The Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, also known as Union Bay Marsh, is the restored remainder of the filled former Union Bay and Union Bay Marsh. It is located at the east end of the main University of Washington campus, south of NE 45th Street and west of Laurelhurst. Ravenna Creek is connected to University Slough (Drainage

Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

), thence to Union Bay, and

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

. Drainage Canal is one of three or four areas of open water connected with Lake Washington around Union Bay Marsh. The canal extends from NE 45th Street, between the

driving range A driving range is a facility or area where golfers can practice their golf swing. It can also be a recreational activity itself for amateur golfers or when enough time for a full game is not available. Many golf courses have a driving range ...

and IMA Sports Field 1, south to the bay, ending southeast of the Husky Ballpark baseball grandstand (northeast of the IMA Building). The Drainage Canal that carries Ravenna Creek past UBNA to Union Bay is locally sometimes called University

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

The little

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s, modest ponds, and lake shoreline of the UBNA is a sanctuary for birds (including

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes and in coastal areas and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska ...

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...

s, and eagles); turtles and frogs may be seen. The UBNA is notable for diverse habitats including a good-sized lake, small permanent ponds, seasonal ponds, woods, sample

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

, and

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

land. The interfaces among these make the area particularly attractive for birdwatching, with more than 150 species of birds sighted. The canal or slough was part of a restoration of the

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

called Union Bay Marsh that had been drained by the opening of the

Montlake Cut The Montlake Cut is the easternmost section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which passes through the city of Seattle, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound. It opened in 1916 after 56 years of conversation and construction to create the ma ...

of the

Lake Washington Ship Canal The Lake Washington Ship Canal is a canal that runs through the city of Seattle and connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington to the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks accommodate the approximately diff ...

(1916) and much of Union Bay filled by the Montlake

Dump Deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP), also known as deoxyuridylic acid or deoxyuridylate in its conjugate acid and conjugate base forms, respectively, is a deoxynucleotide. It is an intermediate in the metabolism of deoxyribonucleotides. Biosynthes ...

, (home of J. P. Patches, resident 1958–1981). Formerly the Montlake Landfill, University Dump, or Ravenna Landfill, it was used by the City of Seattle for residential and industrial

solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...

from 1911 to 1966. It was fully closed five years later and overlaid with two feet of clean

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

. Most of the land has been built upon by University Village (1956), UW athletic fields, buildings, and main parking lot E; the remainder comprises the UBNA, colloquially called "the fill". Tachycineta bicolor 3285

Before the lowering of

during the early part of the 20th century,

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

and

Yesler Creek Yesler Creek is a stream that originates in the Bryant and Wedgwood neighborhoods of Seattle, Washington, and flows southward to empty into Union Bay of Lake Washington. Portions are daylighted, such as those flowing between 39th and 40th Aven ...

s flowed into marshland north of where the canal now begins, and the land through which the canal would be cut lay under the waters of Union Bay. The Burke-Gilman Trail follows the

Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) was a railroad founded in Seattle, Washington, on April 28, 1885, with three tiers of purposes: Build and run the initial line to the town of Ballard, Seattle, Ballard, bring immediate results ...

line along the original shoreline of Union Bay past the UW power plant and University Village. Construction was completed in 2006 on a project that reconnects partially daylighted Ravenna Creek to Union Bay by piping it underground to the canal, thus converting the upper reach from a relatively stagnant drainage to the outlet for one of Seattle's partially restored urban

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

Daylighting Daylighting can refer to: * Daylighting (architecture), use of windows for indirect lighting * Daylighting (intersections), improving road visibility at intersections * Daylighting (streams), restoration of a previously buried watercourse * Dayl ...

from southeast Ravenna Park to the UW and the UBNA has been blocked by the owners of University Village The UBNA is owned by the State of Washington and held under the aegis of the University of Washington; access is controlled. Parts of the Area are open during park hours, access to other portions is discouraged, some portions seasonally, for habitat or species protection. Many restoration projects take place at UBNA. Removal of invasive species, such as

Himalayan blackberry ''Rubus armeniacus'', the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of ''Rubus'' in the blackberry group ''Rubus'' subgenus ''Rubus'' series ''Discolores'' (P.J. Müll.) Focke. It is native to Armenia and northern Iran, and widel ...

