While technically not a park, Meadowbrook Pond is a user-friendly Seattle Public Utilities accessible area with walking paths.  The Pond is on the east side of 35^th Ave NE with an entrance marked by signage and boulders, directly across the street from the Meadowbrook Pool & Community Center which is at 10517 35^th Ave NE.

The Thornton Creek Watershed of northeast Seattle is a creek system with two main branches, north and south.  The branches converge in Meadowbrook in the block between NE 105^th and 110^th Streets alongside the arterial 35^th Ave NE.  This area is called The Confluence.

Meadowbrook Pond was created at this point in The Confluence to reduce flooding, filter the water and slow the flow of the creek to its outlet at Matthews Beach at NE 93^rd Street on Lake Washington.  This blog post will highlight the beauty of Meadowbrook Pond in winter, with photos taken by members of the Friends of Meadowbrook Pond.

Meadowbrook Pond is beautiful in all seasons but in winter we can more easily see the expanded area created for floodwater retention. Photo by Yasmeen Hussain via the Facebook page of Friends of Meadowbrook Pond, December 2021.

Beginning in 1996, Meadowbrook Pond has been improved and enlarged several times as a place to accommodate flood waters.  The most recent improvements completed in 2015 enlarged the pond area on its northeast corner.  A new two-acre flood plain and meandering channel was created for larger capacity to hold floodwaters.  Channeling the water at the pond serves to slow the flow, filter sediment out of the water and prevent downstream flooding.

Meadowbrook Pond has a bridge and walkways for viewing the water. Photo by Michelle Lindsey via the Facebook page of Friends of Meadowbrook Pond, December 2021.

In addition to reducing local flooding, ongoing work in the Confluence Project was done to help restore water quality, improve fish and wildlife habitat and make the Confluence more visible to the public to create awareness of the environment.  Instead of being hidden in culverts and choked by vegetation, the south branch of the creek now flows under a bridge of 35^th Ave NE with the meandering channel visible.

Looking southward across Meadowbrook Pond we see one of the art installations. Photo by Michelle Lindsey via the Facebook page of Friends of Meadowbrook Pond, December 2021.

At all seasons Meadowbrook Pond is an oasis of nature where beavers, river otters, herons, ducks and other water birds can be seen.  Even in winter the Pond is beautiful.  Neighbors as well as members of volunteer groups such as Thornton Creek Alliance, monitor the Pond daily.  Here are photos contributed by neighborhood residents for the Facebook page of Friends of Meadowbrook Pond.

Walking paths ring the perimeter of Meadowbrook Pond where daily visitors observe the wildlife including birds, beavers and fish. Photo by Katie Jones via the Facebook page of Friends of Meadowbrook Pond, December 2021.