The beginning of the Boys Explorers Club’s fourth year of
service at the Connelly Creek Restoration Site marks an exciting new change in
the way we approach service programmatically. With some careful scheduling from
the EC Coordinators the Explorers will now have the opportunity to serve at
both the BEC’s Connelly Creek site and the GEC’s Woodstock Farm site throughout
their 2017-18 EC year. This intentional blending of the BEC and GEC through
gender inclusive service outings aims to bring about more culture sharing between
programs and relationship building between our participants.
Our first week of service at Connelly Creek brought eight
BEC groups and two GEC groups to the site and affirmed for our mentors that
this change will be a meaningful one. We have planted the seed and can’t wait
to see what grows from it!
Service is a wonderful time to talk with the Explorers about
our layers of connection and why we serve. In our closing meetings of each
service outing we ask the Explorers whom they are serving when they engage in
this work. Here is a list of what the Explorers said in response to this
question this weekend:
The community at large for making the park a
wonderful place to be and creating
clean water for all, the salmon and the rest of the animal community that travel through the site, the trees and
plants through diversity and balance
of invasive vs. natives, the dirt and bugs that live in the soil we mulch, and ourselves through exercise, togetherness,
and the great feelings that comes from
giving to others when our cup overflows.
Service is also a time for our Explorers to engage in tiered-mentoring.
Our elder groups are often paired with younger ones, which creates an
opportunity for the elders to model work ethic, safe tool usage, and engage
with youth that they often do not interact with in a leadership role. These mentoring
opportunities allow the elders to pass along EC culture and share the exciting
skills and outings that they have been on and that younger participants will
get to do if they stick with the program. Many elder Explorers have reflected
that these opportunities remind them of where they began and how far they have
come.
We would like to thank
Bellingham Parks and Rec and the
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association for
their partnership and for providing EC with the tools, guidance, and support
necessary to do this restoration work. Mentors are carful each outing to remind
our Explorers that the tools we work with on service projects are borrowed on
the contingency that we use them with integrity. It’s also a great time to
remind the Explorers that we represent our organization when we work and our
actions reflect on it as a whole, which has lead to some powerful discussions
regarding the concepts of social capital and intentional community building.
Kicking off our first weekend of service at Connelly Creek
our goals were: to orient the GEC to site and the work that had been accomplished
over the last three and a half years, revisit and share our culture of tool
usage and safety, stomp down the Reed-Canary Grass in our restoration area and
then mulch over the top, continue to dig up the Himalayan Blackberry roots near
the back of the site and around the perimeter, and weed and mulch the cages
where we had planted natives species the year previous which had become overgrown
with a noxious weed called Morning Glory.
The Explorers put in a huge effort this weekend and should
be proud of their work and collaboration. You will find a short recap from each
group’s day below with links to photos of their work at the bottom of each
section. Enjoy!
Friday, October 20th
- Townsend’s Chipmunks, Moon Snails, and the Pacific Chorus Frogs:
The Townsend’s Chipmunks (5th-6th
Grade) arrived at the drop off location to find the Moon Snails (3rd
Grade) also being dropped off. With a look of confusion on both the groups’
faces the mentors gathered them all up and the Explorers introduced themselves
by playing a silly game called All My
Friends.
After the groups made the walk over to the site and unloaded
the tools we circled up for an opening meeting. This was the perfect
opportunity for TC to model leadership by explaining to the MS how to use the
tools safely and sharing the history of their experience serving at the site.
Once the group was oriented they gloved up and got to work on the cage in the
middle of the site.
Carefully they worked together to unwind the Morning Glory
covering the Red Osier Dogwood, Ninebark, and Red Alders that had been planted
in years previous. Their work required a carful eye and persistence, and the
Explorers did a great job of modeling our motto
slow is fast and fast is slow. One major opportunity in the
Explorers’ work at Connelly Creek is that their tasks are not always straightforward
and require critical thought. The TC commented on how they had previously cleared
the same area they were working on of blackberry and that had given the Morning
Glory the opportunity to spread. As they worked together they found the
specific tools that worked well for digging the Morning Glory roots and others
that helped them unravel the bound vines around the plantings.
The groups paused from their work to greet to Pacific Chorus
Frogs (4th Grade) who they had heard coming from a ways away. Given
these youngsters energy the mentors decided that it would be best if they
stomped down the Reed Canary grass and shoveled mulch over the top, but not
before going over tool safety first!
This proved to be a very useful discussion because after
putting in a solid effort moving mulch the boys began to use the sharp
Hori-Horis irresponsibly. It was an important moment to group up and talk about
staying on task, using the right tool for the job, and respecting the parks
tools.
