Miyawaki Urban Forest in Spring

By Sarah Phillips

The Miyawaki Urban Forest at the Shoreline Historical Museum is in full spring mode. 

The flowering red currants and the yellow headed mahonia are colorful highlights.

There are a couple of trees well over 12 feet tall and getting ready to bud out. 

Yellow headed mahonia

The purple headed camas lily are just about to come into bloom and the lupine, a spring harbinger, is getting ready too. 

 The Miyawaki forest is filled with red twig dogwood.

Take a stroll through the Miyawaki Forest, 18501 Linden Ave N, Shoreline. 

Flowering red currant

It is a mini forest bath. The forest was planted in December 2023. 

Over 100 people planted over 1200 native trees, shrubs and groundcover. 

The promise of the forest is that because it is closely planted the forest will grow taller faster and sequester carbon sooner.

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Celebrate Beginnings & Endings at the Shoreline Historical Museum and its Miyawaki Forest

SHORELINE HISTORICAL MUSEUM & MIYAWAKI FOREST 

invites adults & kids to celebrate beginnings & endings 

Saturday December 6, 2025 from 3.30-5pm

HAPPY CREW from left: Robby Grillo, Maureen O'Neil, Diane Lobaugh, Lee Keim, Polly Cook, Armand Micheline, Bruce Scholten, Kenneth Doutt, Char Erickson, Judy Moore

Story by Bruce Scholten
Photos by Martha Young-Scholten

URBAN BREAK? Shoreline Historical Museum and its Miyawaki Forest can give you a lift. Even a place to sit & relax, since incoming executive director Robby Grillo and outgoing director Kenneth Doutt installed stone benches, provided by board president Armand Micheline. See slugs bugs and butterflies. Stroll the garden, reading clay signs with plant names in English and Lushootseed, the first language spoken in the Duwamish Territory.

Two years ago, with support by SUGI (Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative) Lake Forest Park and Shoreline Rotary Clubs, King Conservation District, the Duwamish dxʷdəwʔabš Tribe and others, hundreds of volunteers planted 3000 square feet of garry oak, Oregon grape, salal and more indigenous vegetation in close proximity. 

Since then, volunteer weeding and watering helped some plants grow nearly six meters high! Benefits include better air quality, cooling, traffic noise reduction, water retention and CO2 sequestration. 

Robby Grillo and Kenneth Doutt setting a bench in the Miyawaki Forest

Volunteering involved networking for several public events, sparking new friendships. Outgoing director Ken Doutt said the successful years-long process was, ‘One of the greatest experiences of my life.’ New executive director Robby Grillo is working closely with Doutt on the transition.

Adults and children are invited to our Miyawaki Forest’s celebration of beginnings and endings, December 6, 2025, Saturday 3.30-5pm. Enjoy hot dogs, apple cider cake, and warm drinks! Consider volunteering to help our Miyawaki Forest thrive!

Museum and garden are located at 18501 Linden Ave N, Shoreline WA 98133. Phone: 206-542-7111

Information about the Miyawaki Forest

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Pollinator Party at the Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project at the Shoreline Historical Museum May 31, 2025

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project at the

Shoreline Historical Museum

POLLINATOR PARTY

By Char Erickson

Come celebrate the beauty of spring in Shoreline! Buzz on over to the forest Saturday, May 31, 2025 from 3 to 5pm to play, learn, sing, dance and create with us. 

The Miyawaki Forest Project welcomes you to a FREE kid and family-friendly party where you can learn about the pollinators behind all the spring color around us. You’ll enjoy live music and refreshments, watch your kids entertained by beloved children’s performer Eric Ode, and participate in fun, hands-on games and crafts.

You and your family will learn about the helpful bugs, butterflies, bees, bats and birds from pollinator experts who will be on hand to answer your questions. 

And just for fun, kids can come dressed as their favorite pollinators – a great way to make use of those bat capes, antennae headbands and butterfly wings waiting around at home in your kids’ closets. Don’t have those? We’ll have materials for pollinator mask-making once you arrive. 

And if you’re in the mood, feel free to spread out your picnic blanket for rest and refreshments; even bring dinner if you like!

Pollinator Hill

Why pollinators? 

Our modest little pollinator hill on the museum grounds was planted to encourage the health of the fast-growing forest just 50 feet away. 

Roughly 70% of the plants in our Miyawaki forest must be pollinated in order to grow and develop. This is the same percentage as of all the plants on Earth which depend on pollinators, including the plants that make up the human food supply. 

Bees, butterflies and a plethora of other insects, bats, birds and even small mammals do the important job of transferring pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing in order to bring blossoms to fruit, fruit to seed, seed to new plants. These symbiotic relationships between pollinators and plants are essential to the life on which we all depend.

