Food Forest and Lake Leschi

Mission

What is a Traditional Food Forest?

Background

The Traditional Foods Forest has long been a goal of Chief Leschi Schools to provide an area where CLS students have access to hands-on outdoor learning space to learn about traditional foods, plants, and ecological knowledge. The project began in 2020 under the leadership of Science and Ecology Pathway teacher, Elsie Mitchell, and her ecology club students. They cleared a small area near Lake Leschi, removed invasive species, and planted the first fir trees— still growing strong today.

In 2024, the effort expanded through a collaboration with graduate students from the University of Washington–Seattle, who helped clear a larger area to prepare for the full development of the Traditional Foods Forest. On April 2, 2025, CLS held its first major planting event and official groundbreaking. Puyallup Tribal Council members, CLS School Board members, staff, students, and UW partners came together to plant 1,400 native and traditional plants representing 34 species.

Since then, CLS staff and students have continued to add new species and shape the space to meet the school’s educational and cultural goals. Like the students who care for it, the Traditional Food Forest will continue to grow.

Special thanks to Sophia Loucks and Elizabeth Ward, who, with their students, built up the collection of CLS Food Forest Videos.

Water

Puyallup Watershed

Chief Leschi Schools is located in the Clear Creek Basin of the Lower Puyallup watershed. When settlers began farming the area’s fertile soils, they altered the natural landscape to meet agricultural needs. Creeks were channelized, and dikes and culverts were installed in an effort to prevent flooding. While these changes supported farming, they also created barriers for salmon moving through these waterways. Today, CLS sits along a channelized drainage that runs from 52nd Street East and Pioneer Way East.

When plans for the school were developed in 1996, the Tribe ensured that a lake would be incorporated into the design. This lake feeds into the drainage system and serves as a buffer to reduce flooding along the creek, helping protect the school. Named in honor of Nisqually Chief Leschi, the area is known as Lake Leschi. Today, Lake Leschi is central to several on-campus projects– like the CLS Fish Hatchery and Traditional Food Forest– and serves as a vital outdoor learning space for CLS students.

Lake Leschi

Lake Leschi is located to the west north of the main CLS building, it has always been a tranquil place of learning for students. Docks have been installed and trails that perimeter the lake and even lead to the tail waters where Lake Leschi drains into the channel that goes to Clear Creek. Students often come out with their teachers as a part of their science classes to make observations, collect data, and enjoy the fresh air.

Lake Leschi is not “pristine”. It bears the marks of decades of introduced species that outcompete native plants and animals, agricultural runoff that alters water quality and reshapes which species can thrive, and changes in hydrology caused by channelizing the watershed. Still, many creatures call it home: beavers, herons(tiiɫ sbəq’ʷəʔ), ducks, geese, bullfrogs, crows(k’aʔk’aʔ), and more.

Because of these complexities, Lake Leschi serves as a model ecosystem for CLS STEM teachers. Here, students explore why the ecosystem functions as it does. Students study invasive species and their effects on native populations, examine how species evolve and their relations to each other, as well as ways to restore ecological balance–all while engaging in core lessons of biology, chemistry, and ecology.

Just adjacent to Lake Leschi– between the lake and the CLS Fish Hatchery– is the site of the Traditional Foods Forest. Previously covered in invasive species like Himalayan Blackberry, Scotchbroom, and Reed Canary Grass, the area is now in process of becoming a self-sustaining food forest that hosts first foods and native plants. This project also aims to improve water quality in Lake Leschi and enhance salmon habitat in the creek by planting native vegetation that provides shade and naturally filters runoff before it enters the water.

Improving water quality and restoring creek bank habitat are essential to the broader goal of supporting healthy salmon populations. Each year, CLS students release salmon raised in our campus fish hatchery into the creek, and these efforts help give the fish the best possible start in their journey to the ocean.

Lake Leschi Water Monitoring

Plant Guide

Below are plant identification guides and pronunciation and identification videos created by our very own Lushootseed class students.

Classes and Clubs

Elementary

Middle School

High School

Clubs

Building the Future of the Traditional Foods Forest

The CLS community continues to build a growing network of outside collaborators and partners, expanding opportunities that enrich student learning. With each new partnership, support for hands-on, place-based education at Chief Leschi Schools’ Traditional Foods Forest, Indigenous Culinary Garden, and Fish Hatchery increases. Our past, present and some future partners and projects below:

Projects and Partners

Puyallup Tribal Fisheries and Elsie Mitchell 2020-2021
University of Washington-Seattle 2020-Present

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