Townsend's Chipmunks and Jumping Mice Serve the Land

This weekend concluded our month long stretch of service outings at Connelly Creek. Throughout this time  we have had all fifteen groups (169 Explorers!) come out and give back to the land in a meaningful way. For this final weekend of work our main tool provider and partner in the project, the Bellingham Parks Department, came out to join us. Ray Edwards from the parks department has helped us immensely throughout the course of this project; from providing tools and starts to detailed guidance and instructions on how best to target our efforts. For this outing the Townsend's Chipmunks worked closely with Ray to learn how to use some new tools and techniques for planting species.

In our opening meeting the parks department had the Townsend's Chipmunks do something that was almost unheard of in Explorers Club, they were asked to take a test. The boys hardly flinched and quickly completed a short questionnaire on different species around our area and what it means to participate in Service Work. Leaving Paper and Pencils behind We gathered around Ray as she instructed us on our tasks for the day. That day we had Several different species to plant including; Ninebark, Red Osier dogwood, and sitka spruce. The Townsend’s Chipmunks did an excellent job giving Ray their attention and really engaging with the information.

At This time the Jumping Mice showed up and we all began the work of preparing the ground for planting. We dug blackbeary roots, racked up blackbeary trimmings, and packed it all out in trash cans. While most of us focused our work on the blackberry removal some of the boys worked on putting up a circular wire fence that would protect our new starts from the grazing deer that frequent Connelly Creek.  All the boys worked really hard during this time and we accomplished a lot. After about an hour we were ready to plant. 

Everyone Grabbed the starts and we began digging holes for each start. It was hard work but also very gratifying to see what had been a patch of blackberries turn into the beginnings of a native habitat. It didn’t take too long to plant all the species and get a solid 6” of mulch spread around everything. Standing back we all admired our work.

Throughout the whole outing I was continually impressed by the boys ability to work together as a group and communicate with one another even while doing physically demanding work. It was a really good opportunity for many of the boys to become good leaders amongst their peers and really support one another in their efforts. 

With our time running out we decided to focus the last part of our outing on spreading more mulch throughout the site to leave it in a good place for the next days group. As the Townsend’s Chipmunks Peeled off for their closing circle the Jumping Mice worked to tidy up any loose ends and organize the tools.

Explorers thank you for all of your hard work this weekend. It truly makes a big difference. Parents be sure to walk through this site with your Explorer so they can show you what they have been working on. It is truly amazing what the combined efforts of all these boys can do. We also have more photos from the outing in the Jumping Mice photo gallery and the Townsend’s Chipmunks photo gallery.