Today, we are asking for your tax-deductible, year-end gift to help carry this great momentum forward. Friends of North Creek Forest is dedicated to working with the City of Bothell to transform North Creek Forest from raw land into a cherished community park where education, stewardship and recreation can take place for years to come.

Over the past 6 months we have been ramping up our research program - formalizing a Research Committee, outlining projects, and investing in hardware and software that will enable us to collect, analyze and share data we collect in North Creek Forest. We also continue to partner with UW-Bothell and Cascadia College professors interested in using the Forest as an outdoor laboratory. Many of our UW-REN graduates are now helping out in various capacities in our research program, including Carolyn Stapp (UW-REN Capstone class of 2013-2014), who is serving as our Research Program intern. Carolyn is organizing data, coordinating the Research Committee, recruiting data collection volunteers, as well as serving on the Stewardship side of things as a Site Steward for her UW-REN project (Site 3). Thank you Carolyn - we appreciate your experience and perspective and all of your hard work!   

The power of many hands

Please help us win this grant.
Friends of North Creek Forest are in the process of applying for an additional  $500,000 grant. You can help. When grant approval Boards look at applications one of the key questions they ask is, “Who is going to take care of it?” The word they use is “Stewardship”.

The Boards look favorably upon communities that are willing to work along with their local Parks Department to:
·      Build and maintain trails
·      Remove invasive plant species
·      Restore native vegetation

Granting Boards count an hour of stewardship as $20. But even more… $100,000 of stewardship can help land a $500,000 grant. Counted this way, five hours of your time could have a $600 benefit for the forest. You are important.

The work:
Usually you only need to bring yourself. Tools, gloves, snacks, beverage and good humor are provided along with guidance from specialists. If you feel nurturing, you might plant trees. If you feel burly, you might build trails. And if you wake up ornery, you might take it out on some blackberries. Seriously, many of us have been on these teams elsewhere and the goal is to keep the pace friendly and enjoy just how much a team can do in one day.

Recently three groups have offered a total of 2215 hours of labor per year. So we already have pledges for $44,300 worth of work. Please pledge.

The pledge:
You can pledge 5 hours or 20 hours per year or any amount you want. Just go to Explore/Contact/Events on this web site and add your pledge in our comment box. If it is a group pledge you can do the same. Or, if your group wants to write a letter to us, we will post it on our site to inspire others. Letters go to:

Friends, 20111 108th Ave NE, Bothell, 98011

When?
As soon as we get the forest conserved, we will start scheduling teamwork days, possibly by next summer. But we need your commitments now to help with the grant application. Ask your church, classroom, co-workers, baseball team, reading group, family and neighbors. Ask them to help conserve North Creek Forest by making a group or individual pledge. And ask them to send this to their friends.

Pledges so far:

Shawna McCann, Cascadia Community College Student President
member of the
National Society of Leadership and Success
1500 hours per year from Cascadia CC students

Dan Paquette (our dedicated amateur botanist who has identified 106 species in the forest so far)
Individual pledges from
Central Puget Sound Chapter of the Native Plant Society
415 hours per year

Maximilian Dixon, President
Sustainability Organization of the UWB/CCC
300 hours per year

Many hands make a miracle.
Let’s make a lasting one…
An urban forest for the child in all of us,
And for all time.

Friends of North Creek Forest