Hylebos Stream Team

Near 200 Volunteers Participate in Earth Day Ivy Pull

Saturday April 24th from 9am-12, Friends of the Hylebos in cooperation with the City of Federal Way and with the help of EarthCorps attracted nearly 200 volunteers to Dash Point State Park and Dumas Bay Park to help remove English Ivy in honor of Earth Day!

Volunteers removed a staggering combined total of 43,275 square feet TOTAL at both sites in addition to saving 29 trees with the help of survival rings.

I'd like to thank  the City of Federal Way for their support, Mayor Linda Kochmar for coming out and lending a hand, EarthCorps for providing knowledgeable crews to help lead the event, Cindy Hunziker from Trader Joe's for providing water for our hard-working volunteers, Poverty Bay Coffee Company for donating pots of their delicious Hylebos Blend coffee, Bernedine Lund and Teri Lenfest for providing support at Dash Point State Park and of course, our volunteers for their enthusiasm, hard-work and conscientious decision to restore our environment. 

Below are some photos from Dumas Bay Park and Dash Point State Park. Enjoy!

Cindy in front of the Trader Joe's table with some cold water for out volunteers!

 

Mayor Linda Kochmar takes time to thank Friends of the Hylebos, EarthCorps, and volunteers for our work at Dumas Bay Park.

Casey carries a big bundle of Ivy to the tarp as Sarah looks on amazed!

 

Volunteers remove Ivy by using the "burrito roll" or "carpet roll" technique. A horizontal line is cut into a carpet of Ivy. As volunteers begin to roll the carpet back, another person with loppers can help the removal along by cutting any Ivy vines to free the roll from the soil. This makes it easy to remove contiguous areas of ivy and it's vines.

 

Taking a break...

 

Ivy free section at Dash Point State Park. Thanks volunteers!

 

After the ivy is removed from the ground, volunteers create bundles and throw them on tarps. When these tarps are full they are carried to the green dumpster using teamwork.

 

The dumpster can get pretty full with removed material. It looks like this one is well on it's way.

The bin gets fuller! The pile is nearly as tall as EarthCorps corpsmember Marcus!

All in a day's work. Thanks again to all of you who came out to volunteer and for all who helped make this year's Earth Day event a success!

Update: Event Cancellation for June 5th Event

Unfortunately the June 5th Volunteer Event at Dumas Bay Park is canceled but come out and see us July 10th from 9:30AM-2PM at Dumas Bay Park for our next habitat restoration event.

 

Volunteers Continue Ivy Removal at Dumas Bay Park

Thank you to all the folks that came out last Saturday to help pull Ivy at Dumas Bay Park! I saw some old faces as well as new faces including Todd Beamer's Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadets!

The AFJROTC brought some great energy and proved be a big help in moving those ivy piles into the green dumpster!

If you couldn't make it out last Saturday...no worries! We will be pulling English Ivy on April 24th at Dumas Bay Park, Dash Point State Park, and Poverty Bay Open Space in celebration of Earth Day. For more information and to RSVP please contact me at lili@hylebos.org

Sean loves pulling ivy and volunteering his time help his good friend Lili!

T.E.A.M= Together Everyone Accomplishes More.

 

Thanks for all your help!

Starbucks and Federal Way Youth Ecology Group Rock Ivy Like a Hurricane.

My love for bad/amazing 80's rock music seems to be seeping into all aspects of my life....hence this entry's title. But seriously, who doesn't love The Scorpions?

At any rate I had the pleasure of working with the Starbucks's Project Management group on Friday followed by a Saturday afternoon with Federal Way's Youth Ecology group.

I had fun getting muddy with both groups. The gorgeous weather streak continues for the volunteer events although it may be coming to a brief end from what it looks like outside today.

Check out photos from both events below...

Our next event will be April 10th at Dumas Bay Park from 9:30-2:00. Contact me at lili@hylebos.org for more information!

STARBUCKS

The lovely ladies in the photo above helped pull out that wet muddy roll of ivy from the creek bank pictured below!

 

Daisy forces Andrew to pull ivy at stick point!

 

Thanks for coming out Project Managers! Molly and I enjoyed your company restoring Dumas Bay Park!

(Molly is the 4 legged volunteer in the front row!)

FEDERAL WAY YOUTH ECOLOGY GROUP

Federal Way's Korean community is quite active in serving their community. This past Saturday members of the Youth Ecology group came out to help restore Dumas Bay Park. A neat thing about this group is that families volunteer their time together to serve the community.

Ivy has been known to climb up humans.

Thanks to Federal Way Youth Ecology group for all your help!

Another Sunny Day at Dumas Bay!

We've really been lucking out with the weather lately! The sun was out, birds were chirping and spirits were high! I'd like to thank everyone that came out last Saturday to help pull ivy. We are really making some progress out there! Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who've come out to help. We've already cleared over 2 acres of forest from English Ivy! Sometimes it may seem like the task at hand is too big to handle but with a positive attitude and helping hands, even the impossible seems possible. Keep up the great work everybody! I look forward to seeing everyone Saturday April 10th at Dumas Bay Park for our next event. 

