The Burke Meadow team, including CBE graduate students Eric Alipio and Marina Figueroa-Rowen, and undergraduates Jazzmyn Witrell (CBE), Kaydance Levesque (SEFS), and Kennedy Stone (Biology) recently planted over 1,500 native bulbs, plugs, and bare roots with help from student volunteers in the College of the Built Environment, the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences, as well as volunteers from Oxbow Farm. A huge thank you to the team from Oxbow for showing up to fulfill the journey of these plants, many of which were sourced from their farm.
These plantings provide the needed groundcover, support and sustain Native food sources, and provide a diversity of flowering plants for native pollinators. We are looking forward to hearing the meadow buzz come springtime.
The Burke Meadow is representative of an indigenous prairie ecosystem that was once common in the Pacific Northwest – only 3% of these prairies remain today. For more background on the project, see below for words from co-leads, Polly Olsen (Yakama), Burke Tribal Liaison, and Ken Yocom, Dean of the College of the Built Environments, and Steve Kryszko, UW Grounds Lead.
“The Burke Meadow Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration that uplifts Tribal knowledge of land stewardship and western science as forces that can coexist to create a beautiful, learning ecosystem.” – Polly Olsen
“This project reflects what’s possible when we come together with a shared commitment to care for place. It’s not just about ecological restoration – it’s about rebuilding relationships with the land, with each other, and with the knowledge systems that have long guided these practices.” – Ken Yocom
We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation and the UW Campus Sustainability Fund for their support.