Circling up at the end of the day the groups shared apples, words
of the day, and thanks together. Our mentors would like to commend the
Townsend’s Chipmunks for the leadership and care the showed the Moon Snails and
to all three groups for kicking off service at Connelly Creek with a solid
start!
For more pictures from the day please visit this
photo album.
Saturday October 21st
– The Banana Slugs, Gray Wolves, Black-Tailed Deer, & Sculpins
The Gray Wolves (7th Grade) and Banana Slugs (8th-9th
Grade) arrived at the drop-off location curious as to why the BEC and GEC were
at the same location. Circling up the mentors explained the a new change to
service outings and front loaded that they were some of the eldest groups in the
program and it would be important for them to engage as leaders when the
Black-tailed Deer (4th Grade) and Sculpins (3rd Grade) groups
arrived. It was their role to help the younger groups understand the plan for
the day, help them stay on task as they worked, and connect with them as
mentors.
It was fascinating watching the elder Explorers interact.
The usually outgoing Gray Wolves were a bit introverted as they learned the
names of the Banana Slugs and what school they attended. After walking over to
the site the Gray Wolves gave the Banana Slugs a tour and the mentors oriented
them to the plan for the day.
The Gray Wolves were slated to work with the Black-tailed
Deer in the back of the site digging up blackberries and spreading mulch while
the Banana Slugs would work with the Sculpins in the cages to continue where
Friday’s groups had left off digging up the Morning Glory roots.
The two groups got to work and it wasn’t long after that the
Black-Tailed Deer and Sculpins joined. These groups had also brought with them four
Explorer
Mentor Apprentice from the Red-Tailed Hawks group (7
th-8
th
Grade). We were very happy to have them along because the leadership from the
elders groups was lacking at times.
The mentors encouraged the Banana Slugs to reach out to the
Sculpins through conversation and critiquing of their work. The Sculpins were
shy around the elder girls and although they worked alongside each other most
of them were hesitant to engage. The Banana Slugs did however do a much better
job modeling safe tool usage, staying on task, and putting in effort then some
of the Gray Wolves who needed to be reminded that that the Black-Tailed Deer
were constantly watching what they did and mimicking their actions.
By the end of our day together five yards of mulch had been
spread, many Blackberries had been dug up, the Morning Glory in the middle cage
had been completely eradicated, and the Explorers were working harmoniously
side by side.
Waving goodbye to the
elder groups the younger groups finished their day in a frenzy of mulch moving
directed by a few of our EMAs. Way to go crew!
For more pictures from the day please visit the
photo album from the
day.
Sunday October 22nd
– Branch Hoppers, Storm Wolves, & Pine Martens
The Storm Wolves and Branch Hoppers arrived at the service
site impressed with the amount of work that had been done the following day. Circling
up with the two groups we went over tool safety and talked about how to best
support the younger Pine Martens who were slated to arrive in a half hour. It
was these elder groups job for the day not only to work hard and serve the site
to the best of their ability, but to also serve the younger group to the best
of their ability.
With that the elder groups got to work and the Pine Martens
joined in when they arrived. After a half hour or so the middle cage was
mulched and sealed and the group split up with most getting to work on the
blackberries in the back of the site. The rest opened up the front cage to
repair the damage the deer had done and weed out the Reed-Canary Grass around
the natives plantings.
This project turned out to be a lot of fun and called for
some critical thought and problem solving as the boys tried to rewire the
broken sections of fence, drive in repurposed posts, and dig a trench to level
it out.
About halfway through our day our group had become quite
spread out over the site, allowing those who were self-motivated to connect and
engage in their own specific projects and the rest to squirrel out and
disappear into the fringes of the site. Calling the group into a big circle the
mentors explained what they had been witnessing and called for some refocusing
for a strong finish to our day.
We reminded Explorers that with seven explorations per year
and only two service outings our work at Connelly Creek was a chance to give
back to the land that we have so much impact on. With that the groups refocused
and the made a strong finish to the first weekend of service at the site.
Looking around the whole front half of the site had been
mulched with the Reed Canary Grass stomped down and covered up, our front two
cages were reinforced, weeded, and our native plantings were as best prepared
as they could be to weather the coming winter, and a considerable amount of
blackberries had been dug in the back of the site.
In our closing meeting we talked with the groups about our
motto, our cup overflows, and what
service meant personally to each of the Explorers. It was a very fruitful
conversation and helped the Explorers recognize that we were able to give
because we already had so much that filled our cups.
For more pictures from the day please visit this
photo album.
