Ivy in the Shade and Bucket Brigade

Saturday turned out to be a well attended work party with 35 volunteers. It was a hot and sunny day, so we did our best to stay in at least partial shade. Half of the group spent the first half of the day doing 15,000 square feet of maintenance digging of blackberry along the South Seattle Community College fence at the northern border of the Sound Way property. During the afternoon, that group joined the rest of the volunteers in pulling 2000 square feet of ground ivy in the site that Truman cut the rings of ivy from around trees last week. Today our artist, Steve, played the concertina, an accordion-like instrument. We took the last half hour or so to form a bucket brigade to sheet mulch another 200 square feet located 800 feet from the mulch pile at the 14^th and Holly trailhead. It has become evident from hauling mulch over such distances during the past few weeks that we need to acquire some more buckets to prevent fluctuations in flow. Fortunately we found a supply of square buckets which we prefer because they never stick together and the plastic handles seem to be more resistant to breaking. They cost us 50 cents a piece, but are worth much more than that in saved frustration. The advantages of round buckets include that they are larger and can usually be found for free.

Staff Meeting in the Greenbelt

The Nature Consortium monthly staff get together took place in the woods today. Vic, Victoria, Nedra, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Lisa, and I went on an exploratory hike through the Sound Way Property today. This was a first visit for some to this particular site. We completed our loop at the Ivy removal site on the west side of the trail opposite the seasonal wetland and continued pulling vines from where we stopped yesterday. In just one hour, the eight of us were able to clear another 700-800 square feet. Kenny helped us out too. Our hard bun fun work was followed by pizza and chocolate! I enjoyed the opportunity to be outdoors with the rest of the staff and have the chance to talk without phones and email in the vicinity. Vic and I had a chance to brainstorm greenbelt curriculum and field technology for the restoration project.


The staff get together concluded just as a bus full of 12 year olds on a sixth grade trip from Hensen Valley Montessori school in Maryland arrived. There were 16 students and 4 adults. Apparently each year the kids submit proposals for the trip destination and hone down to the final choice throughout the year based on presentations and research the students engage themselves in. It is a school the opts to use alternatives to books and book learning. Our first accomplishment was hauling 5 yards of mulch to cover 300 square feet of cardboard laid out by Kenny 800 feet down the trail using a bucket brigade. Then we cleared another 1000 feet of Ivy from the same site we've been working this week. It was a lot of fun. The kids were laughing and talking and really productive the whole time and adults were great too!

Ivy Removal

Today we were visited by a home school group that has developed into a monthly volunteer team. The ages usually range from 6-13. Six kids and 4 adults joined Tom and I today. Tom focused on maintenance weeding of Blackberry from the west side of the trail at 14th and Holly between the Honey Bucket and the small seasonal wetland. The home schoolers focused on pulling up English Ivy from the Sound Way Property. We cleared around 750 square feet and piled up around 5 cubic yards of vines. Everyone was pretty excited once they started ripping the vines out. It is quite satisfying. This group is a lot of fun and we are making plans to continue our monthly work parties through the summer and into next year.

Alyssa and Josh came from 3-5 and joined Tom and I in clearing another 750 square feet and 5 cubic yards of vines. All in all, it was a really productive day for two small groups. The area looks great. There are lots of Thimble Berry and Salal growing the shade provided by Madrona and Hazelnut and will spread on their own once the ground Ivy is removed. The Ivy was previously cut from the tree trunks and the vines in the trees are dead. We will come back and plant conifers in the fall. There is no need to mulch in here, but we'll monitor and maintain this site regularly for at least a few years.


