On March 17, thirteen hardy volunteers gathered to spread wood chips in areas that had been planted during the February 26 work party. The wood chip mulch will hold in moisture, reduce weed growth and enrich the soil.
Two neighborhood parents brought their children for part of the event. I felt moved when I realized that this forest may become important to these children as they grow up.
Most of the group had worked on this restoration project before, but for some it was their first time on the property. There was also a nice mix of GreenFriends members, neighbors and friends.
We didn’t have enough participants to do the traditional type of bucket brigade; i.e., handing buckets from person to person down a long line of people. Instead, everyone filled buckets for a short period of time and then most volunteers began to carry them to their destination on the other end of the site. Later on, the system changed again. At that point, part of the group carried the buckets the first half of the way, and then left them for others to carry to the planting areas. Once the buckets of wood chips reached a planting area, someone poured the chips onto the burlap.
My neighbor Christine was in two of my favorite photos from this work party. I took the first one during a time when she and I were filling buckets. At one point, she climbed to the top of the eight or nine-foot pile of wood chips and filled her bucket from there!
If you look closely you may be able to see steam rising from the wood chips. It reminded me of the steam I’ve seen coming from decomposing compost piles whenever I visit the compost center at Amma’s ashram in Amritapuri, India.
Marine took the other photo when Christine was talking with one of our young visitors.
We accomplished more than I thought was possible; spreading wood chips throughout three large planting areas and several small ones. The transformation in the look of the land was remarkable.
At the beginning of February 2018, the property looked like this:
During the first three weeks in February, work party participants removed blackberry root balls and ivy from the land. On February 26, another group planted trees, shrubs and ground covers, and placed burlap and two buckets of wood chips around each plant. By the end of that work party, this is what the land looked like:
And this was the beautiful sight that greeted my eyes at the end of the March 17th work party:
We have many more wood chips to spread. It is gratifying to know that the work we are doing now will give the plants a better chance of surviving the summer, a season when rainfall may be minimal.
Last weekend, was quite a weekend. I felt like I received one gift after another. They weren’t life challenges that many of us often refer to as “another gift from the universe.” While I believe even those gifts are “for my own good” and should be respected, that phrase is often said with an eye roll and a bit of sarcasm. The gifts I’m talking about in this post are the “feel good” kind of gifts.
The weekend series started when I looked at my Green Seattle Partnership Forest Steward’s handbook and discovered that all of our plants for the season were supposed to have been planted by March 1. I thought I had until sometime in April. That wasn’t the gift I am talking about either, although I am sure glad I found out about my error when I did.
The first “feel good” gifts came when I wrote my friends Sarva and Gopika and asked if they would help me plant the remainder of the plants… and they both said yes. Sarva was able to set a time for Saturday but Gopika couldn’t come until Sunday. It was my hope that Sarva and I would finish the planting on Saturday so Gopika and I could focus on the other work that needs to be completed before our upcoming March 17 work party.
On Saturday, Sarva and I planted 40 shrubs and 6 ground covers. We also placed burlap around most of the newly planted items. By the end, we were both exhausted, but we had finished the planting!
The next day, Gopika and I finished 1) writing the name of each plant on a popsicle stick and putting in the ground near the plant, 2) making sure a blue and white checkered tape and a flower that had been blessed during a ritual had been placed on or near every plant and 3) removing the pink flags that had marked the spot where the shrub or ground cover was to be planted. (The blue and white tape means that the item was planted during the 2017-2018 planting season.)
Our next step will be to cover all of the exposed burlap with wood chip mulch on March 17.
I received the second set of gifts when I kept an appointment with my auto mechanic. He was at the front counter talking with friends when I arrived. One of the friends had an interesting item in his hand. I asked if it was for a steering wheel and he said yes. A few minutes later he gave it to me, saying he would put it on the wheel. I wasn’t sure I wanted it, but it felt right to accept it, so I did. The friends had trouble stretching it onto the wheel but they finally got it on.
