NCF is a Busy Place

Photo by Ron Johanson: Father and son, edge of North Creek Forest, November 2011.

SUNDAY FEB 12
It's 3:30 PM. The spaghetti sauce is on. Adam, Caitlin, and Maddy, our new Cascadia CC interns are just in after a day of surveying the forest with Friends VP Dr. David Bain. They are now crowded around a laptop setting up our new Friends Facebook page.

Now UW's Dr. Warren Gold and colleague Colleen Devine emerge from the forest and stop in to say hi. Everyone is armed with GPS units and have fir needles in their hair. Everyone is grinning.

No one had to say it. The forest is on it's way to becoming a significant educational asset. We opened an email from Cathy Garrand, our Education Committee chair. She shared emails from three Northshore School District teachers offering insights to help us understand how we can best serve them. Something more to smile about.

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UW-REN and 20 Japanese students restoring the forest.

EARLIER: SATURDAY JANUARY 14TH
To celebrated Dr. King's Birthday the University of Washington Restoration Ecology Network (UW-REN) students hosted  a restoration event in NCF.

It started out with about 7 students, a couple of Friends and a bunch of tools. Before too long another 20 students showed up. These were not just any students. These were 20 students from Japan who are enrolled in an intensive "immersion" program. They are here for a year to study our culture. They want to know more about restoration work in the USA.

So North Creek Forest is not only becoming a center for local learning. It is also becoming a place for students from other countries to learn about restoration.

At our request the UW-REN students included a videography student who is recording this years project. We are considering adding a Japanese sound translation for students in Japan who want to see UW-REN in action.

PENDING...
The UW is awaiting final approval from the city to do biological mapping in the 35 acres recently purchased. This will provide a base line measurement and will be immensely useful for future studies and work.

Thank you for following our conservation story.
Friends of North Creek Forest

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