Townsend's Chipmunks Take Care of Business at Connelly Creek

The Townsend’s Chipmunks showed up ready to work on a no-school Friday. Meeting at the park and ride, we assembled the group and hiked off towards our Connelly Creek service site in Happy Valley Park. We had a special service outing in store today. With no other groups scheduled it would fall on this group of Explorers to buckle down and get the job done today. Not only were they going to be the only group, but we had the pleasure of getting to work with Rae and Freya of the Bellingham Parks Department who supplied us with a variety of native species to plant, fencing and posts to put up protective barriers from deer, and a variety of unique tasks for this group to work on. After a brief opening circle to refresh everyone on eachother’s names, we walked through the service site to get our bearings then got right to work. 

Removing small cages from Red Alders to create larger fence.

Carrying posts over to planting sight to create fence perimeter

As our friends from the parks department showed up we jumped right in removing old cages to be repurposed into larger fences for new planting areas. Some of us were pulled away from the rest of the group to help pound posts into the ground laying the foundation for our fencing. Others worked diligently linking together wire fencing to go around the posts. Despite a variety of tasks, we all chipped in and eventually came together to erect three separate fenced areas for planting. Although we didn’t get around to planting everything, we made it our intention to do our best job preparing the rest of the groups for success who would be out on Saturday and Sunday. We finished our fencing and arranging the native plants in the planting areas just in time to say bye to Rae and Freya. With our outing winding down we rallied and re-focused our efforts to plant a few Spruce and Cedar trees before it was time to go. Finishing off with mulch rings around the trees we called it a day and transitioned to closing circle for the gratitude and apple slices.

Prepping the fencing for the planting areas

Getting tape and other non-compostable materials off the cardboard to be used for planting

Working together to drive in posts for the fencing

We were hoping to get in some time to play games, but unfortunately the group just couldn’t get their focus together and manage to get our tasks done in time. Despite some strong efforts by a few group members, others didn’t feel the need to bring a strong work ethic and decided it would be better to goof off and joke around with one another rather than finish up our jobs so we could play. Without enough time to play games, the mentors took some time to reflect on how our day went, what went well, and where we could have brought a stronger effort. A few of us also needed to revisit how to take the initiative on conflict resolution and follow a few basic steps of using our words instead of our bodies to ask others to stop. Additionally we reviewed how we have the power to remove ourselves from a situation, how we can prevent escalating a situation, and if all else fails then we can find an adult to help. This only came up a few times on our outing, but it is important for these boys to learn how to resolve menial conflicts amongst themselves instead of always requiring an adult to intervene. Explorers Club is a perfect opportunity to practice these skills while adults are present to step in if needed, however, the mentors today tried their best to guide Explorers to resolve these little disputes amongst themselves to prepare them for a future where an adult isn’t always there to help. 

Moving fencing into place around planting areas

Cutting open more fencing for back planting area

Planting Spruce and Cedar trees

Overall this outing was a big success. We got three planting areas completely fenced off for planting of native species later that weekend. We were able to practice basic conflict resolution amongst ourselves, and we even got some trees planted and mulched before our outing was over. The Townsend’s Chipmunks set the Saturday and Sunday groups up to succeed and have a strong finish to our last weekend of service outings at our Connelly Creek Service Site. The most important thing that happened, however, was that we took a step forward as a group developing our resiliency around interpersonal conflict, and practiced working through peaceful conflict resolution. The restoration work will get done in time, but it is never too early to continually build and develop individual, as well as group, character and socioemotional resiliency. 

Make sure to check out the rest of our photos from this outing here!