I had mixed feelings about the gift. It seemed gaudy and I don’t like drawing attention to myself. And as I drove with it on the wheel, I also became concerned that it added too much width to the steering wheel to be comfortable. During the days that followed, I discovered that the cover makes it easier to spot my car from a distance and it is so nice to not have to touch a cold wheel when I get into the car during freezing temperatures. I think I will get used to this new form of comfort.
After my mechanic replaced my brake light, he surprised me by saying there would be no charge. And another auto problem I was having when I had made the appointment on Friday, resolved before I got there. From my perspective, both of those experiences were also gifts.
The third set of gifts started when my neighbor Jason notified me on Friday that a colleague of his had rescued a Douglas Fir tree from a rockery several years back; the tree was now eight-feet tall. She had asked him if he knew of a place where it could be planted. He asked if we could plant it in the Greenbelt restoration site.
We’ve planted so many trees this year that I wasn’t sure I would have a place for it. When I looked around though, I saw a spot in the middle of a grove of maple trees. Those trees are very old and we’ve been focusing on planting trees that will eventually replace them.
Jason said he would bring the tree to the site on Sunday. I considered asking another neighbor, John, to help plant it, but I didn’t do it. As I walked towards the Greenbelt to meet Jason, John walked out of his house. I asked if he would help with the planting and he said yes.
This weekend, I felt as if I had received gifts from Sarva, Gopika, Jason, Jason’s friend, John, my mechanic, the mechanics friends, as well as feel good gifts from “the universe”. My weekend had been both fulfilling and joyful.
(I’m laughing. Minutes after I finished writing this post, I received a notice that went out to the Forest Stewards saying that we can have extra plants if we want them! I’m taking that as another gift as well as an acknowledgement that it was not a problem that I didn’t have everything planted by March 1. Now I need to decide if I want to ask if more sword ferns are available. I believe we have enough of everything else for this planting season, but having more ferns might be nice.)
Monday, February 26 was an exciting day. On that day, 31 enthusiastic employees from Silver Creek Capital Management came to plant trees, shrubs and ground covers in our Greenbelt site. Our staff consisted of Nicole from Forterra, Claire a master gardener, and two Green Seattle Partnership Forest Stewards- Peter from Mt. Baker Park and me. Claire and I also belong to GreenFriends, the environmental arm of Embracing the World.
During the three-hour work party, we planted 17 trees, 75 shrubs and 77 ground covers! Every new plant is native to the Pacific Northwest. We spread two buckets of wood chip mulch around each plant to reduce weed growth and retain water. (The burlap we place on the ground after removing blackberries and ivy from the land also helps with weed reduction and water retention). At future work parties we will be covering any exposed burlap in the planting areas with wood chips.
(Click on the gallery above to enlarge the photos.)
Towards the end of the event, part of Nicole’s team cleared more land. They dug up some huge blackberry root balls.
A few days later I weighed the biggest one. It weighed almost 10 pounds!
When the work party was over, we cleaned and put away the tools and celebrated all we had done. I think everyone had enjoyed their experience.
Later, I took another look at what we had accomplished. Once again, I was awed by how much the land had been transformed by a single work party.
Douglas Fir
Oregon Grape
Red Columbine
Wild Ginger
Oregon Stonecrop
Sea Thrift
Newly planted field
Photos by Laurel Webb, Nicole Marcotte and Karuna Poole
Amma teaches us to “Be like a bird perched on a dry twig, ready to fly at a moment’s notice.” She also teaches us that “What we need will be provided” and to “Put in the effort and let go of the results.” Taking those attitudes can help us to stay in the moment which in turn can decrease the tendency to worry about the future. The Greenbelt restoration work parties we held during the last half of February provided me with many opportunities to practice each of those attitudes.
Students who take the University of Washington’s Introduction to Environmental Science course are required to do three hours of volunteer work. I had scheduled a work party for February 17 because it was the weekend before their assignment was due. That is always our biggest work party of the quarter.
I was concerned about that work party though, because the people who usually lead teams at our events were going to be at a retreat in Oregon that weekend. I decided to “think outside the box” and started inviting neighbors and people in the Amma community who weren’t going to the retreat. None of them had worked on this project before, but I knew they would do a good job. Pretty soon I had three volunteers. They all came to the site ahead of time for an orientation. We were ready!
