Last weekend’s Greenbelt work party was our biggest ever. Thirty-four people participated. That included 4 GreenFriends members, 4 neighbors, 22 students from the University of Washington’s Introduction to Environmental Science class, 4 friends and a Forest Steward.
Our goal for this work party was to finish preparing the land for the 35+ trees that we are going to plant on October 22. We created a bucket brigade and then carried 10 cubic yards of wood chips from 25th Avenue S into the Greenbelt and dumped them in piles around the site,
We also removed blackberry root balls that were located close to the planting areas and placed burlap around each section where a tree will be planted.
The work party may have only lasted three hours, but as you can see from the photos above and below, we have lots of memories!
And last, but not least, thanks to my neighbor Marine who took most of these photos.
(You can enlarge any of the photos by clicking on the galleries.)
Living, Learning and Letting Go 
Thank you so much for doing this. I’m so proud of you for taking on this massive project!
It brings to mind the greenbelt at the bottom of my street where we are facing a much different kind of invasion. Though Bellevue maintains the 5 mile stretch because it is full of beautiful trails, miles and miles worth, the energy companies are about to destroy the whole thing. Oh, they say they are not. They have all kinds of rationale for clearing a massive path and cutting down thousands of old growth trees–to put in bigger power lines, the giant kind you see out in the middle of the state. They will interfere with our views, lower our property values and who knows what all will happen to our local ecology! We thought we had a coyote problem before!!!!
I can’t even think about the health effects of those power lines.
I know it’s not the same kind of battle but we could sure use a Warrior like you over here!
You can read about it here.
http://cense.org/
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It may say in the article, but are your neighbors fighting it? I know you don’t have energy for a big battle, but I know you are a warrior!
I’ve never gotten involved at that level but I sure love doing this restoration work. We are planting this weekend!
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Another great found dinosaur! That makes 3? So cool to find reminders of that child or children who once played on that land. Next you’ll be finding spears and arrowheads. Actually I wonder what *would* be found if an archeologist dug deeper.
Congratulations for recruiting UW students and neighbors.
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Yes three dinosaurs! This one is badly damaged so I probably won’t keep it but I’ve kept the other two. Sreejit wondered if the dinosaurs were his from when he was a kid. I doubt it, but it could be. I do believe they are from that era but they weren’t found behind our house. Like you, I also wonder what is below the soil that has built up in that site during the last half century or so.
The UW students have been a major blessing and the number of neighbors is growing!
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Wow, awesome!
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