Shirley and Walt helped me brush up on my trivia knowledge while removing Ivy! Check out the bundle Shirley is making. After pulling Ivy, wrap the vine around itself and bundle it up! This makes for easy clean-up  and makes it harder for the ivy to re-root itself.

 

This was Lorena's first time pulling Ivy. This picture was taken at the very end of the day...she still has a smile on her face after a day's worth of hard work!

 

Sarah came out with a few of her friends from Advancing Leadership Youth. ALY is a group of high school students who are learning skills to become successful leaders in their community! ALY as a group volunteered with the Friends a couple weeks back. It was nice to see some of them back again to help us restore the environment!

Thanks again to everyone that came out! Come out on April 10th or for our Earth Day event on April 24th!

Disney's Give a Day Get a Day Program Generates Helpful Volunteers

Disney has been promoting their Give a Day Get a Day campaign since January as a way to promote service work. In exchange for volunteering a day of service work, Disney is rewarding volunteers with free entry for a day to one of their amusement parks.

Friends of the Hylebos amongst many other organizations offers opportunities for those interested in participating in this program.

Everyone that has come to one of our events by way of the Disney program has been absolutely wonderful and so very helpful. This past weekend's event was primarily made up of Give a Day Get a Day participants save some hard working students from Highline Community College and veteran volunteers.

The program provides a great way for parents to teach their children about the importance of service work and working outside doing restoration with the Friends provides an avenue for familes to discuss the importance of restoration, conservation, and the environment. Working outside, getting muddy and learning about nature are all fun things and our young volunteers this past weekend got a chance to discover this for themselves.

Thank you to everyone that came out last weekend!I had a great time!

Check out some pictures from the event:

Making Ivy bundles:

The Class sister team up to pull Ivy and carry bundles

Highline Community College students rage against the Ivy

 

A young environmentalist at work

 

The kids get to meet a salamander!

 

Advancing Leadership Youth Advances Efforts at Dumas Bay Park

A big thank you to Advancing Leadership Youth for coming out to Dumas Bay Park and pulling Ivy! This past Saturday we worked on the ivy climbing up the hillside at the left of the trail near the trail head.

Despite the overcast weather and drizzle we still managed to get some work done and have fun!

The Battle Against Ivy Continues

This past Saturday (2/20/10) held a day of sunshine and hard work for our volunteers. Already the volunteers have put a huge dent in the ivy at Dumas Bay Park, making vast improvements in the forests' health. Hopefully the weather holds out for our following events! If you happen to have Saturday March 20th open from 9:30-2:00, come on down to Dumas Bay Park to help our efforts in removing English Ivy!

Rachel and Tom haul a tarp full of ivy to the green dumpster.

Joe after hauling a tarp of ivy up to the green dumpster!

Joe's speedy recovery.

Lookin' for more English Ivy to attack...

Thanks to everyone that came out on Saturday! Everyone did a wonderful job and it was a pleasure to spend a sunny afternoon pulling ivy with all of you!!

Green River Community College Classes Apply Their Knowledge at Dumas Bay Park

Saturday Feb. 6th, Jill Thomas' Environmental Science and Northwest Ecology class came to put their studies to use by helping the Friends pull English Ivy at Dumas Bay Park.

Over 50 students came to lend a helping hand and by the end of the day they filled a 20 cubic yard green dumpster with the removed material!

The weather turned out to be wonderful working weather with clear and sunny skies! Thanks again to Jill and her classes for all their help. Check out the pictures below to see how the day went!

 

 

Pulling Ivy at Dumas Bay

This past Saturday we kicked off the year with our first volunteer event of the year! Luckily the rain held out as we enjoyed a nice brisk day pulling ivy. The turnout was small but the effort was BIG! Come join us for our next volunteer event on February 20 at Dumas Bay.

Elaine and a fist full of ivy!

Lucia lets English Ivy know who is boss.

 

Our platform building crew!

Discovery of "The Master Root"

"The Master Root"  has no idea what is in store for it

 Almost got it...

Success!!

Treasures of the Bay

So this past Wednesday I went out to Dumas Bay to do a site survey. I was hoping to scout out work for EarthCorps, check out the work that the volunteers did last month as well as scope out a good starting point for our volunteer event on Saturday Jan. 16.

My visit was mostly fruitful in terms of attaining my goals. I soon realized what a great time I had chosen to go out and traipse around the park because as I walked closer to the shore, I very quickly saw that it was low tide!!

The Bay unearthed many treasures to me and I'd like to share them with you! Dumas Bay Park really is a wonderful hidden treasure of Federal Way and I encourage you all to take a walk and decide for yourselves and once you see what I am talking about, email me straight away to sign up for our next volunteer event at the park! Maybe I'm being a bit presumptuous but I think you'll agree with me on this one.

I scared a flock of seagulls feasting on this beast of a starfish.

A section of the beach was just covered in sand dollars! 

A hermit crab doing what hermit crabs do.

 

The view from the shore looking out to the Northeast.