I soon discovered more good news was in store. Someone who had planned to go to the retreat, decided not to go, and volunteered to help at the work party. She had lead teams many times so that was a real bonus. Then, the Forest Steward from Mt. Baker park wrote me and said he would help. Just before the work party, another neighbor volunteered to lead a team. I was excited. We had an abundance of staff. While all of this was coming together, 31 students registered for the work party. We were set. What a good example it had been of “What you need will be provided.”
Then “Be like a bird perched on a dry twig” took over. Days ahead of time, we heard that a big wind storm was coming on the same day as the work party. You can do forestry work in the rain, but you can’t do it in high winds; branches might break or trees might fall. On the 16th, it became obvious we couldn’t hold the work party. In fact, the Parks Department canceled work parties that day on a park by park basis. Ours was one that was canceled.
That left both me and the students in a dilemma. I needed to have the land prepared for a corporate group that was coming to plant trees, shrubs and ground covers on Monday, February 26. And the students needed their volunteer hours. I knew that most or all of the team leaders would be at work if I planned events during the week. I decided I would hold three small work parties on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and be prepared to lead them by myself.
The “Be like a bird” lesson continued as the weather forecasters talked about the possibility of breezy weather and snow. Would these work parties have to be canceled too? The first indication that what I needed would be provided was when I found out that two of the people who had been scheduled to lead teams on the 17th had the week off from work and would help with one of the work parties!
Wednesday, February 21
Wednesday arrived and all was well. In fact it was better than just “well.” A half hour before the work party began, Peter, the Forest Steward from Mt. Baker, emerged from the forest. Not only was he going to help with this work party, he was going to help with all three of them! What a surprise blessing he was. So we had two Forest Stewards and 7 students that day. We began to clear new areas of ivy and blackberries vines. We dug out some big blackberry roots!
(Click on the galleries to enlarge the photos.)
Thursday, February 22
Knowing that Peter would be helping made it possible for me to accept more students than I had originally planned. The work party grew to 23 students.
Maintaining the “Be like a bird” attitude was still important as the forecast was for snow and by Wednesday evening it was snowing, and sticking to the ground. Would I have to cancel the work party? I would decide in the morning.
Thursday’s work party had been scheduled to go from 2:30-5:30 to accommodate the students’ class schedule. The snow was very wet and was beginning to melt when I woke up that morning. Around 10 a.m. I decided to walk to the light rail and around the Greenbelt to see how much snow there was and whether we could work in it. I discovered the streets and sidewalks were clear and most of the Greenbelt was free of snow. What snow remained was melting. Even though the temperature was in the 30’s, it felt warmer than the day before because it was sunny.
My neighbor John also worked with us that day so we had three staff. We continued clearing the land that we had worked on the previous day.
After a snack break, we formed a bucket brigade and carried wood chips from the street into the site. The chips would be used as mulch during the February 26 planting work party.
While we were moving the wood chips, it started to snow lightly. When we finished, we cleaned and put away the tools and quickly headed back to our respective homes.
Friday, February 23
During the week’s third work party, we two Forest Stewards and three GreenFriends members served as staff. Twenty-one students participated. I experienced such a sense of abundance…. an abundance of staff and an abundance of students. Once again, what I had needed was provided.
About half of the students worked in the area we had been clearing during the previous work parties. We had cleared land that I hadn’t expected to clear until later this year! Peter, the Mt. Baker Forest Steward, worked with the students to create swale-like structures that will help prevent erosion. I appreciated learning new skills from him.
Another team worked in an area that has a big ivy mass. That team moved the big piles of ivy to the place on the site that has racks where ivy and blackberries can dry out rather than re-root.
A different group of students placed burlap around flags that were scattered through the site. Those flags marked the places we will be planting on the 26th.
After the break we formed another bucket brigade and finished moving the wood chips into the site.
