Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Cougar Mountain: Overgrowth & Understory

Friday, September 10, 2010

Cougar Mountain: Overgrowth & Understory

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park covers 3,100 acres between between 1,000 and 1,595 feet above sea level near Issaquah. It is the largest of the King County Parks, 6 times the size of Discovery Park, the largest park in the City of Seattle. Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park is connected to Squak Mountain State Park by the Cougar-Squak Corridor. Together they cover an area of 5,000 acres. The park is mostly forested, but also contains significant wetlands. Overgrowth & Understory is a temporary outdoor sculpture exhibition at Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, which runs from July 10th through October 2nd, 2010. 16 artworks near the Sky Country and Anti-Aircraft Peak trailheads explore themes of art, nature, and land use. This is collaboration between King County Parks and the Center on Contemporary Art.

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park August 2010. Burnt Offering by Debra Harvey. ‘Burnt Offering begins with the charred stump of a once large sheltering tree. Forged copper, rusty metal, rebar, semi-precious stones & glass mosaic combine to become part of the rebirth...the creation of the understory.’ Overgrowth & Understory

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park August 2010. Retablo by Aaron Haba. ‘Retablo is a response to the abandoned infrastructure on Anti-Aircraft Peak. Drawing from the history of the site's use to deploy Nike missiles, I chose to work with simple geometric shapes. These refer to boundaries, both physical & spiritual, & how over time these boundaries change, or in the case of the site become obsolete. Through the use of ashes, flowers & chalk I hope to explore the need for boundariess & how we can dismantle those that keep us from seeing the world as a whole.’ Overgrowth & Understory

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park August 2010. Mushroom growing along Anti-Aircraft Ridge Trail.

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park August 2010. Alder (Alnus rubra) forest on Anti-Aircraft Ridge.

Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park August 2010. Que Viva El Sol / La Vida Del Sol by Miguel Edwards. ‘The sun is massive...but also gaseous. With this piece, I hoped to capture the essence of the duality with bold structure & geometry, as well as gesture & negative space.’ Overgrowth & Understory

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.