Thornton Creek
Thornton Creek | |
Country | United States |
---|---|
State | Washington |
County | King |
Source | Jackson Park Golf Course |
- location | Seattle |
- coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. [1] |
Mouth | Lake Washington |
- coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. [1] |
Length | 18 mi (29 km) [2] |
Basin | 12.1 sq mi (31 km2) [3] |
Discharge | for USGS gage 12128000, river mile 0.25 |
- average | 11.3 cu ft/s (0.32 m3/s) [3] |
- max | 129 cu ft/s (3.65 m3/s) |
- min | 0.39 cu ft/s (0.01 m3/s) |
Thornton Creek is 18 miles (29 km) of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. Its 12-square-mile (31 km2) watershed, the largest in Seattle, exhibits relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting;[4] it is home to frogs, newts, ducks, other birds, and an occasional beaver, in addition to more than 200,000 people.[5] From west of Jackson Park Golf Course in Shoreline,[6] from Sunny Walter-Pillings Pond[7] in Licton Springs–North College Park,[8] and north Northgate[9] Thornton Creek flows through Maple Leaf and Lake City, including the Meadowbrook and Matthews Beach neighborhoods, and empties into the lake at Matthews Beach Park.
Contents
Habitat and stewardship
Thornton Creek flows through Meadowbrook Pond,[10] visited by migratory birds and an occasional transient beaver or coyote. Before European settlement, Native Americans lived around Lake Washington. One of the 18 historic home sites was identified near the mouth of Thornton Creek.[11] Early in the 1900s, the creek was a spawning ground for at least five species of Pacific salmon and trout, as well a habitat for insects, amphibians, muskrats, bats, coyotes, and birds.[4] The areas surrounding the creek were developed without regard for that habitat and the riparian corridor; species' diversity declined, and the creek became a typical degraded urban watershed.[12] Storm water retention, sites restoration, an Environmental Learning Center next to a school, and a fish ladder contributed to restoration and the return of native plants and wildlife.[13]
Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel
For many decades, much of the stream has run through culverts, notably under the parking lot of Northgate Mall. Building on gradual successes in restoration,[7][14] activist neighbors began[6][15] working with the City of Seattle and developers toward daylighting parts of the buried creek.[16]
In 2004, the City of Seattle purchased the 2.4-acre parking lot from Northgate Mall and began building the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel. Opened in 2009, it achieved several community goals in limited space: integrating a water-quality facility, providing a diverse housing mix, and allowing public open space. It receives and treats runoff from 680 acres by providing a multilayered landscape of native plants that also serves as an amenity for surrounding private development.[17]
Organizations of citizens have cleaned up nearby wetlands, educated the public about stream health and quality of neighborhood life, and rallied to bring more of the creek to daylight. Many restoration projects in Seattle have been in some way connected to or inspired by Thornton Creek.[5]
Neighborhoods of the Thornton Creek watershed
- Southeast neighborhoods of the city of Shoreline, north fork headwaters
- Lake City neighborhoods
- Olympic Hills
- Victory Heights
- Meadowbrook, confluence of forks
- Matthews Beach
- Northgate neighborhoods
- Pinehurst
- Licton Springs–North College Park, south fork headwaters
- Maple Leaf
- Northgate Mall
See also
- List of rivers of Washington
- Daylighting (streams)
- Neighborhoods of Ravenna Creek
- Water resources
- Boeing Creek
- Ravenna Creek
- Yesler Creek
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Thornton Creek
- ↑ Includes all of Thornton Creek's tributaries.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Brokaw
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dolan & True, p. 223
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Hodson
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Walter
- ↑ Bowditch, Wang, & Wilson
- ↑ Boyer
- ↑ Meadowbrook Pond
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Seattle Public Utilities staff, "Thornton Creek".
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Thornton Creek Alliance
- ↑ Mulady
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Bibliography
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Elise Bowditch, Teaching Assistant; Man Wang, Teaching Assistant; Matthew W. Wilson, Research Associate. - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
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Was [1], NF. - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Archive of The Seattle Press. - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
History excerpted from Morgan, Brandt. Enjoying Seattle's parks. Seattle: Greenwood Publications, 1979. ISBN 0-933576-01-3 - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Viewing locations only; the book has walks, hikes, wildlife, and natural wonders.
Walter excerpted from- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
"with additions by Sunny Walter and local Audubon chapters." See "Northeast Seattle" section, bullet points "Meadowbrook", "Paramount Park Open Space", "North Seattle Community College Wetlands", and "Sunny Walter -- Twin Ponds".
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- "Thornton Creek Alliance"
- "Homewaters Project"
- "Thornton Creek Watershed", the Homewaters Project
- Thornton Creek Watershed "Community Library"
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Geobox usage tracking for river type
- Articles with dead external links from September 2010
- Articles with dead external links from October 2010
- Rivers of Washington (state)
- Landforms of Seattle, Washington
- Shoreline, Washington
- Subterranean rivers of the United States
- Rivers of King County, Washington