After the remainder of the wood chips were onsite, we cleaned up and put away the tools, celebrated our accomplishments and went on our way.
What a week it had been. I was consistently challenged to stay in the moment, to let go, to trust what I need would be provided and to put in the effort and let go of the results. And I had certainly felt like a bird perched on a dry twig. We accomplished so much during these three work parties. Grace had flowed.
After every work party, I tell anyone who will listen that it was an amazing work party. And it always is. The transformation in the land that occurs during each three hour work party is mind-boggling, at least to my mind.
Four GreenFriends members, 3 neighbors and 21 students from the University of Washington’s Introduction to Environmental Science class participated in the February 3rd event. Towards the beginning, we divided into 4 teams. The GreenFriends members, who were serving as team leaders, wore orange vests so that they could be spotted easily.
Team 1
During our last work party, volunteers had focused on removing ivy from an evergreen tree and from the ground in an area on the northwest part of the site. At this work party, Team 1 continued that work, this time clearing ivy and blackberry root balls from an ever widening area. All of the debris was taken to an area we call The Rack Zone where it is put on racks that keep it from re-rooting. Having the vines and rootballs on the racks also enhances air flow and the debris will decompose faster than if it was left on the ground.
At the beginning of the work party the area looked like this:
The volunteers worked diligently and had a good time in the process. Even though I don’t have a “before” photo, know that the shed and stone wall shown in the last photo in this section was completely covered with ivy. Until recently, I didn’t even know there was a shed there.
(You can enlarge the photos in a photo gallery by clicking on any of the photos.)
At the end of the work party, the space looked like this. There is still work to do in this area but so much was accomplished during those three hours.
Team 2
The area where Team 2 worked is adjacent to Team 1’s section of the property. When English ivy grows unchecked and begins to flower, the leaves may change shape and become waxy. It may become a gigantic mass, developing thick stalks that may look more like a tree trunk than an ivy vine. One of the neighbors who has worked on this project from the beginning discovered such a mass in early January. Since then, he has been working to cut it down.
The first set of pictures below show what the area looked like at the beginning of the February 3rd work party. Notice the ivy mass in the background of the first photo. It is not nearly as big as it was originally but it is still huge. The second two photos show some of the piles we would be dealing with at this work party.
Here is a close up of different parts of that mass. It is SO dense.
The volunteers worked on the piles of debris, cutting the leaves and small branches of ivy away from the bigger branches. The leaves and small branches were moved to the rack zone to dry and the bigger branches either stayed in the area or were stacked near the rack zone.
The Rack Zone
By the end of this work party, the rack zone was almost completely full of ivy.
I wonder how long it will take for us to completely remove the mass. I suspect there will be many more work parties and many more piles before this task will be finished. But, at least, when the work party was over, the piles of debris that were there at the beginning were almost gone.
Team 3
On February 26, Silver Capital Management employees are coming to plant trees, shrubs and ground covers in this Greenbelt site. Team 3 helped prepare the ground for that planting work party.
In the days prior to the February 3rd work party, pink flags were placed around the site, marking where each plant will go. Written on each flag was the type of plant that will be planted there.
We’ve found that planting proceeds smoother and faster if the areas where things will be planted are prepared ahead of time. Prior to the work party, I made two demonstration areas so that the volunteers could see what they would be doing. In one area, I used burlap that had been placed on the ground when we first cleared the land, and in the other I used new burlap.
Team 3 cleared weeds, if there were any, from around the flags and then placed burlap bags around them, leaving a place for the people who will be planting to dig a hole. Once the planting is finished the burlap will be adjusted, if necessary, and then covered with wood chips. Both the burlap and the wood chips will decompose and enrich the soil.
This team prepared spaces for about 70 plants. In the photos below, you can see the burlap that is now scattered throughout the site.
Team 4
The fourth team cleared an area that our volunteers had not tackled before. Seattle Parks Department staff had done an initial cutting of the blackberry vines in that area in March 2017 and then cut them back again during the summer. At the February 3rd work party, the volunteers dug out blackberry root balls and removed ivy.
