Alas, not so.
It is easy to understand KUOW's misinterpretation of the South Seattle Emerald article. KUOW followed up with a correction the next day.
The on-air retraction, just like the original report, was only 20 seconds long. Here's what they might have aired if they had more time:
Now, a clarification on a story we ran Thursday about sword ferns dying in Seward Park. At Seward, at other sites in the Puget lowlands - from the Kitsap Peninsula to the Snoqualmie National Forest, and now also in a few sites just reported from Oregon - sword ferns are experiencing an unprecedented and mysterious die-off, with no recovery in sight.
Sword ferns are common, hardy and long-lived. Just like their larger ecosystem companion, the Douglas Fir, they colonize open ground, then live for centuries without reproducing. This unusual life cycle means that, once lost to an intact forest, they do not return. Nor do other native plants - at least not quickly. This loss of understory and ground cover creates a serious "ecosystem hole”. This is a situation unlike what PNW forests normally experience, where an ecosystem disturbance also takes out the forest canopy, the overstory, and ample sunlight hits the ground to drive new growth. At Seward, the normal recovery of a disturbed forest - after fire, flood, insects, windstorms - is simply not happening.
In response to this, volunteers and Seattle Parks are engaged in labor-intensive restoration at Seward Park, filling in where the ground has been bare for five years. They have planted nursery-grown native plants - including ferns - and hand-watering them through the summer drought. The natural regeneration we mentioned in our reporting on Thursday story is very limited: after five years, only ten small, seasonal plants of just one species (the Fragrant Fringecup) has sprung up in the acres of forest which used to be filled with sword ferns.
In response to this, volunteers and Seattle Parks are engaged in labor-intensive restoration at Seward Park, filling in where the ground has been bare for five years. They have planted nursery-grown native plants - including ferns - and hand-watering them through the summer drought. The natural regeneration we mentioned in our reporting on Thursday story is very limited: after five years, only ten small, seasonal plants of just one species (the Fragrant Fringecup) has sprung up in the acres of forest which used to be filled with sword ferns.
The cause of the die-off is still a mystery - but recent lab work strongly suggests that a pathogen is involved. Citizens, students and a few university scientists are working together, without pay, on this ongoing problem. They track the die-off throughout the region, run experiments to figure out the cause, and hope eventually to find an effective response.
Here's the actual story as it aired on Thursday 12/5 (my emphasis):
Some good news from Seattle's Seward Park.
In 2017, sword ferns there were mysteriously dying ... about a third of them were lost. But the South Seattle Emerald reports that re-planting has been successful ... and there are signs of natural regeneration. The Emerald says a women's group raised thousands of dollars to study the die-off. And early research suggests that it's not drought that was responsible ... but some kind of pathogen.
