Salamander Efts at Connelly Creek: Serving the land and mentoring younger boys

Spitting rain threatened to make our day wet and challenging. Fortunately the smiles that the Salamander Efts brought with them warded away the clouds and the sun came out! The day took a U-turn when Matt showed up to fill in for Greg, who had to take his truck to rescue Steve and the service tools. No wonder it’s hard to remember all of the mentors’ names; we are always interchanging with one another :)

The Connelly Creek site in Happy Valley Park is part of a partnership with theCity of Bellingham Parks and Rec Department. We’d like to thank Rae and Ellen for their hard work guiding us and providing us with mulch, plants, and debris removal. Another important partner is the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) who provides us with many tools and guidance as well. Thanks Phoebe for helping to coordinate our project days. It’s nice to have a community of groups and people who support our commitment to serving the land!

Explorers learned the tasks for the day: trim reed cannarygrass, dig blackberry roots, and lop away blackberry stems... AND lead by example for the Branch Hoppers who would arrive an hour later.

We decided that the best way to start the mentoring example would be to stalk and sneak up on the younger Explorers! Efts hunkered down while the Branch Hoppers got settled into place. Dave lured them past our hiding spots and we stayed as camouflaged as possible. In the end, very few of us were detected… well done Salamander Efts! You learned from older mentors too; remember how the Firestalkers snuck up on you at our first outing last fall at Fairhaven Park? Who knew that mentoring could come in the form of fun!

Younger and older Explorers introduced themselves to one another and then we were all introduced to healthy habitat on the other side of the park. With that example, we realized that we had our work cut out for us. Explorers, do you remember the name of at least two plants we saw in the healthy habitat? How about the “blue” tree?

We ate lunch while mentors demonstrated how NOT to use tools. It’s a good thing they were joking otherwise they might be a few fingers and teeth short. Then we reviewed how to safely use the tools and we got to work.

These pictures and the photo gallery will tell the rest of this story but the best thing to do would be to revisit the area with your Explorer so he can guide you along the work that he did. The sooner you get out there, the more prominent the changes will be when you return next time. With 10 groups visiting this season, we could make quite an impact.

Highlights include: Removing more car parts, digging up huge blackberry “heart” roots, freeing a tree completely of the blackberry that had overtaken it, learning the names and building mentoring relationships with member of the Branch Hoppers.

Thanks for your great work, Salamander Efts!!! You set a strong precedence for other groups who will be serving this season. Parents, thank you for supporting these Explorers and for giving them the chance to serve the land with us.

Next outing will be the last one of the season… May 17th. We’ll meet you at Clayton Beach parking area for a long overdue exploration! Let’s make it an effort to play Spider’s Web, OK?