Hylebos Stream Team

Planting Event at West Milton Nature Preserve!

First and foremost, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lili Allala and I am the new Restoration Coordinator for Friends of the Hylebos. A few quick facts about myself so you can get better acquainted:  my favorite Washington native plant is the vine maple, I love Thai food and if I could be any animal I would be a giraffe. I'm originally from Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb outside of Chicago and as much as I love Illinois, it doesn't have mountains. Or an ocean. I've been living in Seattle for the past 3 years with a short stint in Michigan and am loving the PNW. This is my second week on the job so far and I'm having a blast.  What better way to start out with the Friends of the Hylebos than a volunteer event!

Last week on Saturday Nov. 21 Hillary and I met up with EarthCorps and 93 volunteers ranging from students from Green River Community College to Wolf Cubs from Den 2 Pack 64! I would like to thank all of the volunteers for coming out Saturday to help plant over 600 plants including species such as Twinberry, Blue Elderberry and Big Leaf Maple! Luckily the rain held off and we were blessed with great planting weather all in all making the event a great success!  Thanks again to all the volunteers that came out on Saturday!  Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground for upcoming volunteer events! 

Here are a few photos from Saturday's planting event:

Stephanie giving a planting demonstration

Raquel explaining the final step to planting a native plant: Naming it!

 

I think they decided to go with Junior.

 

Our volunteers hard at work!

Ivy Removal at Dumas Bay Park

Hello readers! I would like to begin this entry with a great big thank you to all the volunteers that braved the crisp weather Saturday morning to come help and pull ivy and cut blackberry with me! The event went really well thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers and EarthCorps! 

I have to admit I was a little worried about the weather and it's effects the night before but it really turned out to be a gorgeous day and great weather for working!  With hot coffee and hot water for tea and cocoa to keep us warm from Poverty Bay Coffee Company, the volunteers worked hard to save Dumas Bay Park's forest.

The volunteers pulled a grand total of 10,785 square feet of ivy!! Thanks to our efforts 37 trees can now breathe and grow comfortably without the stress of ivy climbing on them.  Another 2,500 square feet of blackberry was cut by our volunteers as well.  Thanks again to all of you who came out on Saturday and be sure to mark your calendars for our next scheduled event at the Lower Hylebos Marsh on Dec 12 from 9:20-2:00 where we will be doing more invasive removal as well as selective alder thinning.  The alders have seeded themselves so densely that they are starting to create a monoculture shading out other native plants that live in the understory.  If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please email me at lili@hylebos.org. 

Here are a few pictures of our volunteers hard at work at Dumas Bay Park. Enjoy!

Before the volunteers got a hold of the ivy:

After a punishing was put on the ivy.  If you look closely you can see where the volunteers cut the ivy off the trees to do survival rings.

Chris and Raquel bust out a game of "Mingle Mingle" to help their group get better acquainted with each other.

 

Elaine wails on English Ivy two hands at a time!
 

Pamela cuts blackberry at the trail head.

Our youngest volunteer of the day Michelle gets a lesson on the detriments of English Ivy from her father Jeff.

 

 

To the right of Raquel you can see the tree rings that the volunteers cut in order to remove ivy from the trunk.

 

Thank you all so much for coming out!!!

Dumas Bay Volunteer Event Reminder

Hello all! 

I just wanted to post a quick reminder that our volunteer event at Dumas Bay Park is rapidly approaching!  We would love your help pulling ivy!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be nice because the view from the Bay is just beautiful!

Hope to see you out on Saturday December 5th from 9:30-2:00 out at Dumas Bay Park.  If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please feel free to email me at lili@hylebos.org and I will get back to you as promptly as I can!

Cheers and enjoy that beautiful weather out there today!!

Upcoming Volunteer Events!

Greetings from the Hylebos!  As 2009 is winding down, we at the Hylebos are working hard on scheduling the last few events of the year as we transition into 2010. 

On December 5, we will be working at Dumas Bay Park, part of a new program by the Friends to restore Federal Way’s forests to health. Be the first of many to rid the preserve of the dreaded English Ivy!  As reported in the Federal Way Mirror, we at the Friends have recently discovered that the Dumas Bay Park is covered in 50-75% ivy!  http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/fwm/news/70238907.html

Please come and help us restore this beautiful waterfront park to the healthy forest it could be! 

Our next event will be December 12 at the Lower Hylebos Marsh doing invasive plant removal and alder thinning.  After the Lower Hylebos Marsh was constructed, pre-existing alders seeded the site.  These seedlings have come in so dense that it is starting to create a monoculture thus choking out other native plants! Come on out and help is remove invasives  as well as selectively thin the overabundance of alder to give our other native plants a chance to grow and flourish! 

 Both events will begin at 9:30 and will last until 2:00pm with a break at noon for lunch.

For both of these events, we will provide tools, gloves, coffee and snacks.  Please RSVP if you will be attending.  An event confirmation outlining the day’s events and directions will be sent to you a few days prior to the event. 

 Please contact me at lili@hylebos.org if you are interested in meeting up with us or if you have any questions.

I look forward to seeing you on the Hylebos!

A few pictures of what we are up against at Dumas Bay Park:

Legendary Hylebos volunteer passes on

Longtime friend of the Hylebos and volunteer Ted Enticknap passed away August 1st.  He volunteered as a water quality monitor, friend and advocate for Hylebos conservation for many years.  He was missed when he was unable to continue volunteering with the Friends, and we will continue to remember him for his enthusiasm, dedication and sense of humor.  My thoughts go out to his family at this time.

