Gray Wolf Pups and Sculpins Restore Salmon Habitat at Connelly Creek

The Gray Wolf Pups met the Sculpins for a service outing at Connelly Creek. We were blessed with glorious sunny and warm weather on this last day in April. After gathering at the park and ride, we made the five minute walk down to our service site in Happy Valley Park.

Enjoying sunshine at our service site

By the time we got there, lots of work had already been done at the site. So far this spring, other groups were able to finally rid most of the stream bank of blackberries. Also, there has been lots of walking down of the reed canary grass and mulching on top. Today, we would further these efforts by doing additional blackberry removal, reed canary grass flattening and mulching as well.

Leave with full buckets...

...come back and fill them up again

Historically, salmon have used this creek to spawn in. The salmon have stopped using Connelly Creek because the quality of the stream has been severely degraded due to human development. By doing restoration around the creek (in the riparian zone) we can help make sure that this stream is once again clean, cold and clear so that salmon can utilize it as a spawning ground.

The stream is looking healthier already!

Today we knocked down reed canary grass, covered it with mulch and dug up plenty of blackberries. Covering grass with mulch may not seem like something that would help salmon spawn in a creek, but it does! By covering up this grass, we are disallowing it to grow to heights that would shade out the native trees that we have planted at our site. Once our trees get tall enough, they will do the shading out of the reed canary grass and we won't have to mulch anymore! The blackberries will also shade out our native tree and shrub species that we have planted so it is important that we remove them as well.

Attacking blackberries

In BEC, when we are out exploring, we attempt to Leave No Trace. However, we know that this is impossible. During the course of our explorations, despite our best efforts, we will snap an Oregon grape plant or cause erosion on a hillside as we scamper up it. In an attempt to seek balance in our give and take relationship with nature, we come to Connelly Creek to do habitat restoration. This work benefits all of the plants and animals that live near or in the stream (including salmon!), as well as all of the people that live nearby.

A mountain ash enjoys the freedom of no longer being choked by blackberries

The youngest explorers out today were the Sculpins. This season their earth skill focus is the Art of Harvest. At the end of the day, one of the mentors connected harvest to the service that we are doing at Connelly Creek. In protecting and rehabilitating salmon habitat, he told us, we are ensuring that there will be salmon for people to harvest in the future. It was a good reminder that, due to the sheer number of us and our impact, we as humans are responsible for taking care of the only earth that we have. If we don't, who will?

To see the rest of the pictures from our day, click here.

The Red Tailed Eyas and Black Tailed Deer join the GEC Dragonflies and Salish Seals

Today two BEC groups met two GEC groups at our Connelly Creek Service site for a day of mulching, digging, and cribbing! Of course, there was lots of laughing and story sharing as well. Doing manual labor occupies your hands and in a way seems to free up your mind leading to interesting and inspiring conversations between explores and mentors. The mentors are consistently impressed with how much your children think about and consider sustainability, which is a difficult topic to understand because it is where science meets policy.

Lots of mulching happened today

We were excited to build on the momentum that four groups made yesterday at our service site. They were able to put down lots of mulch and even begin the installation of cribbing on the stream bank.

Girls installing some cribbing

Today we continued the effort of removing the last few patches of blackberries and their roots. It was fun to see who could dig up the biggest blackberry root, and some of the boys dug up possibly the largest root in Connelly Creek Service Site history. Unfortunately, the picture of the root was lost but it was a cylinder about two feel long with a diameter of about six inches.

We added an additional four or five feet of cleared stream bank on the downstream side of our site. Once we had all of those blackberry roots removed, we installed cribbing to make sure the bank wouldn't erode into the stream and mulched over the whole area.

After installing our cribbing, we mulched all the way up the the edge of the creek.

Almost every service outing includes moving a whole pile of mulch. Today, we followed suit and utilized most of that mulch down on the stream bank where we installed cribbing. One of the girls groups stayed at the site late enough into the day to get to see Bellingham Parks deliver a new pile of mulch for the groups who would be doing service the next day.

A couple of explorers strike a balance of work and play

The truck drops off more mulch!

With so many hands today (four groups total!) we were able to make lots of progress at the site.  To see the rest of the pictures from our outing, click here!

GEC (Fiddleheads and Spotted Owls and BEC (Townsend Chipmunks, Pacific Chorus Frogs) Team Up at Connelly Creek

Lots of explorers today!

