April and Mike LaLande run a growing small business near Issaquah Washington distributing garden supplies, fertilizer, and other chemicals to nurseries and garden centers across the country.

And so spray for weed management, heavy chemical pest control, and fertilizers are abundant at home on their 7 1/2 acres, barn, two horses and home sweet home on top of a hill, right?

Not a chance. The LaLandes have created a nature sanctuary for their horses and a lot of wildlife. And they manage to do it all with very few or no pesticides and chemicals at all.

“When you work full time, have horses and you love being outdoors like we do, you have to find a way to balance everything out.

“When we first got started with the horses here, we knew about integrated pest management practices which help eliminate disease carrying pests such as certain flies and mosquitoes and harmful soil and pasture pests. We are a chemical free farm, so we use methods such as 1) attracting natural predators by providing food, water and shelter. Some of the ones we work on attracting are swallows and other birds, bats, frogs and snakes. 2) buying and releasing predators such as fly predators (nocturnal wasps that eat fly larvae) 3) using biological traps, lures etc. The second thing we do is to continually build up our soil by adding our own compost and other organic amendments. This frees up a lot of time and money dealing with manure piles, having to use chemical fertilizers to get the grass to grow, by not having to manage horse care with insecticides. Since our property is basically a large aquifer recharge area this is good for the environment too. “
And the payoff is not just in chore efficiency -- a crucial element to juggling work and home. While there is quote a distance between them and their next human neighbors, their home is full of native plants and animals -- by design rather than accident.

“We are fortunate to have a lot – Bear, Cougar, Bobcat, Coyote, Elk, Deer, some great birds….but I have to say my favorite are the Robins. My little story is that when we moved to this property 8 years ago it was REALLY quiet. We had the elk (up to 50 at a time) visit and some occasional large birds like pileated woodpeckers.”

April looked around their new home and wondered what they had gotten into-- “It took me a while to realize there were no robins, chickadees or other small birds hanging out which is why to me it was so quiet. I remember thinking, wow this is a mini “Silent Spring” that first year and realized that the former owners used a lot of pesticides and herbicides because they didn’t want any bugs or weeds around--all the birds were apparently hanging out elsewhere. Ironically, there WERE a lot of pests like carpenter ants, crane fly larvae, etc., but none of their natural predators. So we used some natural controls like nematodes, over seeded the pastures, good old fashioned fly swatters and patiently waited. Now we have tons of birds, and every spring when we see the robins feasting on grubs and earthworms and singing their little songs, it makes me really happy.”

So how many chemicals do they use in keeping their horses? “The only chemicals we use on our horses are de-wormers, which are dissipated by the composting process. We don’t use any for horsekeeping practices. Anyone can keep their animals and property this green with a little effort.”

The land where LaLandes’ home and barn sits is at the top of a hill that slopes down into a second growth forest with 100 yards of pasture in between. Where they live is wet more than most places in Seattle. The big trees call in the rain and it lingers on moss, tall timbers, salal, and oregon grape. And blackberries, of course. Their land had been logged back at the turn of the 20th Century, and old growth stumps going back 600-800 year old trees sprinkle the second growth forest that sits at the bottom of their hill.

And looks can be deceiving. A lot of restoration and native plant buffers has gone into the ground that create natural sponges for rains and habitat for animals.

Wow, we’ve done a lot, but it’s a little hard to notice since it all mostly looks like ‘native’ land. A few off the top of my head are:

First, we started making a buffer zone 20-40 feet wide between the wild area and pastures/house by removing 300-500 alder saplings and replanting a large variety of native shrubs, trees and grasses and trimming or eradicating invasive weeds and blackberries.

Then we moved 5 or 6 old growth stumps that were in the pasture and not really being utilized to the buffer area with a big trackhoe – they are pretty heavily used now by wildlife.

One of the best things we did was working with King County DNR to design a forestry plan. Implemented a Forest Stewardship Plan for our property with the help of Kristi McClellan, a forester from King County DNR. From that we horse-logged eight logging trucks full of mature alder that were at the end of their life cycle and which had outgrown the conifers and were stunting them and making a really dark forest without much diversity. That was two years ago and the changes in the forest have been great. Many of the hemlock and Douglas fir trees have shot way up, the canopy is now multistoried with lots of great species of plants below. We’ve planted some trees – about 100, but mostly all the new undergrowth has come in on its own just by letting a little sunlight in.

In the process we created wildlife corridors for the large game in and around all of our human and horse areas.”

Are there quiet places that aren't cultivated to encourage wetlands, swampy areas?

