Thanks for a Great Spring Planting Season!
By Lucy Applegate

Thanks to many great volunteers, landowners, and other project partners, we have come to the end of another successful planting season. This spring SFEG worked with Skagit Land Trust, Whatcom Land Trust, Stonebridge Senior Condo Community, and the DeVries Dairy farm to complete four great riparian restoration volunteer events. We had nearly 100 volunteers contribute almost 250 hours toward the planting of 1,781 trees shrubs, and cuttings for the benefit of our salmon.

This spring volunteers helped build a shade structure at our native plant nursery, and planted hundreds of trees and shrubs in the Skagit and Samish watersheds.

In addition to all the volunteers who gave up their Saturdays, we wish to give thanks to Ralph Heft for donating grand firs to future restoration projects; Seattle City Light for donating alders to several planting sites; Wizards of Ooze for providing great porta-potty service; Thrifty Burlington for donating snacks; and to Mark Studley for donating his tractor services to the Nookachamps Creek project. Thanks also to Cascades Job Corps for their help at these events.

And it's not over yet! Please join us for two more streamside planting events this spring: April 30 and May we will join Skagit Watershed Council and the City of Mount Vernon to restore native riparian plants to the banks of the Skagit River at Edgewater Park in West Mount Vernon. These two volunteer planting parties are part of a much larger salmon habitat restoration project which includes removal of invasive knotweed and other non native plants, and restoration of side channels for rearing. Planting events will begin at 8:30 am with a welcome, orientation and safety training, and conclude at 2pm. Lunch is included; please bring work gloves, knee boots, and dress for the weather. Please register with the SFEG office at 360-336-0172.