Schmitz Preserve's Winter Volunteers Are Working on Both Ends of Its Water

"Right now the creek is in a pipe and the salmon don't want to go there." Tim DiMarco of Schmitz Park Restore said that at the Alki Community Council's March meeting, as West Seattle Blog reported. That same blog has also been listing a run of Saturday and Sunday trail-work days in that same forest. Those crews will be digging through mud until just before Christmas.

Two different groups are behind these efforts, and their timelines are years apart. Both are dealing with water. On the trails, the problem is water that pools where people walk. At the bottom of the park, it's water that leaves the forest underground. If you walk Schmitz Preserve Park this winter, you'll be passing through the work of both groups.

A forest that was left alone on purpose

The park's condition today started with a decision made over a century ago. Seattle Parks says the land was given to the city in pieces between 1908 and 1912. The largest gift is credited to Ferdinand Schmitz, who wanted to save forest while logging was stripping the region fast. The Washington Trails Association's hike guide credits Ferdinand and Emma Schmitz together with the largest parcel.

Parks describes the preserve as essentially unchanged apart from the paved entrance and a parking area at the northwest corner. You can still see logging history in the stumps: some carry axe notches where loggers once set springboards. The West Seattle Herald calls it a 53-acre ancient forest. WTA counts about 1.7 miles of trail under Douglas firs, hemlocks, big-leaf maples, alders and western red cedars.

Because the forest has been kept so close to its natural state, the work this winter is mostly about water: on trails that were never paved, and in a creek that still runs through the forest before it goes underground.

Where the trail holds water

WTA's guide describes trails that can be primitive and steep in places, with mud and the occasional blowdown. In the latest trip report on the hike page, dated August 30, 2026, a hiker called the trail mostly in good shape. Drainage work had already been done, but some muddy spots still needed attention. That was at the end of summer, before the fall rains started.

WTA's fall and winter series is aimed at those wet stretches. According to the notice on West Seattle Blog's calendar, the park needs brushing back of overgrown plants, digging to fix muddy areas, and several structures repaired, replaced or newly built. The first project listed is a turnpike about 120 feet long through a muddy section. A turnpike raises the trail tread above wet ground.

The series began in October, and these dates are still ahead:

The trail days are open to youth 10 and older with their families. Teens 14 to 18 can come on their own, and kids 10 to 13 need an adult with them. Each day counts for up to 8 service hours, and sign-up goes through WTA. The November 8 event is a lighter outing. It's part of WTA's 2026 Volunteer Appreciation Week, and it sends walkers through the park with a custom BINGO card listing what to look for, from the old-growth trees overhead to the fungi on the ground.

Where the creek leaves

Downstream of the trail crews, the second effort is about water that drops out of sight. Schmitz Creek runs through the forest, then goes underground and comes out through an outfall, so it no longer flows openly to Alki and Elliott Bay. West Seattle Blog's 2024 report on the effort's public launch said the goal is to daylight the creek, reconnect it toward its historic route to the beach, and bring back salmon habitat.

At the March meeting, co-founder Brian Barilleaux explained what makes this creek a good candidate. According to the blog's account, he said the tire-dust toxin in road runoff doesn't affect the park because that runoff drains elsewhere, which leaves the park's water pristine. DiMarco said "this beautiful creek" gets "dumped into a culvert." One attendee remembered the creek being routed down to 56th and Alki back in the 1960s.

Two steps have happened so far, and they aren't the same thing:

1. A design study. In autumn 2024, University of Washington landscape architecture graduate students worked with Schmitz Park Creek Restore, and Seattle Parks highlighted the partnership. According to UW's writeup, the student concepts imagined a wild corridor from forest to beach, salmon habitat, recognition of Indigenous history, community stewardship, and learning and play space for Alki Elementary. These were concepts only, not an approved plan.
2. A feasibility question. By March 2026, the group said it had funding for a hydrologic study to help answer whether the creek can actually be restored.

The group summed it up the same evening: daylighting the creek will take years, and people can help with small steps along the way. One of those small steps is something you can do at home. DiMarco and Barilleaux asked neighbors to pull invasive plants from their own yards, replant with natives and stop planting English ivy, which "ends up in the park."

The people behind the creek effort

The group has been especially visible this fall. In October it was the spotlight nonprofit at Mechanics Bank at 4022 SW Alaska in the Junction. On October 30, West Seattle Blog named the leaders who stopped by: president Dan Nye, vice president Brian Barilleaux and treasurer Rob Howe, along with Norman Sigler, Mitch Grospe and Tim DiMarco. The same post described the group's work as caring for the park now while planning its restorative future.

In March, Barilleaux said about 350 volunteers were on the group's list, and that its activities included tours, ivy removal and forest trail work. The tours have shifted more toward history, including the Indigenous people who lived on the land first, and toward honoring the Schmitz family's wish to keep the land natural. UW also notes that the Duwamish Tribe historically cared for this land.

In August, the Herald described the free guided walks as meeting at 5463 SW Stevens St from 10 to 11:30 a.m. They recur on the fourth Wednesday and Saturday of each month, open with an acknowledgment of the area's tribal history, and cover native plants, birdsong and the creek reconnection effort. Current tour dates and volunteer sign-ups are listed on the group's site, SchmitzParkCreekRestore.org.

Getting into the forest this winter

WTA's description of the trail layout is a useful guide for a wet-season walk, because each route meets the water differently.

• Main entrance: SW Admiral Way at SW Stevens Street, where the gated former Schmitz Boulevard leads into the forest.
• Creekside trails: these follow the stream down and pass under the Admiral Way bridge toward Alki Playfield. This is the stretch of creek the restoration group wants to reconnect to the beach.
• The "Sasquatch" route: a locally known path toward the park's southern boundary.

If you walk the creekside trails toward Alki Playfield, you'll see both of the park's water stories in one outing: the muddy tread WTA crews are working on this winter, and the creek Schmitz Park Restore hopes will one day run open to the beach.

Our team has spent decades working around Genesee Hill, Admiral and Alki, and we keep up with what's changing in the places closest to home, Schmitz Preserve among them. If you'd like to talk about your own plans in the neighborhoods around the forest, or would just like a local perspective on what's changing nearby, The City Team would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a Consultation whenever the timing is right for you.