Threats to these busy creatures are increasing with increased climate change, habitat loss, agricultural practices, and pollution. 

According to the largest, most comprehensive assessment of pollinator extinction risk in mainland North America to date, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) recently found that more than one-fifth of native pollinators in North America are at an elevated risk of extinction. 

They evaluated nearly 1,600 species—including bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, flower flies, bats, and hummingbirds. 

Some of their key findings are:

• 22.6% of assessed species face elevated extinction risk, underscoring an urgent need for conservation.
• Bees are most threatened: 34.7% of assessed native bee species are at risk, particularly leafcutter and digger bees.
• Bats vs. hummingbirds: All three pollinating bat species are at risk, while all hummingbirds were found to be at low extinction risk.

As is true of so much in our world right now, it’s tempting to think there’s nothing we can do. The truth is, starting small, individuals coming together to solve a problem, is the only way to begin to set things right. 

We and PNAS recommend you support pollinator-friendly practices such as reducing pesticide use, planting native flowers, and creating habitats that provide food and shelter for pollinators year-round. 

We’ll help get you started by sending you home with action-oriented freebies like seed bombs, and handouts to guide efforts in your own yard. 

We at the Miyawaki Forest Project strongly recommend you come spend a fun Saturday afternoon with us and learn more!

Miyawaki Forest Project at the Shoreline Historical Museum 18501 Linden Ave N, Shoreline WA 98133

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Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project at the Shoreline Historical Museum Pollinator Party May 31, 2025

Photo by Unknown Author is 

licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

By Char Erickson

Come celebrate the beauty of spring in Shoreline! 

Buzz on over to the forest Saturday, May 31, 2025 from 3 to 5pm to play, learn, sing, dance and create with us. 

The Miyawaki Forest Project welcomes you to a FREE kid and family-friendly party where you can learn about the pollinators behind all the spring color around us. 

You’ll enjoy live music and refreshments, watch your kids entertained by beloved children’s performer Eric Ode, and participate in fun, hands-on games and crafts.

You and your family will learn about the helpful bugs, butterflies, bees, bats and birds from pollinator experts who will be on hand to answer your questions. 

And just for fun, kids can come dressed as their favorite pollinators – a great way to make use of those bat capes, antennae headbands and butterfly wings waiting around at home in your kids’ closets. 

Don’t have those? We’ll have materials for pollinator mask-making once you arrive. And if you’re in the mood, feel free to spread out your picnic blanket for rest and refreshments; even bring dinner if you like!

Pollinator Garden in Shoreline

Why pollinators? 

Our modest little pollinator hill on the museum grounds was planted to encourage the health of the fast-growing forest just 50 feet away. 

Roughly 70% of the plants in our Miyawaki forest must be pollinated in order to grow and develop. 

This is the same percentage as of all the plants on Earth which depend on pollinators, including the plants that make up the human food supply. 

Bees, butterflies and a plethora of other insects, bats, birds and even small mammals do the important job of transferring pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing in order to bring blossoms to fruit, fruit to seed, seed to new plants. These symbiotic relationships between pollinators and plants are essential to the life on which we all depend.

Threats to these busy creatures are increasing with increased climate change, habitat loss, agricultural practices, and pollution. 

According to the largest, most comprehensive assessment of pollinator extinction risk in mainland North America to date, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) recently found that more than one-fifth of native pollinators in North America are at an elevated risk of extinction. They evaluated nearly 1,600 species—including bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, flower flies, bats, and hummingbirds. 

Some of their key findings are:

• 22.6% of assessed species face elevated extinction risk, underscoring an urgent need for conservation.
• Bees are most threatened: 34.7% of assessed native bee species are at risk, particularly leafcutter and digger bees.
• Bats vs. hummingbirds: All three pollinating bat species are at risk, while all hummingbirds were found to be at low extinction risk.

Pollinator Garden

As is true of so much in our world right now, it’s tempting to think there’s nothing we can do. 

The truth is, starting small, individuals coming together to solve a problem, is the only way to begin to set things right. 

We and PNAS recommend you support pollinator-friendly practices such as reducing pesticide use, planting native flowers, and creating habitats that provide food and shelter for pollinators year-round. 

We’ll help get you started by sending you home with action-oriented freebies like seed bombs, and handouts to guide efforts in your own yard. 

We at the Miyawaki Forest Project strongly recommend you come spend a fun Saturday afternoon with us and learn more!

The project is located next to the Shoreline Historical Museum 18501 Linden Ave N, Shoreline, WA 98133

Read more...