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!