This is how that land looked at the beginning of the work party. (I think this would be a particularly good gallery for you to click on!)
After instruction on how to clear the land, the team “rolled up their sleeves” and went to work.
The students dug up many blackberry root balls. These are photos of the biggest one they found!
The transformation that took place was remarkable. By the end, this section was clear of invasive plants and covered by burlap bags (the bags help prevent weed growth).
While the students were working, my neighbor John started removing blackberry vines in a nearby area, one where the blackberries are even denser. A team will work in that section during our next work party.
On February 26, these newly restored areas will become home to seven Douglas Fir trees as well as a variety of shrubs and ground covers.
By 12:50 p.m., the tools we used had been cleaned and put away. We then gathered on the Hanford Stairs, which are on the north border of this site, to take a group photo and celebrate the completion of a very successful work party.
I spend a significant amount of my time each month working with a team of people to create the monthly Pacific Northwest GreenFriends online newsletter. We published our 79th issue today! What began in September 2011 as a several page Microsoft WORD document has turned into a beautiful newsletter filled with interesting articles and photos. Sometimes, I think we should call the publication a magazine rather than a newsletter.
GreenFriends is a global grassroots environmental movement which promotes environmental awareness and local participation in conservation efforts throughout the world. GreenFriends is one of the projects of Embracing the World, a not-for-profit international collective of charities founded by internationally known spiritual and humanitarian leader, Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma)
It is my experience that readers who live outside of the Pacific Northwest also find the newsletter interesting and valuable so starting with this February 2018 issue I’m going to post them on my blog.
Nature on its own is indeed beautiful and clean. The hills and rivers do not need us to clean them. In fact, it is nature’s water which cleans us; it is trees which purify air for us. Because we have littered, we have spoilt its pristine beauty.
~Amma
I once read that every piece of plastic that ever existed still exists. While that statement has been challenged (politifact.com), there is no disputing the fact that plastics decompose very slowly and some may never decompose.
We have certainly seen evidence of the long life of plastic in the GreenFriends Greenbelt Restoration Project that Seattle Satsang members are leading. The areas we are restoring have been covered by blackberry, ivy and bindweed vines for 30-60 years. With the aid of Green Seattle Partnership, the City of Seattle Parks Department, and volunteer groups such as students from the University of Washington’s Introduction to Environmental Science course, we are helping to return this stretch of Greenbelt to the beautiful forest it once was.
When the Seattle Parks Department staff initially cut down the blackberry vines for us, they discovered the foundation of a house that had burned down in the 1950’s. We found many plastic items in or near that foundation. It appears that a lot of plastic trash was also thrown into the Greenbelt by nearby residents and passersby.
My house borders this Greenbelt property. When I cleaned out my bird houses last winter, I found a sizable bird nest. I was shocked by the amount of plastic a bird had used in constructing it (Photo 1). Photo 2 shows the pile of plastic I removed when I took the nest apart.
Photo 1
Photo 2
My experience with the bird nest opened my eyes to all the plastic that was in our Greenbelt site. After than, anytime I walked through the property, I saw that the ground was littered with flecks of plastic. I worried about the toxicity of the plastic and also remembered a photo that I once had seen of the contents of the stomach of dead albatross at Midway Island. (See Photo 3.) I felt an urgency for us to remove as much plastic from the site as possible, before the birds could start using it for nesting material.
We invited Seattle Satsang’s Bala Kendra group (our spiritual community’s children’s group) to come pick up litter. Photos 4 and 5 show the litter they picked up in one hour’s time. In addition to this diverse pile of garbage, they removed many small flecks of plastic from the ground.
Photo 4
Photo 5
Much of the trash our volunteers have removed from the site during the past year has been plastic. While the items might be dirty, as you can see in Photos 6-13, many of them look basically the same as they did decades ago.
Photo 6
Photo 7
Photo 8
Photo 9
Photo 10
Photo 11
Photo 12
Photo 13
Yesterday, I picked up the remains of a pile of burlap bags that we use to cover the ground after we clear it. Under the pile I saw this:
Photo 14
I went back later and pulled out some of that trash so that I could photograph it. Photo 15 shows those items. There was rope, candy wrappers, a garden stake, line string for a trimmer/edger, a plant sign, carpet pad and assorted other kinds of plastic.