So instead of clearcuts and grass fields LaLandes have cultivated a different yard -- “We devote about 1⁄2 of our property (7 1⁄2 acres) to native forest and vegetation. We do not have any wetlands on our property so we focus on wildlife enhancement areas.

Have your manure and weed management practices changed since you started keeping horses?

A little.

How? We have always composted our manure but have upgraded our composting system to be faster and to produce a better ‘finished product’. We have never used herbicides on this property; however we now occasionally use natural weed control recipes that we make up for the gravel areas. There are a few really invasive weeds (like Japanese Knotweed) creeping our way, so this may become a little more time consuming and challenging.



Do you have a favorite story about water on your land? No. There is no surface water, just rain, rain, rain!



How has your thinking about manure management, animal care evolved over the past ten years? A lot. We took some classes from the Conservation District and Horses For Clean Water when we first bought our property. These classes, lectures and farm tours have been an invaluable resource and have really changed my thinking about how to keep horses healthy in the Western Pacific Northwest. The concepts we’ve implemented for ‘sacrifice areas’, ‘manure management’ and ‘pasture management’ have really changed our horses and our land’s health for the better, I never realized how many benefits there are to doing these types of practices…anything from keeping your neighbors happy, to keeping the fish happy. I’d really encourage anyone with horses or livestock to take advantage of this wealth of free help and advice. Our area has changed so much lately, it’s nice to have some ways to positively impact and maybe counteract some of the negative impacts that all this growth brings.



Horses and rain equals one constant in King County. Mud. But Lalande has figure out a path of least resistance, and is philosophical about mud. Plus -- guess what? They don’t have it.

“Mud is the enemy for horse owners. Beside degrading the environment and making poor use and value of property, it is an incubator for many common bacterial and pathogenic problems that horse owners and vets spend many hours and dollars trying to fix. We don’t have it – which I think is amazing considering the rainfall we have. We manage to not have it by the bmp’s of keeping horses off saturated pasture, making the paddocks ‘mudless’, keeping enough forage available for the quantity of wildlife that’s in our area. It took a bit of expense to be mudless, but it has saved many hours of labor not having to deal with it. “

Is it a hassle to manage? Has mud and manure management gotten easier over time?

It is easy to manage. King Conservation District has many cost sharing programs and can help develop farm plans to help set up practices so management is pretty much painless.

What is next in April and Mike's thinking about their land? The question runs deep-- and to an unexpected place.

I think about protecting groundwater-- we are worried about it, and don’t think enough people ask how their livestock and farm practices harm it or protect it. Many farms have wells, or are close to areas where aquifer protection is critical to public health and clean water supplies – as hard as it is to clean up the sound…it will be much harder to clean up aquifers. I think that with some good education and incentives this potential liability could be turned into an asset – it would be great if farms could be ‘drinking water stewards’ by practicing good land management. Puget Sound clean up gets lots of attention. But we need to be concerned about what we’re let drain into the ground and deep into aquifers as well as what is going down the stream to the Snoqualmie and into the Sound.”

Follow up: Horses names.

Noelle Richards lives near the headwaters of the Newauken Creek-- her farm tucked in the Cascade foothills on the edge of Enumclaw. She owns 10 square acres -- half forested and half pasture. The forested part is kept that way to protect the salmon bearing stream. And the pasture is lush and green with lots of grass for her horses.

Noelle owns two horses that hang out in the pasture across from her home and the Newauken Creek right now-- but specializes in hosting race horses who board on her pasture.

Richards has loved horses since she was a kid. "Ever since I was 4 years old I have wanted to ride horses."

Her property hosts a grand snag of a tree left over from the logging days of Weyerhauser. "We planted lots of native conifers, maple other shrubs and plants there to give the land a chance to do what it is best at-- grow trees." Richards has found some real benefits to keeping the trees on her property.

"The horse runs we have used to be covered in water -- no fun for horses or for me. When I planted a dozen conifers between my two horse runs from the barn to the field, I haven't had a problem since. The trees act like a sponge and soak up all the water. Of course I have a few inches of gravel down on the path, too. That helps a lot."

Richards found her home through a friend. "An old friend of mine came over here to visit a horse over 30 years ago, and I fell in love with the place. I told the owners if they ever wanted to sell their house to let me know." Well -- 30 years ago I was 26 and it was quite a bit of work to get mortgage and ownership set up for this parcel. But I did it.

And I have been taking care of this creek and the horses around it ever since. I love this place."

"Back in the 80's after I bought this farm, the King Conservation District called to see if they could stop by and walk around the property. I think the fellow who stopped picked my place because we are right up against the hills here-- kind of the headwaters for the Newauken Creek. He taught me to see the difference between the side of the creek that was full of native plants and good banks, and the side of the river near the horses that has been worn down by livestock.

