What I saw during the sweep of the wetlands
Awake on Thursday morning, frustrated, I munch on a dumpster bagel at 6:30AM and wipe the sleep out of my eyes getting ready to ride as fast I could to take the light rail down to SODO.
From SODO, I pick my way south through ugly-sized trucks, direction a small green space I guessed would not be occupied. A week earlier, I had been to this site and seen no one. I’m on the scene before any of the city, county or state work crews show up. It is only 8:00AM, the work crews won’t arrive until 9:30.
An emotional night before at the ale house leaves my thinking blurry. I’m more cautious than normal. In the time I have, I explore pathways and make a brief survey of this wetland. It covers at least a few acres. On one end is a large empty basin that looks like a tide flat. Ducks and geese pick through mud there. A gulch, lined with slick mud, honors a stream draining into the Duwamish.
Did you know that in earlier days, the Duwamish was the only waterway into Lake Washington from Puget Sound? It flowed into the Green River (name sounds made up) which came out near Renton. If we hadn’t built the Montlake ship canal, this Wetland would probably be more wet than land. Highway 99 would probably still be there, towering, and the people who live under it.
A week of mostly unimpeded sun made this soggy area burst at its seams. To that point, part of its fence was in ruins, destroyed from the inside. The place is still steaming, and clumps of tiny flies buzz around.
In the undisturbed hour before me, I find five temporary shelters in this wetland that they lie both sides of the stream. One looks west over the stream, its back to highway 99. On the eastern side, two sites seem more permanent. They are complexes, hidden further back, occupied by larger, more improvised shelters. There is clearly someone sleeping in one.
Public employees show up to get to work. Teams force the people living here out. City, county and state employees generally throw everything into waiting pickup trucks. Two machines do most of the work: for the State, a back hoe and a little earth mover, for the county, two department of corrections humps in rubber boots and hard hats.
The area’s to go back to its natural state. The evicted can hold on to whatever is carryable, which is why I realize having a bicycle trailer and bike is so important.
The Wetlands will return to being a greenish blur you can see if you drive north on highway 99 and look to your left right before you cross W. Marginal Way SW.