Land-use History

              Yesler swamp has a very rich and interesting history behind it. Before white settlers came west, Yesler swamp was home to Duwamish Native Americans. The actual swamp itself was mostly underwater, but the surrounding areas were made up of dense forest and thick underbrush. The Duwamish Native Americans lived off of the plentiful deer, elk, salmonberries, and bracken fern fiddleheads. Once white settlers came, a man by the name of Henry Yesler built a lumber mill on the shore of Yesler swamp in 1892. Make sure to keep an eye out for pilings once you walk toward the lake – any of those are old remnants of the mill. Yesler’s lumber mill was in a great spot because all the wood around the shores of Lake Washington could be cut and floated to the mill, then after processing it wasn’t too far to get the wood either to rail or boats in Puget Sound (back then Lake Washington, Lake Union, and the Puget Sound were not connected by canals). In 1895, the mill burned down and a shingle mill was built in its place which also burned down, but not until 1920’s. Since then, the swamp was left to its own device, until recently in 2000 when University of Washington students began helping restore Yesler Swamp as senior projects. 

               Yesler swamp use to be even more covered in mostly invasive species, but after years of restoration it is slowly becoming more and more typical of what a Pacific Northwest swamp should look like. The goal of these restoration capstone projects is to remove the invasive plants and restore the swamp to how it should naturally be found. The invasive species that are removed are mostly English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, and reed canary grass. These plants can spread quickly, so even after they are removed the spots must be monitored by people who continue removing these species as they attempt to come back. In a few years it will be very exciting to see the progress that has been made.

Much of this work could not have been done without the post by ‘carolarnold’ on http://yeslerswamp.org/history/ . I highly recommend taking a look at that site if you want to learn even more about Yesler Swamp.