YMCA Summer Camp in North Creek Forest

YMCA! (and some other cool things)

These trees are threatened by English ivy.  Wildlife habitat is being destroyed.

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The Northshore YMCA has a weekly Teens Summer Camp. It includes a day of community service every week.  We are pleased the Y chose North Creek Forest.  Every week this summer an army of teenagers descends on the forest to reverse the damage done by invasive plants. While the interior of the forest is pristine, wildlife habitat is being threatened by invasive plants on the forest margins.

A short distance away from the ivy patch it looks completely different. Where they work on ivy, only one species is present.  Here YMCA volunteers found up to 15 different plant species under a stretched out string only 5 meters long! If you were a forest critter where would you want to live?

Above is the same spot as the second photo. Here the ground is almost ready for mulch and planting. Someday it will be a richly diverse forest floor.

This tree had so much Ivy on it that it blew down in a storm. English ivy creates a sail effect on the trees. Fallen trees helps the ivy spread faster too.

A few more pics of our first two weeks...

Grrr... It's hard work!

Rolling ivy up like a rug helps.

Weeding happens on the UW sites too.

Check out the size of these Himalayan blackberry rhizomes.

Lunch at the UW restoration sites.

Lunch at the ivy site.

THANK YOU YMCA SUMMER CAMP VOLUNTEERS!  SEVEN WEEKS TO GO....

SOME OTHER COOL THINGS....  THINGS EVERYONE CAN DO TO HELP

AMAZON SMILE
Shop local when you can. But when you shop at Amazon we receive .5% of every qualified purchase you make.
Go HERE to help us!


FRED MEYER / QFC
Again, we receive a quarterly payment based upon your purchases.
Go HERE to help us!


Hundreds of volunteers are involved in the effort to save this amazing forest. Future generations will be befit from every hour you give. For this we are grateful.

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PS This note has been added the morning after this article was published.
Sorry that I can't typically help you guys out in the field. I have linked you to my Rewards card, so you will now get a portion of my purchases! I know you all do great work. Keep it up.
 Sincerely,  David R Irons Jr
www.flickr.com/photos/fresnatic/

We have never met David. On line we saw a photo of the State Capitol Building we wanted to use and he gave us permission in the Spril 2011 by email. He endorsed us (see Endorsement Page) has been following the forest ever since.  This is the kind of community it takes.  Thank you David!

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We are grateful for grants from the Tulalip Tribes and the Rose Foundation, Puget Sound Mitigation Fund, a grantmaking fund created by the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.
                                                                                                                                                                    THANK YOU - FNCF