They showed me how to fence the horses off, and the District plant sales have been a steady source of new plants to keep greening up this part by the creek that I want to be wild."

Salmon have been running ever since: "Chinook and coho spawning right here in our front yard. Here in end of September you won't see them, but after the rains start up in October the water levels will rise. The fish that are hanging out down in the Green River waiting for a little more water before they are going to make their way up here. "

"It takes them about a month for them to make their way up here to spawn under this Big Leaf Maple" Richards points to 100 year old tree that shades the creek and has a spawning area next to its roots. "Someday next month I will be working on the yard next to my home and hear splashing in the creek. I'll walk over and their they are-- making their nests and spawning. It is really something to behold."

The hills around her home are the upper watershed for the Newauken, which is one of the last best places for salmon coming in from Puget Sound and the Green River.

"The hills had been owned by Weyerhauser when I got here. And the land has been through some ups and downs. One year W clearcut all the forests on one swath of land above us -- and you wouldn't believe the problems. We had flooding -- the run off from the mountain side they cleared was too much. So we organized a meeting with Weyerhauser and they improved somewhat." The next cut wasn't quite so hard on those of us living downstream in Enumclaw.

But then Weyerhaueser sold their land to Hartford Insurance Co. and you wouldn't believe the mess they've made up in the hills here. And worse than Weyerhauser-- they won't meet with us to talk about our problems with them ruining our water. The flooding is bad and not being a good neighbor doens't help. They shouldn't be cutting here if they aren't going to do it sustainably."

Bad corporate neighbors or not, Noelle has worked with the facts on the ground -- in her case a lot of water-- and made the best of it.

Noelle has set up her paddocks for race horses -- they are longer and narrower so the animals can run. And she has contributed a lot to current understanding of how to care for horses and pasture management.

Conservation district efforts in the 80's was all based on dairy cow manure lagoons- and educating farmers and dairymen about what it took to care for the land while raising their livestock.

"The Conservation Districts and the NRCS were great at developing environmentally sensitive livestock -- but they didn't have know what to make of horses out here. But they knew enough to get started. It is amazing what some education has done to the way I see the world. I learned so much I started teaching people about ways to develop chore efficiency, how to care for their pastures, and of course their horses, too."

" I started teaching other people about how to care for their horse responsibly -- and I have a passion for teaching people how to be better horsemen and women."

"We started the King Co. Model Horse Farm project back in 1990. Since all the best management practices in those days were based on dairy cows, people came out on farm tours, showing people what we had learned about keeping horses, and how to care for them in a way that is efficient for the horse owner. There is no point in getting someone so much information that they get overwhelmed-- because then they won't do anything. The key is to make the environmentally responsible thing also the easiest and most efficient. And that's what the district staff has taught me."

Noelle teaches small groups of farmers -- and has seen several thousand people a year for some time now. "We teach people to grow healthy strong relationships with their horses and other farm animals."

These days Noelle is more interested in research. "When we teach now-- I work to teach using livestock procedures that are natural for the animal. We teach people to rotate their fences, to let an animal graze one area and then come over to the next section, and work across the pasture for the summer."

"The Conservation District teaches to grow grass for 10 inches and when they eat down to 3, then pull them off. If you don't you turn your pasture into deserts. Pastures that are low grass-- eaten down to far are a danger to the horses, because clover and other weeds can outcompete the grasses the horses like to eat. But even then, the pasture is susceptible to weeds at 3 inches."

"What do you do about it? I think even eating down to 3 inches is part of the problem now. My research show that if you grow a pasture out to 14 inches and then move the animals when they get down to 7" you get a lot sturdier grass in the field, and fewer weeds. We want the pasture to last and not get overworked."

Richards research is not accepted wisdom of the conservation districts -- yet. But she is confident once the results she has seen are known to more horse people, better pasture management for horse owners is right behind.

Noelle Richards home is proof positive that salmon and livestock can get along-- even thrive together with some thoughtful planning and planting and persistent work.

And Richards is rich in the ways we usually don't measure -- whether it is the sound of a fish tail splashing as it nests, or horses that love her gentle attention. Her attention to land and plants and animals living on it, her teaching and research have all contributed to wealthy and healthy life on her own terms.

Pat Cosgrove
43017 234th Pl SE
Enumclaw WA

Pat Cosgrove
43017 234th Pl SE
Enumclaw WA

Newauken Creek's Chinook, coho, sockeye, and chum salmon as well as winter steelhead have been observed spawning through it.

The Enumclaw plateau stretches below Mount Rainier's belly, a sprawling mass of rural homes on farms, and dense housing in Enumclaw and Auburn. And salmon find there way home here every year.

