Greenbelt Restoration Project: Service-Learning Sessions 5 & 6

Session 5

The primary task for the 5th service-learning session was to clear away the leaves, wood chips and weeds from all of the spots where new native trees, shrubs and ground covers would be planted on November 13th. Prior to the work party, Shirley and I had placed a green or pink flag at each of those locations.

Two staff members from Carlson Center, the University of Washington program that coordinates the University’s service-learning programs, came to our site that day. They wanted to talk with Shirley and me about how the students were helping to meet Green Seattle Partnership’s goals, to see our site, and to watch and talk with the students. They stayed with us for about an hour. I enjoyed their visit.

After a break, the students continued to clear the areas where native trees, shrubs and ground covers would be planted the following week.

Session 6

The 6th service-learning session took place on November 12, the afternoon before DocuSign, a corporate group, would be coming to plant everything. In-between the 5th and 6th sessions, the plants had been distributed to the locations where they would soon be planted.

Every year, each new plant is marked with a soft flagging tape. The tape may be attached to the plant itself or may be on a nearby stake. The tape is different for each planting season. Blue and white checkered tape was used for the Nov 2017 to March 2018 planting season and red with black polka dots for 2018-19. This season the tape is a light blue. You can see it on many of the plants in the photos above.

[The same tape is used in all Seattle Parks, so if you know the colors that were used for each season, you can go to any park and know what season a particular plant was planted.]

The flagging tape had been placed on all of the larger plants prior to the 6th session. When the plant is small, though, there may not be a branch that is strong enough for tagging. In those cases, we put the flagging tape on a stake and then put the stakes in the ground near the plants when they are planted. (The photo to the left shows one of the stakes.)

During the first part of the 6th service-learning session, three of the students made 100 of these stakes. While they did that, one of our staff members raked some of the paths on the site and another student put the stakes in or near the pots that contained small plants.

After a break, the four students who attended that day divided into two groups. Each pair planted a hemlock tree. Once the tree was planted, they put a ring of wood chips around it. The wood chips help retain moisture and reduce weed growth.

After planting the trees, the students hunted for areas where flags had been placed since the previous session and cleared the ground around those flags.

By the time this service-learning session was over, the land was ready for the next day’s planting work party!

Greenbelt Restoration Project: Service-Learning Session 4

The service-learning students and our forest restoration team leaders, who are also volunteers, accomplished so much during the 4th service-learning session.

[For those of you who may not have read previous posts about the service-learners, they are students from the University of Washington who are working on our site as an adjunct to their course work. They come once a week for seven weeks.]

Session 4

We worked in an area that was full of horsetails, bindweed, dried branches and other weeds. The horsetails had started to die down for the year, but there were years of dried stalks underneath the live ones. We left the live horsetails alone as much as possible because they are a native plant. However, it often wasn’t possible to remove the bindweed without removing the horsetail, because both break easily. The horsetails have been around since before the dinosaurs, though, so we know they will be back in the Spring!

This is what the area looked like when we started the session.

We hadn’t planned to create a path that day, but it soon became clear that one would be helpful. Here are before and after photos of the new path.

  • Before
  • After

We worked on the path and on removing the invasive weeds throughout the three-hour work party. Most of the weeds were taken to drying racks.

[We’ve started bagging bindweed and putting it in the trash in case being on the drying racks isn’t enough to prevent the invasive vine from re-rooting.]

Click on the gallery to enlarge the photos.

  • Getting wood chips for the new path
  • The students found this mushroom.
    Mushrooms help build healthy soil.
  • Bindweed

The transformation in the land was remarkable. Compare the photos below to the first one in this post.

Thanks to the effort of all of the volunteers, it had been another productive work party. Step by step, and with the blessing of Mother Nature, we are creating another healthy forest in Seattle.

Greenbelt Restoration Site: Mushrooms

Yesterday, as we were walking down the stairs that separate my yard from the restoration site, one of our team leaders pointed out some mushrooms to me. I thought the fact that they were coming up through a coiled hose made them look like a piece of art.

FOTD

Greenbelt Restoration Project: Service-Learning Sessions 1-3

This quarter, we have students from the University of Washington’s Service-Learning program (Carlson Center) helping on our site. The Carlson Center’s service opportunities are tied to academic courses. Two of the students are from an introductory level course in the College of the Environment and four are from an English composition course that is focusing on social issues.

The service-learning students will work in our forest restoration site every week for seven weeks. Each session will last three hours.

Session 1: October 8

Our forest restoration project gives everyone who participates the opportunity to practice flexibility, especially the leaders. That was certainly true of the day the students came to our site for their first session.

In the week that led up to the first session, the weather forecast changed many times; in fact, sometimes it changed several times a day. (We can work in the rain, but we have to cancel if it is windy since many of the trees on the site are old and it is not unusual for branches to fall during wind storms. And we didn’t like the idea of the students’ first experience being in heavy rain.) Often the weather during our work parties is better than the forecast, so we hoped Mother Nature would support us in that way again.

On the day of the event, the weather changed even more often. An hour or two before the work party there was some lightning. (We wouldn’t work in lightning either.) As I was doing the final setup for the work party, the rain was pouring.

Shirley, who co-leads these sessions with me, and I had decided to hold the orientation in my house and to make it much more comprehensive than normal. When the students arrived, it was still raining, but the rain wasn’t as heavy as it had been earlier. After the orientation, Shirley and I took them on a tour of the site. By then, the rain had changed to a light shower. And, by the time we were ready to do the restoration work, the sun was shining!

