ended up beached due to a freak combination of loss of power and a hard wind. Miraculously he avoided hitting the rocks and was placed quite elegantly on the shore. His plan was to pull himself off the beach utilizing his very heavy anchor at high tide (4:00 am this morning). It must have worked as my husband walked down this morning to see if we would need to bring him coffee and Pouff!!! he was gone. A great guy; a happy outcome.

(Thanks Silver for the tip and the updates in the forum!)

Here’s a video clip showing the recovery operation.

Here’s a video clip shot by a My Ballard reader of the upside down plane being pulled into the dock shortly after the crash. A few hours later, recovery crews pulled the plane from the water (see photos of the recovery operation.)

“He looked like he was going to land and drop someone off to go fishing,” said Mark Smith, who witnessed the crash from the shore (watch interview). “It was so quiet, you could hear the water sliding across the pontoons on the plane,” he said. “You could hear the propeller slapping against the water as the nose tipped down as he stopped.” Smith said the pilot got out of the plane and stood on the struts of the wing. “A boat that had been coming out of the harbor picked him up within a minute. I guess he got his feet wet,” Smith told us.

The plane is now sitting at the end of the dock where it awaits pickup.