Long before white settlers invaded Indian land, the Newauken Creek and its main tributaries that empty into the Green and Duwamish Rivers carried salmon. Newauken means "gently flowing waters" according to one translation.

Before logging, salmon ran up hill, through deep forest, to the headwaters in the Cascades where they spawned and created one of the richest salmon habitats in mid Puget Sound.

The Newauken Creek still carries some salmon, but the trees are all gone. Once the logging companies had clearcut the plateau, farmers moved in and started settlements. Dairies grew and prospered. The milk flowed, the buttern churned, cheese made. Manure flowed, too. And the creek life suffered.

Salmon are running strong still-- in large part thanks to public salmon restoration projects. Education campaigns to clean water in rural areas has helped as well.

One of the Newauken Creek's best neighbors is Pat Cosgrove, horse owner and nature lover. She has improved her small piece of land for salmon's benefit, through proper drains around her horse barn, native plantings, and encouraging wildlife to prosper.

Pat Cosgrove has bought 5 acres from a farmer in Enumclaw fourteen years ago. She moved from a neighborhood in north Seattle to get some fresh air and raise horses. The land is filling in with houses after all that time, but Enumclaw still has a rural feeling where Cosgrove lives.

Her family includes a Lusitano horse named Rosa, a little pony to keep her horse company, and her ever present fetching border collie "Name"

Pat's small barn would whistle it is so clean. She has big French drains that collect rainwater around the barn and keep the area dry.

Her 30' x 60' big fenced area has a bed of gravel. "Sand pulverizes under the horse's foot and begins to hold water-- which is the biggest problem here on my land. A good part of the back is a winter wetland. "

For some people this winter wetland would be a pain to work woith, or better fill in so that she could use it all year. But Pat has always had two goals for this land.

I've wanted horses, and to promote wildlife. We planted dogwood, spruce, other trees along the property line to encourage cover for birds and little animals. Bald eagles fly by daily. They are scavenging this big green space for food. And my next door neighbor has a pond in the wettest part of the year-- so I see lots of ducks, vultures, and hawks. " Cosgrove points out the big swales on the eastern edge of her land that serve as a buffer to filter water and keep it clean.

"My neighbor's got Neuwauken Creek running along the edge of my property . There are salmon coming up that creek still, and I like to think they'll keep coming if we take care of this land."

Middle of winter when Seattle is at her grayest and wettest, or so it seems after months of the same all winter, Cosgrove anticipates the return of frogs. "It is quiet now, -- but in the past in February is a big chorus. And you have to watch it coming out of my home-- I'll have frogs on every window, flowerpot and door. I even get them hanging out under the towel I keep by my back door to wipe the dog off with-- they hop up and hold on at night.

"This past year has been different. I've seen less than ten frogs all year." Cosgrove and many other people are concerned about what that means. " Is it a seasonal problem? Or did something happen to their habitat around here to diminish the number of frogs so quickly?"

In the mean time, Cosgrove says she has lots of other company. "I have possum, skunk, and as you can see from the little hills and holes in the gorund-- lots of voles. The voles bring coyotes, and the raptors overhead for lunch. I bought a hawk plattform in the back along the edge of my pasture, but so far have seen mostly crows roosting there. They hang out there and in the big cottonwood. One of my favorites is visits from violet green swallows that follow me on my walks with my horse. They love it when we are out in the pasture because it stirs up bugs."

Her big field is full of native plants and plenty of blue sky in summer. Of course there have been disruptions. Cosgrove and her husband split up years ago. I looked at this place -- the barn, the house, animals and felt overwhelmed. But staying here was the best decision I made. I just knew if I sold the farm, I would be living in a crappy slum in Auburn, suffocating from being back in city living. Out here I can breathe, and enjoy all that nature provides. It isn't fancy, but this is home. "

Looking through Cosgrove's bird list, it is easy to see her home is shared by many: American bitterns, Great Blue Heron, the requisite Canada goose, mallard, American widgeon, black turkey vultures, black shouldered kites, California quail, Anna's Hummingbird, common snipe, Downy woodpecker, northern flicker, common raven, lots of ring necked pheasant and northern bobwhite are a few of the diverse birds that call Cosgrove's five acres home. " I even have a merlin on my list" - Pat says with a hint of one who know the magic of being one with nature.

"I've seen two skunks fighting out here. That isn't pretty."

Today, she takes Rosa along with her friend's pack mules and goes on hikes into backcountry around Mount Rainier and a number of weekend hikes. "I love living here in the country-- and being so close to that big mountain. It is so peaceful -- and our horses love packing into the back country."

Life is a good mix right now. And Pat's grateful everything has worked out so well.