Photo 15
Today I remembered another piece of plastic I had recently seen. I went back to that place and began to pull the plastic bag out of the ground. Photo 16 and Photo 17 show what I uncovered. Often, when I pull out plastic, what emerges is even bigger than this!
Photo 16
Photo 17
I wonder if we will ever come to the end of the plastic trash on this site! Maybe not, but every piece someone removes helps reduce the negative impact that humans have had on nature in this space and gives nature a chance to restore itself to its pristine beauty.
I returned from India on the afternoon of Saturday January 13 excited to get back to my work in the Greenbelt. I had scheduled a work party for the first day that I thought I would be reasonably fit after such a long trip. That day was Sunday January 21.
Sixteen people participated in the work party: 2 GreenFriends members, 9 students from UW’s Introduction to Environmental Science course, 3 neighbors, a high school student and her mother.
The group was enthusiastic and accomplished so much. One team worked to remove ivy and blackberry rootballs from a section of the property we haven’t tackled before.
(You can enlarge the photos by clicking on the galleries.)
Another team worked in the “rack zone”. When the blackberry vines that had been growing on this property for 30-50 years were initially cut down, we discovered an old house foundation. A volunteer suggested that we use the foundation to store all of the racks that hold the blackberry rootballs, ivy and bindweed that we dig out. [Note: We put the debris on racks so it stays off the ground. That way the plants won’t re-root, and by having air flow coming up from the bottom of the rack, the debris will decompose faster. Also keeping the racks in one area, rather than scattered throughout the site, gives us more planting space.]
When the debris decomposes, it becomes new soil. Our plan is to spread the partially decomposed materials throughout the foundation and build new racks on top of them. Eventually there will be a thick layer of dirt in the foundation and we will be able plant beautiful shrubs and ground covers in it.
During this work party, we started taking the racks apart for the first time.
As each one was disassembled, a new rack was built on top of the partially decomposed debris, and then the ivy and blackberry rootballs the other team had just removed from their work area were placed on top of the new racks. It will take several work parties to redo all of the racks but we got a good start. (Click on the photos below to see the full captions.)
Rebuilt rack ready for new rootballs and ivy
Rebuilt rack that has new rootball and ivy debris on top
Rack that is ready to be rebuilt because the debris on top of it is dead
Rack zone as it looks today
My neighbor John, who has diligently worked on this project from the beginning, cleared an area of blackberry canes and rootballs.
For the last part of the work party, John and Jason worked in an area where ivy had killed two trees by wrapping itself around the tree trunks.
While they were doing that, the rest of us moved 1000 square feet of burlap bags from the street into the Greenbelt. I had no idea we would be able to move all of it in an hour, but we did!
Having the bags in the Greenbelt will give us easier access to the burlap when we are ready to spread it over newly cleared land. [Note: Spreading burlap bags over the cleared land helps prevent weed growth. Over time they will decompose and enrich the soil.]
In the past, we have dumped the burlap into mounds.
At a work party last fall, one group of students laid the burlap bags flat. Those bags were so much easier to spread than the wrinkled ones, so we decided to place all of burlap we were moving into flat piles!
Mother Nature really blessed this work party. The weather forecast app said the chance of rain at the beginning of the event was 90% and that the rain would continue throughout. The reality was that it sprinkled as I was setting up ahead of time and we had NO rain during the three hour work party. About an hour after the work party was over, it poured. Grace prevailed.
Even though I was still dealing with jet lag from my India trip, I was in bliss throughout this event. I love this work!
I give special thanks to everyone who helped by leading or being part of a team as well as to the neighbor who was willing to come early and help everyone sign in as they arrived.
Our next work party will be Saturday, February 3. If you live close enough to Seattle to participate and want to join us, you would be more than welcome! If you are interested in attending, leave a comment below.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”-William Shakespeare
Living, Learning and Letting Go 