Marlene's Market and Deli Employees Restore the Hylebos

April is Earth Month, and incredibly busy for me-it's flying by!  I meant to do this post last week.

It was a sunny early April day, the kind that gives you hope for summer, when employees from Marlene's Market and Deli came out to the Spring Valley Open Space to remove invasive blackberry.  This event was initiated by Marlene, who is a great supporter of the work we do in the Hylebos.

Early in the day, removing blackberry.

Marlene digging up blackberry roots.

Irv sustained an injury from being smacked in the face by blackberry.

The roots at the site were enormous. 

Tashi getting the stems out of the way so the roots could be removed.

The site after 14 people worked for 4.5 hours.  It was amazing.  I've actually never seen 14 people remove so much blackberry, and I've been doing this for a few years now.

Thank you to Marlene's Market and Deli.  It was a great day.

Environmental Education at Brooklake

I was recently invited to assist the Pierce County Solid Waste Environmental Educators with a field trip for the 5th grade classes they have been working with.  Last Tuesday, two 5th grade classes came out to Brooklake for their culminating field trip. 

They tested the water quality and looked at macro invertebrates under a magnifying glass, then they were delivered to me for some service learning.  Can you guess what they were working on with me?  Blackberry removal, of course.  They removed blackberry long enough that it was still fun when they were done and had to move on, and begged to stay and work more.  The day ended with a walk over to see Brooklake and Hylebos Creek.

It always makes me feel good when kids really love the work they are doing with me, and removing blackberry was cited as the favorite activity by some of the kids.

North Fork Hylebos Creek

For the past couple months, we've been planning a new project in the Hylebos.  We're calling it the Spring Valley Restoration Analysis.

The Problem:
Hylebos Creek, just south of S 359th St, is depositing unusually large amounts of sediment into the stream channel.
This photo was taken in Feb 2007.  When I started working for the Friends in 2005, the gravel bar on the left didn't exist.

This is the same location in December 2008.  The creek is now flowing through the salmonberries on the right.

I was just at this site last week, and noticed that two cedar trees that were alive a year ago, are now dead, which I believe to be because their roots are inundated with water now that the channel has changed.  This kind of instability also makes it easier for invasive plants to get established.

Here is failed structure #1.  Once upon a time, the creek flowed over the logs.  Unfortunately, whoever designed this structure, faced the V in the wrong direction.  The downstream-facing V splits the stream, and it eroded the banks.  This should have been an upstream-facing V, which would have collected any sediment on the edges, concentrated the flow in the center, and carved out a nice pool.

Our big plan for this section of Hylebos Creek is to do an assessment of the creek, so that we can more accurately know what kind of stream work it will take to fix these problems, a wetland delineation (which we will need for an Army Corps of Engineers permit), and a conceptual design.

We are also planning on doing a forest health assessment of the Spring Valley Open Space (54 acres), which will lead to a forest management plan and recommendations for future actions. 

Picket Fence Planting

Saturday, February 28th was a beautiful day in the Hylebos, and 30 volunteers, an EarthCorps crew and I met at the East Hylebos Ravine to plant the picket fences that have started to gather sediment.

The main fences we planted on were actually on a very steep slope that is eroding.  This past winter took down part of a fence, but the others have been holding on and doing their job-catching sediment before it can get to the creek. 

I took this  photo from the trail, on the other side of the creek.

View looking down toward 2 students from TJ's Save the Earth and Environment Club, doing just that.

Students from Green River Community College plant trees on the slope.

Thank you to all the everybody that helped out on Saturday.  I had a really great day, and it was because you were all so inspiring.

I also want to add a big note of appreciation to the William and Elizabeth Hyde Fund, whose generous donation made Saturday's event possible!

Groups included:  Cub Scout Tiger Den, GRCC students, and TJHS SEE club.

Green River Community College

On Feb 21st, Green River Community College's Environmental Science class came out to the Hylebos to do some invasive removal and check out some restoration sites.

We spent the morning removing blackberries from the edge of the forest.  This was a really great event because everybody seemed really interested in what they were doing.

One of the things I found really interesting with this group is that they tended to form smaller groups with very distinct working styles.

These three guys worked together to dig up the largest roots they could find.  They had a very competitive air about them, but it was more that they were in competition with the plant than with each other, and they were going to win.
                    These 3 ladies were very strategic about how they went about removing the blackberry.  They appeared be good planners, and started the day with one person in the front with the large loppers, while two of them removed roots behind her, each using a different tool.  Once there were enough canes cut, they combined their efforts to remove
 the large roots.  They were joined by this solitary worker once they all realized that their roots were interconnected.    

These 3 were very detail-oriented.  They were working in a strip that was lightly infested, and removed every little piece of blackberry they found.  This is the kind of work that is usually ignored by groups, who tend to work on the problem that is in your face, as opposed to the problem that you have to look for.
                                       
This day was the beginning of many work parties at the Spring Valley Open Space, and it was a great start.  We left the canes to compost onsite, and there was some concern among the students as to whether that is effective.  I have never had blackberry canes reroot after they have been cut, but I encourage anyone who is concerned to go back in 6 months or a year and take a look around.

Planting project in Edgewood

If anyone is itching to plant some trees on Saturday, Feb 21st, our friends at the Surprise Lake Creek Natural Area are looking for volunteers.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, bagels and cream cheese will be provided, as are tools and gloves.  Feel free to bring along your favorite shovel and gloves! You should dress appropriate to the weather in layers of synthetic or wool clothing. If you are interested, please RSVP to michaeldeckert@alumni.uwsp.edu.