HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

West Hylebos is a Cool Place Today

I just got back from the park a little while ago. I was there to talk to Brian Grove and Gene Autzinger from Highline Community College for an article about Friends of the Hylebos and me (due to my alumni status). The park is lush, green and a lot cooler than everywhere else in the watershed right now. (it's also a lot cooler than my car, as I drove to Tukwila and back earlier in the day).

We were visited by a brief appearance by a Douglas Squirrel who popped up on the boardwalk near us and then disappeared into the brush.

I had lunch with Steve DuBiel, Executive Director of Earthcorps, a great organization that plays a key role in the work of Hylebos conservation. They provide crews for many of our restoration projects. The crews (based on the Americorps program) don't just pull invasives and plant trees, they provide learning experiences for the young corps members who build conservation skills they take with them into the professional world. (our only Hillary Kleeb is a California Conservation Corps alumni).

Anyhow, Steve was talking about the physical labor involved in restoration and how it is a career that, while not for everyone, is a legitimate profession. He used the term "green collar jobs," as a mixture between white collar and blue collar jobs. The hands on nature of this work got me thinking of an essay I read this week in the NYT Mag titled The Case for Working With Your Hands. While most of my hands-on work involves typing on a computer, there is a lot to be said for the hands-on nature of the restoration professional who work in the field.

Many of the points Matthew Crawford makes also apply to this great work of remaking, healing the Earth. Cool stuff.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the sunshine!

Finding Joy in the Hylebos

We had a staff training workshop this morning. One of our exercises was to name the things about working for the Friends that we liked. This was just a nice reminder of some of the joys I experience daily working for the Friends and with the staff, board and all of the many friends of the Hylebos.

Here's a sample of what was said:

• That we're accomplishing something meaningful

• Working with the people in this office

• Enjoying nature in an urban environment

• working collaboratively, both within the organization and with our partners

• The diversity of people we experience (in both personalities and background)

• We are directly involved with putting good things into the Earth

• Sense of humor

• I get to work with numbers without being an accountant (guess who that is)

• I get to talk a lot (guess who that is)

Going Green in the F-Dub

I'm catching up on blogging. The holiday makes for a short week and a frenzied pace!

Yesterday was the second meeting of the Green Ribbon Commission, a group of Federal Way-area stakeholders working to catalyze & promote sustainability in the Federal Way community. Next week, I'll participate in a panel discussion at the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce luncheon on "Going Green" for businesses.

Blogging From a Secure, Undisclosed Location...

Hey, it's Memorial Day Weekend, I'm not working. But I just can't stop blogging (I know, I know. I'm working with a therapist on this).

I was absolutely floored when I went to Google Maps and found my neighborhood and large stretches of Federal Way available in StreetView. Nobody in our neighborhood knew about it. There was no Google press release. It just was there.

Apparently, the mysterious Google Car that photographs neighborhoods all across the  world is quite a source of mystery and interest.

...back to my vacation bunker.

Hylebos Days in the FW News

Seth Bynum did a very nice job with his front page article on the FW News about Hylebos Days. Get the hard copy, if you can (the FW library is a good place); if you can't, there's the online version.

Interesting article about tidal beavers in the Northwest.

long-time wilderness advocates Polly Dyer and Patrick Goldsworthy are launching an effort to add protection to a bit more of the North Cascades.

Science Education

I'm a huge believer in science education in the schools. Mostly, we currently use it to turn kids off of science. However, there are new approaches that use kids' natural curiosity to guide them through learning about the scientific method and its practical applications. Here's a piece about the CSI/forensics approach to science education.

You have to love a science teacher who tries to use the 70s TV show "Quincy" to interest kids.

Forensic science wasn’t always an easy sell. When Ms. Kent started the New Rochelle program, nobody knew what it was. “I went around trying to enlist students, saying, ‘Quincy,’ how many of you have ever watched ‘Quincy’?” she said, referring to the television series about a medical examiner played by Jack Klugman. Now it’s impossible to escape airwave forensics, and student interest has soared accordingly.

