Thank you for another tremendous year of volunteering in North Creek Forest! Our final numbers include 3,243 volunteer hours contributed by 558 individual volunteers for 2016. During that time, we planted about 400 native plants, spread almost 110 cubic yards of mulch, and removed about 40 cubic yards of invasive plants.

Volunteers came from local companies, neighborhoods, schools, and community based groups.

For local companies, we'd like to thank Bothell Boeing, Starbucks, and Disney Store employees, as well as Bartlett Tree Experts, Northwest Arboriculture, and Go Natives! Nursery for donating plants, mulch, and employee time.

Students from UW Bothell, Cascadia College, Edmonds Community College, Bellevue College, Soundview International Baccalaureate School,  Woodinville High School, Bothell High School, Woodinville Montessori, and Inglemoor High School all volunteered to help protect North Creek Forest.

Lastly, thank you to all of the community organizations including the Girl, Cub, and Boy Scouts, Whale Scout, and the Northshore YMCA for their volunteer time as well.

The final numbers are in and we planted 161 native trees and shrubs and spread 20 cubic yards of mulch during our Fall Planting Event on Nov. 19th! The work was completed by a total of 62 volunteers who were neighbors, Soundview students, members of local Girl Scout troops, college students, or from Whale Scout. Thank you to everyone who volunteered and helped reinforce the access trails and increased the amount of native plants within North Creek Forest!

We'd also like to thank Bartlett Tree Experts in Kemore and Go Natives! Nursery who between them, donated all of the plants with an estimated retail value of $650.

The beginning of a new year also means the beginning work for a new restoration site! As part of your new year's resolution, or just for fun, join us on Saturday, January 7th for our opening of the 242nd St. Restoration Site from 10:00am - 1:00pm. If interested, please sign-up via our website's volunteer page. Thanks!

The UW Restoration Ecology Network (UW-REN) is a tremendously valuable partner. Each year, since 2011, a team of UW students has planned and executed a restoration project in North Creek Forest. This year's team brings multiple ecological capabilities ranging from invasive removal, plant identification, technical skills including video editing and GIS mapping, as well as multiple accounts of project management experience. Read on to learn more about this year's team, and join us for their first work party on January 7, 2017 to meet them in person.

Our annual Fall planting and stewardship event will take place on Saturday, November 19th from 10:00am - 2:00pm, at the upper restoration sites. First time and returning volunteers are absolutely welcome to join in and help make North Creek Forest healthier!

All of the native plants we will be planting are generously donated by Bartlett Tree Experts, who also donated plants at the Spring event earlier this year! The new trees and shrubs will help stabilize slopes and also fill in empty areas within the restoration sites.

For part of stewardship, there are patches of Himalayan blackberry and English ivy, both invasive weeds, that we will remove to provide more growing room for existing native plants. Identification lessons will be taught by our experienced forest volunteers. We will also spread mulch, provided by Northwest Arboriculture, to reduce erosion and increase soil nutrients as the other part of stewardship.

All of your hard work will be rewarded at the event's end with a homemade chili and cornbread feed prepared by the Friends of North Creek Forest's board members! It will be a delicious end to a rewarding day. And after you fill up on chili - head down to the Forest Research Expo at the Lower Restoration Sites.

If you are interested in volunteering, please complete this form to sign up as it links directly to our volunteer database, and will automatically include you on this event's emails.

Thanks again, and we hope to see you on November 19th!

We are excited to once again have students from the Soundview School visit monthly to help take care of North Creek Forest. This month, the entire 8th grade came out to explore the forest and help keep invasive blackberry and bindweed at bay. Education Committee member, Emily Sunblade took students on an un-nature hike to hone their observation skills and explore deeper into the forest. Thank you Soundview! We always appreciate your hard work and enthusiasm!

July was a busy month for North Creek Forest! We had 2 visits each from the Woodinville Montessori School and YMCA Quest summer camps' youths, as well as hosting two of our regular forest restoration events.

We are honored to team up with Bartlett Tree Experts in Kenmore to participate in their generous Bartlett's Trees For Tomorrow program. Through this program, Bartlett is donating almost 100 native trees and shrubs for this year's restoration site, and they will be at our March 12 work party to help plant them! We hope you can join us for this all ages work party that will include a full lunch. Thank you Bartlett Tree Experts for your commitment to increasing tree planting and stewardship in our community - we are excited to work with you!

We were honored to receive a Proclamation from Mayor Rheaume and the Bothell City Council last week in support of our work to protect and steward North Creek Forest! A huge thanks to all of our friends, volunteers and supporters who helped make this possible!

CITY OF BOTHELL
PROCLAMATION
 
BRAVO Award presented to the
City of Bothell and Friends of North Creek Forest

WHEREAS Friends of North Creek Forest have played an integral part assisting the City of Bothell in preparing grant applications for acquiring land at North Creek Forest; and
 
WHEREAS Friends of North Creek Forest has invested substantial resources on behalf of the City to support successful grant applications amounting to nearly $2.8 million, which allowed the City to purchase the Forest property, including preparing and presenting three successful Land and Water Conservation Fund grants; and 
 
WHEREAS the Recreation and Conservation Office notified the City of Bothell that the most recent Land and Water Conservation Fund grant application for North Creek Forest scored #1 in the state out of sixteen applications in the Land and Water Conservation Fund; and
 
WHEREAS the Director of the Recreation and Conservation Office presented the City of Bothell and Friends of North Creek Forest with a BRAVO Award on January 19, 2016 in recognition of receiving the #1 ranking in the state; and
 
WHEREAS Friends of North Creek Forest has expended over $221,600 for forest stewardship, and supported and coordinated over 1200 volunteers contributing more than 10,900 volunteer hours since 2011 (including over 4,300 just in 2015).
 
WHEREAS FNCF has purchased tools and funded staff capable of fielding over 60 volunteers at any given forest stewardship event, and developed educational programming in North Creek Forest; and
 
NOW THEREFORE, I, Andy Rheaume, Mayor of the City of Bothell, do hereby recognize

“FRIENDS OF NORTH CREEK FOREST”
 
We encourage all citizens in the City of Bothell to support the continued efforts of Friends of North Creek Forest to preserve and enhance North Creek Forest.
 
In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and official seal this 2ND day of February, 2016.
 
Andy Rheaume                                                                   Laura Hathaway
Mayor                                                                                  City Clerk                

If our first work party is any indication - we have another strong team and we look forward to seeing the restoration progress through the winter and spring. Read on for more info and many more photos.