Branch Hoppers and Kingfishers Engage in Spring Service at the Connelly Creek Nature Area

The Branch Hoppers arrived at the Connelly Creek Service site drop-off location excited to engage with the project they had been pouring effort into semi-annually for four years. Circling up, the mentors informed the group that we would be headed to a new service location just north of the previous site, but still along Connelly Creek. The boys were a bit shocked that we were moving sites and still felt that we had much more service to do at the previous one. The mentors explained that the parks felt that we had vastly improved the site and wanted to focus our efforts elsewhere. The good news was that we would be headed back to our original site periodically each season with a few Explorers groups to maintain the progress that we had made.

A little disappointed, but excited to see the new site, the Branch Hoppers asked if we had any other groups joining us in service. They were pleased to find that the Kingfishers, who were in their first year of Explorers Club, would be arriving a half hour after them. The mentors took an opportunity to frame our day based around our three group commitments: encourage the heart, don’t waste anyone’s time, and be here now. The mentor’s aim was to empower the Branch Hoppers to treat each other with respect and care through their commitments and for the group to model a strong example for the Kingfishers.

Walking over to the new site the mentors provided some background information. At the previous days service a woman named Wendy Scherrer walked by and shared the story of our Connelly Creek site. Sixty years ago the land along Connelly Creek was cleared by Joe’s Garden for farmland, but proved to have a low yield. In 1986 the teachers and students of the Bellingham Cooperative School along with parents and community volunteers, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement, and the City of Bellingham came together to establish a 24-acre wildlife enhancement effort along Connelly Creek. How wonderful to think that slightly north from our original service site a 32-year long restoration effort, led by children, was taking place simultaneously.

As a mentoring community we are thankful to have Wendy Scherrer in our community and as the saying goes ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Wendy has poured her time and effort connecting students in Whatcom and Skagit County to the natural world helping to: develop the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) and worked as its Executive Director, co-founded the Environmental Education Association of Washington, the North Cascades Institute’s school field-based environmental education and teacher training programs (including Mountain School), and curriculum guides for fourth through eighth grades including Celebrating Wildflowers, Teaching for Wilderness, and Sharing the Skagit.

Arriving at the service site the Branch Hoppers unloaded the tools and got to work digging Himalayan Blackberry roots. It wasn’t too long before the Kingfishers arrived with a few EMAs from the Red-Tailed Eyas group and after a tool safety demonstration the groups joined forces to extract the Blackberry roots growing in the native plantings. Working side-by-side the Branch Hoppers connected with the younger Explorers.

As we worked the sun broke through the clouds and we peeled off our rain gear and basked in the warmth of the day. I’m not sure if it was a spring rain followed by some sunshine or if it was the fact that we were unearthing many worms, but nevertheless the Red-Breasted Robin calls rang out through the forest. Stopping for lunch we leisurely ate and our conversations wandered. Fueled up we finished out our day by moving an extensive pile of mulch with buckets. Little by little we made mulch rings around the native plants and in the words of the Explorers we were careful to make “doughnut shapes around them, not onion rings”.

Waving goodbye to the Kingfishers the Branch Hoppers commented on their ability as Second and Third Graders to focus and make a solid effort with hard work. Circling up for our closing meeting we circled back to our group commitments. Self-assessing the Branch Hoppers reflected that they had done a great job encouraging the heart while working with the Kingfishers and each other as well as in their time management. The mentors offered a little feedback that some behaviors that might be appropriate for their group might not be well suited for a younger Explorers group, e.g. a harmless gestures meant as a joke, a conversation about video games, or something that they were processing within the inner-dynamics of their school. The elders need to be occasionally reminded that the younger kids are literal and lack the discernment and filter tools that they themselves are developing.

The mentors then told a story of a gentleman who was the Park Steward of the Connelly Creek Nature Area and how sadly over the course of the last few years had suffered multiple strokes and was no longer able to carry on his duties in the same capacity as before. Each time he walked past the Explorers working at the site he would stop and admire their progress and effort. He commented a few times that the Explorers work fills him with hope and joy. Our work carries on a legacy of stewardship and is the definition of what it means to be a community.

Sharing their gratitude the Branch Hoppers were thankful for all our community members who are positively impacted by our service work and to feel ownership in it, for the opportunity to work with younger Explorers, and for the sunshine and their friendship.

For more pictures from our service outing please visit the Branch Hoppers & Kingfishers’ photo album from the day. Thanks!

Gray Wolves, Black-Tailed Deer, Pacific Chorus Frogs and Barnacles; Connelly Creek nature area service; 3/24/18

At its core, Explorers Club (EC) is about connection and our recent service work (Saturday, 3/24) exemplified this like few other outings. Let’s take a look at all that went on through the lens of our EC mottos.

As you may know, Explorers have been restoring habitat in Happy Valley Park for several years. Now, the good folks at Bellingham Parks have determined that we’ve brought that site to the point where it can hold its own for a while. Time to Widen the Circle by following Connelly Creek across Donovan Ave to begin work on the Connelly Creek nature area originally designed by high school students several decades ago. The trail through this area is a popular walking, jogging, dog walking spot. As we worked, several people called out to thank the Explorers for their service. How sweet to connect with community members in this way and to see today’s kids carrying on the work begun by today’s adults when they were young, all under the aegis of the joint effort of Bellingham Parks, the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) and, of course, Wild Whatcom. A web of connection across communities, across generations, between EC groups. 

The work feels familiar — uprooting Himalayan Blackberry, planting native trees and shrubs, spreading bark over invasive Reed Canarygrass. At Wild Whatcom, we believe that exposing Explorers to their natural environment through exploration and service builds a connection to the land that supports an ethic of protection as expressed in the motto, “Connect and Protect”. 

"If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it."-David Sobel 

Doing this work persistently over several years conveys a sense of the deep, abiding need and nature of the effort. 

“Many Hands Make Light Work” is an old axiom we co-opted and, for our service outings, super charged by age-stacking the bodies attached to those hands. Four groups arrived, in age order — 12-13 year olds, then 10-11 year olds, 9-10 year olds and, you guessed it, 8-9 year olds. We encourage the older Explorers to coach their younger brethren, providing leadership experience, role modeling, caring and a different kind of fun and engagement. And, for good measure, the youngest group is our gender inclusive cohort, adding that dimension to the experience. Oh, and we got loads of work accomplished!

"If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything." – Alan Watts

The mud notwithstanding (or thanks to), we enjoyed several hours of besting blackberry bushes and giving back to the community. For information on your Explorer's next outing:

Barnacles, check here,

Pacific Chorus Frogs, here,

Black-Tailed Deer, here, and

Gray Wolves here.

Everyone! photos!