Self-Guided Plant Walks

Shoreview Park—February 2007
By Dan Paquette

Shoreview Park is located a few blocks beyond Shoreline Community College on Innis Arden Way. Look for the open area with playground and athletic fields. Drive into this complex and near the far end of the parking lot where the road curves to an upper level of parking is our trail head. Look for the waste receptacle and a blue sign.

Heading north into the conifer understory, the ground is barren. Dogs tend to roam a little, but their owners are usually close by. The forest soon engages you with its variety of conifers. Alders and maples are few. On the ground, beneath the Gaultheria shallon (Salal), look for pine needles in bunches of five. These have fallen from Pinus monticola or Western White Pine (Pojar 39)*. Now look up into the canopy and see if you can separate P. monticola from the Tsuga heterophylla (Western Hemlock), and Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas Fir).

The trail gradually bends to the northeast, east and later, to the southeast following a canyon. At the bottom is a branch of Boeing Creek. From time to time, as you pass impressive old growth, a path will head down toward the creek. Some of these paths are a little steep and undermined, so use your own judgement whether to proceed down to the creek or stay on the higher path. The higher paths are occasionally undermined so just exercise a little care.

WNPS hikers have found a number of plants with only a few individuals present including: Salix scouleriana (Scouler’s Willow), Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Red Currant), Taxus brevifolia (Pacific Yew) and Rosa gymnocarpa (Baldhip Rose). More numerous are Red Elderberry, Salmonberry, and three of the more common saxifrages. On some trail cuts, you may note a yellowish green moss embedded in the sand. Atrichum selwynii or Crane's-bill Moss (Pojar, 455)* has leaves reminiscent of those on tanoak with a regular pattern of horizontal ridges.

At some point you may encounter a trail going uphill. Use this trail and a combination of others to make a clockwise loop. Maps of this park are hard to find. However, the distances are not great, and in two or three visits, you can become acquainted with many of the trails. A compass and blowup of a topo map will make life easier. In April and May of 2007, students from nearby Shorewood High School will be mapping the natives and invasives in this Park. If you might be interested in assisting these students in plant identification, using keys, or if you would like a rough map of this park, contact Dan Paquette (paquette50@comcast.net).

* MacKinnon, Andy and Jim Pojar, eds. and comp. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Canada: Lone Pine Publishing, 1994. 524 pp.