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!

Thanks to large groups of volunteers who came out on two recent Saturdays to help clean up and restore North Creek Forest, our newest restoration site is starting to take shape. Volunteers started by spreading mulch on muddy paths to allow easy and safe access to this year’s restoration site. 

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                

Even in the driving rain our volunteers won't be deterred. In early December, we closed out our fall work with a morning of weed clearing and planting, capped off with a chili celebration! Thanks to our friends at Northwest Arboriculture we were able to clear a year's worth of debris from the site. We loaded a whole container, which they kindly hauled away and disposed of for us. Although the weather outside was frightful, our hard core crew was delightful, and we were all impressed with how much we accomplished!

Thanks to everyone whose contributions made for such a fun and productive day! 

We were so excited to host a group of UW-Bothell Alumni recently for their Lend-A-Paw service day. It is wonderful to work with so many returning volunteers who helped out when they were students, including many former UW-REN team members. Of course, it's also always great to make new friends, and we enjoyed introducing the Forest and our restoration sites to the first timers!  Any time the sun is shining in November usually makes for a great day, and this glorious day was no exception! We weeded among the native plantings, cleared a large Himalayan Blackberry patch, spread an enormous pile of mulch, and planted many new plants. Everyone was thrilled with how much work we got done!

Thanks Husky Alums - we hope to see you all back in the Forest soon!
(many more photos after the break) 

We were thrilled to have members of local NGO Amrita-Seattle attend our work party on October 10th! Amrita-Seattle does great work in both Seattle and West Bengal centered around health, education, and clean water. Their motto is “Live to Serve” – and they certainly live up to that!

Friends of North Creek Forest is expanding at a surprising rate. Since this is our first post we would like to use it to express our gratitude to all of those people who have given us their endorsement, offered their time, shared our message with others and even sent us checks! You are the energy that makes this all work.

Don't forget the Earth Day events at UW/Cascadia CC April 21st and Bastyr on the 30th (check "Events" on our web site) See you there!