We had reviewed the plan for what work we would do during the first work party numerous times over the preceding week. As we took the tour of the site, we decided the five students and two leaders would break into two teams; we would cut back the blackberry vines that were shooting into the site from the blackberry barrier that goes along the southern border, separating our site from the neighbor’s land.

Click on any of the photo galleries below to enlarge the photos.

In the two photos above, you can see some of the many piles of blackberry vines that were removed during that first session. The cuttings were carried on tarps to drying racks in other parts of the site. In the photos below, you can see what two of the border areas looked like when we finished that day

Session 2: October 15

Six students attended the second service-learning session. Antje, one of our other team leaders, also participated. We worked together near the red twig dogwood area, an area that is very near wetlands. That land is full of horsetails, a native plant that is older than the dinosaurs. It also contained invasive bindwood, blackberry and ivy vines, as well as nightshade and other weeds. We removed the invasive vines and weeds, but left the horsetails alone.

You can see before and after pictures of the area the students worked in that day below. The invasive vines are gone and the native plants are more visible.

  • Before
  • After

After a break, the students removed a big pile of dried cuttings from another area, and took them to a different part of the site where they will break down even further. We will be able to plant shrubs in the space where the large pile of debris the students moved that day once stood.

  • Before
  • After

Session 3: October 22

During this session, five students and the three leaders tackled an area that had been worked on twice during summer work parties. There was still plenty of clearing that needed to be done.

  • Before

Dried blackberry canes and branches covered the ground, as well as live ivy, blackberry vines and other invasive plants. Under the dried debris, we found layers and layers of ivy vines. They criss-crossed so much that they seemed woven. It is possible that these layers represented 50 years of ivy growth. The students carried many loads of invasive vines to drying racks that day.

  • Blackberry root ball

This is what the space looked like at the end of the session. It is another area where native trees and shrubs will be planted in November.

  • After

This group has accomplished so much during their first three service-learning sessions. I am always amazed by how much the land transforms during each work party.

Greenbelt Restoration: Mushrooms

It is my understanding that the presence of mushrooms is an indication that soil is healthy. If that is the case, and I think it is, our restoration site has VERY healthy soil. There are so many mushrooms here now, and they come in many varieties. I will take pictures of more of them, but for now I will share two photos I took several days ago.

Flower of the Day

Greenbelt Restoration Updates

Service-Learning Students

The Carlson Center at the University of Washington coordinates the University’s service- learning programs. They describe service-learning this way:

Service-learning combines service in the community with structured preparation and reflection opportunities. Service opportunities are tied to academic coursework and address concerns that are identified and articulated by the community.

 We had our first group of service-learning students during Spring Quarter 2019. This quarter, we have another group. The first time we had four students; this quarter we have six. Two of the students are taking ENVIR 100 Introduction to Environmental Studies, and four are taking ENGL 121D Composition Social Issues (Environment). These students are working with us three hours a week for seven weeks. They are interested and enthusiastic and have already made a significant contribution to the project.

Amazing Tree Growth

When we planted alder trees in November 2018, they were about four feet tall. Most of the alder trees are now around 5 ½ feet. This month we discovered that there was one alder that is 10 feet 4 inches and another that is 6 feet 5 inches. Both are near the red twig dogwood area, a moist part of the site. I think it is astounding growth for one year. How big will they be by this time next year?

  • See red flagging tape above the caption.
    This tree is 10 ft 4 in tall!
  • And this tagged tree is 6 ft 5 in.

Capstone Interns

We are in the process of picking two senior students from UW’s College of Environment to intern at our site. The Capstone’s Program is described this way:

Students majoring in Environmental Studies gain valuable professional experience and explore potential career paths through a 3-quarter Capstone Course Series which includes a quarter-long internship, study abroad experience or research with a faculty member. Students produce a written deliverable and tie this professional and hands-on component with their academic study.

The Capstone is usually centered around an internship with a community site partner. Potential Capstone sites range from local non-profits and government agencies to faculty research projects and private sector initiatives and the Capstone instructor organizes a “Meet and Greet” small career fair with site partners who have pre-selected projects for students to work on.

The interns will start their formal internship program in January 2020, but they will have the opportunity to start gathering required hours with us this quarter. They will become valuable members of our team.

Catching Up

I’ve been too busy to write on my blog even though I’ve had numerous ideas. This will be the first of my “catching up” posts!

***

My yard used to be covered with grass. I removed the grass from my front yard years ago. Over the last few years I’ve removed it from the back yard as well.

Several years ago, I noticed some white flowers emerging from the ground next to a planter box. I had no idea what it was but knew I had never planted it.

I don’t know when the flowers came up this year; I think it was during August. On September 4th they looked like this:

This time I used a plant identification app to find out what kind of flowers they were. They are called ivy-leaved cyclamen, sowbread, baby cyclamen and cyclamen hederifolium.

I continued to watch and photograph the plant. When I took a photo on October 5 there was much more foliage.

And on October 23 the foliage remained the same, but there were only a couple of flowers.

As I look at this close up now, I’m noticing the spirals. I wonder what they are. Could there be more flowers coming? It doesn’t seem likely but I will find out!

I have enjoyed watching this plant evolve as it goes through its life cycle. Since I don’t know exactly when the flowers were “born”, I will pay even more attention to it next year.

Flower of the Day