The Thornton Creek Watershed of northeast Seattle has two main branches, North and South.  These branches converge at The Confluence in the Meadowbrook neighborhood at NE 107th Street, on the east side of 35th Ave NE across from Nathan Hale High School.

Now called Meadowbrook Pond Natural Area, the site serves to hold and filter the water before the converged Thornton Creek mainstream flows out to Lake Washington at Matthews Beach on NE 93rd Street.

Meadowbrook Pond in autumn. Photo by Valarie.

Tributaries to Thornton Creek

Office building on the site of the former Oriental Gardens plant nursery.

In addition to the North and South Branches, there are many small tributaries to Thornton Creek.  One of these is called Willow Creek, named by Martha Nishitani for the willow tree on the banks of the creek at her family’s plant nursery.

The Nishitani’s Oriental Gardens plant nursery operated from 1912 to 1970 on Lake City Way NE at the corner of NE 98th Street.

After Oriental Gardens closed, a later owner of the property built the present building on the site, which was the office of Weight Watchers for many years.  The building now houses Willow Creek Childcare.  Bridges from the parking lot to the building cross over Willow Creek.

Willow Creek flows northward, parallel with Lake City Way NE and Ravenna Ave NE, to where this tributary joins the Thornton Creek South Branch at the LaVilla Meadows Natural Area, 10228 Fischer Place NE, behind the LaVilla Dairy building.

Re-aligning Willow Creek

In 2024 a re-alignment project is being done on a section of Willow Creek to improve the flow of water for fish passage.  At the west end of NE 100th Street between Lake City Way NE and Ravenna Ave NE, a new creek bed has been created, re-aligning the creek to make a new channel.  Digging a new channel released the creek from culverts under the roadway of NE 100th Street.

Work at the west end of NE 100th Street to re-align Willow Creek. Photo by Valarie, October 2024.

In addition to “daylighting” the creek, meanders were created in the new channel. Bends and curves in a creek are better for slowing the flow of water, filtering the water, and creating optimal conditions for fish passage.  Fish are known to rest for a time in the quiet side-channels of bends in a creek, with shaded areas created by woody debris.  For this reason some tree sections were left alongside the newly created Willow Creek channel.

Water flowing in the newly re-aligned Willow Creek channel north of NE 100th Street. Photo courtesy of Dan Keefe, September 2024.

During the project, 290 cutthroat trout were captured from the old channel.  Collected fish were kept alive and placed in Thornton Creek downstream.

The newly aligned Willow Creek between NE 100th to NE 102nd Streets can be viewed from the pedestrian bridge at the west end of NE 100th Street, west of Ravenna Avenue NE.

Pedestrian bridge over Willow Creek at NE 100th Street. Photo by Valarie, October 2024.

Sources:

Project page:  Willow Creek Fish Passage Restoration Project.

Thanks to Dan Keefe for photos and background info.

The Willow Creek Fish Passage Restoration Project moved the creek channel westward, and created meanders to help slow the water and filter it.