 Entering the forest Students from Soundview International Baccalaureate School walked to work today. We began with a walk to work so students could see their service in a greater context. (Photos by Alice Tsoodle)  The first question to consider, "Why is one side of the trail covered with one kind of forest (large conifer) and the other side covered with something different? (deciduous and Himalayan blackberry?) Answer: The conifer forest was logged in 1910. It has had time to recover. The deciduous forest is growing out of a place people more recently cut firewood. It is a newer forest. The leafy trees grow first. Blackberries need some sunlight and they quickly invade places like this.  Next thing to consider: "What do nettles look like?" Great setting for a quiz. Lots on nettles close by. They like disturbed soil.  The team arrives ready for work.  Carolyn Freese passes out the kid's sized gloves. Safety briefing: First responsibility: Don't get hurt. Second responsibility: Watch our for things that might hurt someone else. Tell someone. Now for the work...  Each year A UW-REN site begins with a trail into a wall of Himalayan blackberries to prepare for a UW student survey of their new site.  Today set the stage for UW-REN 2013 -2014.  We had to post this photo. Alice Tsoodle climbed into the blackberries to take it!  This is a blackberry root aka rhizome. They sometimes resemble a small sweet potato. If you don't dig them out the blackberries grow back.  The other invasive plant: Morning Glory.  This team removed a LOT of Morning Glory...  ....load after load of of Morning Glory!
 Thank you Dr. Castro and Students from Soundview International Baccalaureate School You broke ground on this years planned University of Washington Restoration Ecology Network site. It will look much different next spring. We appreciate your service to North Creek Forest!
Our level of stewardship is made possible by a grant from the Rose Foundation. Their support has enabled us to more than double our hours of restoration in the last 10 months. Thank you, FNCF
3 Comments
Kent Parkinson
9/15/2013 04:45:49 am
Friday was a great day, I was thrilled with the kids and how well they worked together. Soundview is the best! I look forward to working with you guys in the future learning all kinds of cool stuff that can only be found here in the forest.
Eric Adman
9/15/2013 05:13:27 am
Great to get those kids out there learning about stewardship!
Alice Tsoodle
9/16/2013 02:36:31 am
Watching these kids walk into the forest on Friday was such an inspiration to me. One kid said to me as we stepped off the sidewalk and into the green, "I've never been in the forest before. I usually sit at home and play video games like normal kids do." This comment both terrified and gave me hope. Terrified me because I know she spoke the truth, a lot of kids don’t get out into nature anymore and that is so incredibly sad to me. But it also gave me hope because of the sparkle in her eyes as she looked around at the light shining through the canopy. Leave a Reply. |
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