(''Rubus armeniacus'') and

morning glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose taxonomy and systematics remain in flux. These species are distributed across numerous genus, gene ...

(''Convolvulus arvensis''), are part of a continual effort to restore the site to a natural area. Volunteers account for much of the progress in the Union Bay Natural Area.

Notes and references

Bibliography

"About the Seattle City Clerk's On-line Information Services"
Information Services, Seattle City Clerk's Office. Retrieved 21 April 2006. See heading, "Note about limitations of these data". * * Dolan, Maria & True, Kathryn (2003). "Reclaiming Paradise: Union Bay Natural Area" and "Northeast Seattle: Lakes, Ponds, Springs, and Wetlands", in ''Nature in the city: Seattle'', pp. 148–150 and p. 223. Seattle: Mountaineers Books. (paperback).
Particularly useful. * * Gurriere, Joe (3 May 2006)
"Windermere Real Estate Cancels Fireworks to Protect Nesting Eagles"
Windermere Real Estate Company. Retrieved 14 May 2006. * * O'Neil, Kit, University Community Urban Center, (n.d. 997 per http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek/chronology.htm
"Ravenna Creek Daylighting Project"
Retrieved 21 April 2006. * Parrish, Geov (10 May 2006)
"A Parks Lesson Learned: A citizen, the city, a corporation, and a sound decision."
''The Seattle Weekly''. Retrieved 14 May 2006. * * P-I Staff (4 May 2006)

''The Seattle Post-Intelligencer''. Retrieved 14 May 2006.
"Union Bay Natural Area"
Center for Urban Horticulture, (n.d.). Retrieved 21 April 2006.

Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas (n.d., map NN-1120S.Jpg dated 13 June 2002), retrieved 21 April 2006. Note caveat in footer. *
Sources for this atlas and the neighborhood names used in it include a 1980 neighborhood map produced by the Department of Community Development (relocated to th

and other agencies),

Seattle Public Library The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the public library system serving the city of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Efforts to start a Seattle library had commenced as early as 1868, with the system eventually being established by the ci ...

indexes, a 1984–1986 Neighborhood Profiles feature series in the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', numerous parks, land use and transportation planning studies, and records in the .
aps "NN-1120S", "NN-1130S", "NN-1140S".Jpg [sicdated 13 June 2002; "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated 17 June 2002.">ic.html" ;"title="aps "NN-1120S", "NN-1130S", "NN-1140S".Jpg [sic">aps "NN-1120S", "NN-1130S", "NN-1140S".Jpg [sicdated 13 June 2002; "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated 17 June 2002.* Stein, Alan J. (2 March 2003
"Patches, Julius Pierpont"
''HistoryLink''. Retrieved 21 April 2006. Stein referenced Jack Broom, "The J.P. Generation", ''Pacific Magazine'', ''The Seattle Times'', 4 April 1993, pp. 6–11,14–17;
Bill Cartmel, "Hi Ya, Patches Pals", ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', 11 April 1971, pp. 6–7;
Erik Lacitis, "Patches Understands – and Survives", ''The Seattle Times'', 23 February 1978, p. A15;
[no titles], ''The East Side Journal'', 31 May 1962, p. 3; Ibid. 14 May 1969, p. 19. * University of Washington Computing and Communications, Facilities Services (2005)
"Northeast Campus Map"
UW Home > UWIN > About the UW > Campus Maps. Modified 18 May 2006, retrieved 21 May 2006. * University of Washington Publication Services (Revised September 1991). "The University of Washington Campus & Vicinity" map. Compiled, designed, drafted in cooperation between Physical Plant and the Department of Geography, August 1971, revised Sherman (August 1991). Seattle: University of Washington. * UW Publication Services & UW Facility Services (Revised July 1996). "The University of Washington Campus & Vicinity" map. Seattle: University of Washington. * Walter, Sunny & local Audubon chapters (updated 10 February 2006)

Retrieved 21 April 2006. Walter excerpted from Dolan, Maria & True, Kathryn (2003). ''Nature in the city: Seattle''. Seattle: Mountaineers Books. (paperback).
ith additions by Sunny Walter and local Audubon chapters.
On-line of the book, but only the viewing locations.

See also

Notes and references

Bibliography

Further reading