Today the Townsend Chipmunks and Pacific Chorus frogs met two Girls Explorers Club groups, the Fiddleheads and Spotted Owls, at our BEC service site at Connelly Creek in Happy Valley Park. This was an afternoon outing after a half day of school for most of us. We showed up with lots of energy that would be put to good use moving mulch and digging up blackberries! We even got a chance to use some of our Art of Carving skills to help install some cribbing down at the creek bank.

Checking out some cribbing

After three and a half years of service outings at Connelly Creek, our site is really starting to come together. We have eliminated the loins share of the blackberries and put down many yards of mulch in an attempt to choke out the invasive reed canary grass. Some of our native plants are in their second year of life and it is encouraging to see the fresh buds and leaves growing from their young branches. This season, most of our focus is on finishing up the removal of the last blackberries and continuing to mulch over reed canary grass.

Getting those blackberry roots out!

We have also been keeping a close eye on our native plants that we have planted in our cages (to protect them from deer and rabbits). With careful weeding in these, we continue to provide these plants their best shot at growing tall and helping to reestablish a patch of native forest along the bank of the stream.

One of our native plant cages. Installed by Explorers a couple of seasons ago.

A new task for us this season is installing cribbing on the creek bank. We have finally removed the last blackberries from the bank of the stream. This also means that these stream banks are mostly bare with few roots to hold them in place. In order to prevent erosion, we set up cribbing to hold the bank in place in the absence of plant roots. Eventually, our trees will be established enough to hold the bank up on their own, but until then we will use cribbing to our advantage!

Installing some cribbing

In addition to all of this work, the two boys groups and two girls groups moved a whole truck load of mulch! This is important as we try to get a jump on the rapid spring growth of reed canary grass.

Moving that mulch

At closing circle, as always, we had an opportunity to share what we were grateful for during our practice of our Attitude of Gratitude. The mentors were pleased and excited to hear a few boys express specific gratitude for getting to work with the girls groups. In the end, with four groups doing service, we got lots done today and provided a good foundation of work for the rest of the groups to build on during their service outings this season.

To see the rest of the photos from our day, click here.

Alevin, Barred Owls and Roosevelt Elk Calves Kick Off Spring Service

This invasive reed canary grass would be mulched by the end of today

The Alevin, Barred Owls, and Roosevelt Elk Calves met at our Connelly Creek Service Site for the first service outing of the spring 2017 season. As Explorers, we utilize, learn from, play in, and rely on the greater Whatcom County ecosystem for growth, fun, and health. We appreciate this opportunity to give back to the environment from which we receive so much. Service outings also give older groups a chance to help mentor younger groups. We would see today, however, that these roles were reversed!

On the hunt for the biggest blackberry root

After taking a look around our site, we formed a clear idea of what kind of tasks we would be doing today. Reed Canary grass (in keeping with its 'invasive' designation) will continue to sprout vigorously until the trees that we have planted are big enough to completely shade out the understory of our service site. Until then, we will continue to walk the grass down and mulch right on top of it. Many of us helped move mulch today.

Finishing off the mulch pile

While lots of work certainly got done today, some of us individually were challenged with staying motivated and on task. For some reason, these individuals tended to be boys from older groups. The mentors were not the only ones who noticed this; boys from both older and younger groups addressed this in their respective groups' closing circles. The older boys did some reflection and admitted that they were less on task than they could have been and appreciated the younger boys work ethic and resolve. The younger boys remarked at their closing circle that they felt that even though they were the younger group, they still had an opportunity to lead by example and remind the older boys what perseverance and focus look like.

In addition to spreading mulch, we continued to clear blackberries and dig up their huge roots. We were especially excited today because, after 3 and ½ years of service at this site, we finally beat the blackberries all the way back to the stream bank! Today we worked on clearing the last blackberries from the bank in preparation for some cribbing and mulching by other groups this spring. Cribbing is a way of reinforcing the stream bank so that until larger trees and native shrubs are established, the bank of the creek will not erode and fall into the stream.

Getting work done on the stream bank

By days end, we had successfully removed lots of blackberry roots from the stream bank and spread a whole pile of mulch over lots of reed canary grass near the back of our service site. Certainly good work that will be built upon by the rest of the BEC groups this season on their service outings!

To see the rest of the photos from the day, click here!