Reimagining Restoration in the UBNA

This walking tour around Union Bay Natural Area invites a reimagining of the land and space that this park now resides. Going beyond the history of this former trash dump turned restorative marshland, this tour looks at the area when it was managed by the Duwamish, before colonizers changed the landscape and local life ways. The land that UBNA sits on would have been almost 10 feet underwater before the lake was drained after the Montlake Cut and would have been lined with longhouses and canoes. This tour is a historical look at this area that had been cared for by the Duwamish for thousands of years, but whose recent history with colonizers has left a legacy of loss. By understanding the historical transformations of this space, restoration can become better managed, and perhaps put back into the hands of the people who already know how to take care for this place.This interpretative talk was put together by a grad student at UW, a settler originally from Arizona but now a guest here on Duwamish lands.