“I went through one week’s worth of TV listings and found 35 to 40 shows on forensic science,” Mr. Rubins said. “ ‘Law and Order,’ ‘C.S.I.,’ the reality shows — the media is insane with it.”

Also, my favorite local science & nature writer has a new book - Flotsametrics and the Floating World - out about a scientist studying the currents of the oceans and those thingies that float thereon. Get it. I'm going to. Or better yet, buy it for (for me) my birthday in June.

Saturday HyleBits

Redmond High School is a finalist for Greenest High School in America. I'm sure our local high schools could do better than those, what are they, Mustangs?

And I write at Federal Way Mirror, about last weekend's Hylebos Days and other community building activities.

Happy Friday!

It's looking like a nice weekend, weather-wise. Get out there and enjoy it. We have a volunteer project at the Spring Valley Open Space. If you don't make it out to that, be sure to enjoy the West Hylebos Wetlands!

Hylebos Days A Sunny Success

This post is kind of backwards chronologically, following yesterday's post with a report about last weekend's Hylebos Days...but it's been that kind of week: busy.

The Hylebos Days celebration was fantastic! First, we had great weather. (If you were there last year, you remember a spirited but drenched event)

Lots of people visited the park on both days, both existing supporters and new visitors.

Many families with young kids took the opportunity to explore the boardwalk, play the Hylebos scavenger hunt game, and enjoy the freedom of a sunny day in one of the region's best

places.

We had a very nice sign dedication ceremony to "unveil" and officially recognize the new interpretive signs.
Here is Federal Way City Councilwoman Jeanne Burbidge and Federal Way Mayor Jack Dovey talking before the ceremony. (BTW, all the photos on this page are from the extremely talented Seth Bynum.

Here we are with Jack Dovey making his remarks about the importance of the West Hylebos and conservation to preserving the sort of community he and I grew up in, where we only knew "open space" as the woods, and a place to explore in.

Standing with Jack is Federal Way City Councilwoman Dini Duclos, King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer, Federal Way City Councilwoman Jeanne Burbidge, and State Rep. Skip Priest. The photo on the right is Councilman von Reichbauer and Councilwoman Jeanne Burbidge listening as I say something about how I am the only person with a tie on.

Here our elected officials remove the veil on the Welcome sign.

To the right, close-up of the veil, ingeniously decorated with phrases taken right from the park's popular sign-up comment sheet.

Hillary and Colin McDonald (Restoration Logistics) talk strategy while enjoying the sunshine.

Wow. Hylebos. Beauty.

Cascade Land Conservancy Breakast This Morning

Today started bright and early with a 6:30 a.m. drive to Seattle for the CLC Conservation Awards Breakfast. Along for the ride in the HyleVan were Skip, Margery & Rus (from our board), and Brett Thomas from Mountain Construction (green buildings builder).

Our Hylebos Table was further enhanced by the presence of Mike Hrachovec and Nick Silverman from Natural Systems Design, King County Senior Ecologist Kate Akyuz (formerly Hylebos Stream Team Coordinator Katie Moller), her partner in skullduggery Herrera Inc's outstanding Wetland Ecologist Darcey (Meow!) Miller,and Colin Wagoner with Ridolfi, Inc. While Hillary joined us at the table, we had run out of room and Laurie was a trooper and joined another table on the other side of the room (thanks Laurie!).

It was great fun to see everyone - these are people I enjoy working with and also folks who make Hylebos Conservation happen.

The reason I drive up to Seattle at 6:30 in the morning each year to eat runny scrambled eggs and fingerling potatoes is becauase I believe deeply in the work that CLC is doing. I see CLC as a regional example of the type of conservation work that the Friends pursues. In fact, I've ripped more than a few conservation tools from the CLC toolbox.

Make no mistakes, they're a good group to support. Like the Friends, you know that donations to the CLC means land preserved. Forever.

CLC President Gene Duvernoy will be our Ruby Dance 2009 keynote speaker, by the way. Our event theme this year is sustaining urban forest health. Look for Save The Date postcards soon.