On Saturday August 10, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Charlie Hodges, principal of Pacific Geoarchaeological Services (and formerly a principal of Northwest Archaeological Services) will lead short field tours on a half hourly basis of a current archaeological excavation being conducted in Redmond near Bear Creek Parkway during construction of the Bear Creek Rehabilitation Project. Please feel free to invite anyone who might benefit from this learning opportunity.
Short term parking is available nearby at the Claim Jumper restaurant, 7210 164th Ave NE (between 73rd Way & Bear Creek Parkway).
This City of Redmond project will rehabilitate the lower, channelized 3,000 feet of Bear Creek from the mouth a previously completed stream restoration project upstream. The current project will relocate this mostly straight, channelized segment of Bear Creek into a meandering, reshaped, revegetated channel within existing open space. The newly rehabbed channel will have vegetated stream buffers consistent with the Redmond’s CAO and allowance for WSDOT’s “Stage 3” widening of SR520 adjacent to Bear Creek. An existing asphalt path is being relocated and augmented with a soft-surface parallel path and stream viewing areas along the newly restored channel. The rehabilitated overbank areas will address flood conveyance issues as well as improve habitat. Read More >>
Charlie will interpret the geology and archaeology of exposed layers of gravels and diatomaceous earth similar to those he previously characterized in Marymoor Park for WLRD in conjunction with the Sammamish River Weir Project. Some of the excavation also contains archaeological deposits. This work is highly relevant to the Willowmoor project.
As a sidebar, Charlie briefly discussed the issue of fluctuating water levels in Lake Sammamish. He said that the soil profiles he is seeing at this present construction project are consistent with fluctuating water level changes in paleo Lake Sammamish that predate the Mount Mazama eruption that occurred circa 5,677 BC (but after 12,000 BC), and could indicate that current water level fluctuations are natural or quasi-natural feature of the lake. In the not too distant future Charlie hopes to conduct soil probes in Marymoor Park in order to locate ancestral Bear Creek proto-channels.
By Ruth Schaefer, King County
By Ruth Schaefer, King County
And of course they chopped down some major trees to do this. Typical for the city of Redmond... where will the deer go now?
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