Yesterday it rained and we decided to focus on cutting invasive English Ivy away from the trunks of trees. The Truman High group and 2 students from Nathan Hale cut 17 life-saving rings around some pretty large trees. We used pruners, loppers, and a handsaw to cut the Ivy at shoulder height and then pulled it off the lower trunk and from the ground immediately surrounding the trees. By doing so, the students cut off the supply of water and nutrients to the rest of the Ivy remaining in the trees. The vines will eventually wither and die. Alyssa, Josh, Mila and Mimi joined me from 4-6 to do some maintenance weeding of Blackberry from the sheet mulched area of the Sound Way Property on the east side of the trail north of the small seasonal wetland. We are experimenting with just pulling the grow-back out instead of digging it. It will probably require at least a few applications, but it doesn't disrupt the soil and the cardboard as much as digging, which could lead to further invasion of undesirable species. Digging was necessary in a few areas where grow-back was significant. It only took the 4 of us two hours to weed 25,000 square feet! This technique may be appropriate and work in this situation where grow-back is weak and sparse after the side was dug of root-ball 2-3 times, sheet-mulched, and then planted. Once we finished the mulched area, we moved into the adjacent area without sheet-mulch and dug whatever grow-back we encountered. Digging is usually the preferred method, but the decision was made to leave the sheet-mulch intact to avoid exacerbating the invasion by compromising this protective layer. Fortunately we have work parties scheduled for adjacent sites with monitoring and maintenance of previous work sites an identified priority.

Trail Restoration, Mulching and More

We hosted another 3 days of events in the West Duwamish Greenbelt since the last entry on the 14th of this month. Temperatures reached the nineties and it has been sunny and a little humid. Scarlet Tanagers and a rabbit were spotted on the Sound Way Property last week and recently an owl pellet and coyote scat were deposited there.


Thursday brought our Truman group from 9-2 and then 3 students from Middle College High came from 4-6. We focused on sheet mulching another 1000 square feet (with 12 cubic yards) at our 14th an Holly site in an area parallel to the fence between the Greenbelt and South Seattle Community College. This particular piece of trail used to be extremely muddy and slippery until we moved it from a trough to a crest around 8 feet north of the initially encountered path. We did maintenance digging in this area the week before. Kenny took charge of spreading cardboard in between the Alders, Indian Plum, Service Berry, and Oregon Grape we planted this winter. Most of the Oregon Grape looks completely dried out and dead, but upon closer inspection, most of them have small green buds emerging.

Check out Thursday's Before and After shots of the mulch pile. You can see how large it was when Mike, Susan, Heidi and Tony from Truman started compared to what remained when Mila and Mimi from Middle College High worked the pile. As Teisha, Dillan and Noah are shown, we used a wagon and several wheel barrows to haul the mulch 800 feet from the pile to the restoration site.

Friday brought lots of sunshine and a second visit to the Greenbelt from the Washington Reading Corps who also volunteered in January. The group of 25 worked up at 2 sites in Pigeon Point Park from 10am-2pm. Seth and James, working in one of our Earth Day sites, led a group who cut approximately 700 sq. ft. of Blackberry, and then dug another 200 sq. ft. of the invasive, while Kenny and I led a group in digging approximately 800 sq. ft. of Blackberry along the fence next to the entrance of the Park. Ben came out to play Japanese flute, which everyone enjoyed, and the group celebrated their work at the end of the day with a short hike through the Park and a potluck lunch.



This Saturday is the first Saturday of 2008 that we have not hosted a work party. We did however host a Washington Native Plant Society training at the 14th and Holly Site. The class was there to learn about volunteer recruitment and work party hosting. We did around 600 square feet of maintenance digging (some of it was a previously un-dug area) in the center of the current 14th and Holly site.

Sheet mulching

It was cloudy all day today and it got unusually humid this afternoon without a glimpse of the sun. Our line up today was Jim and Kenny from 8:30 till 2:30, then Alisha, Josh, and Calvin from 4 till 6. All in all, we sheet mulched 1000 square feet 4 inches thick. Most of the area was 800 feet down the trail from the mulch pile at the trailhead at 14th and Holly. Kenny did a final sweep to dig any blackberry grow-back and then laid out pieces of cardboard with a minimum 4 inch overlap. Jim and I hauled mulch in wheelbarrows and the wagon and covered the cardboard with 4 inches of mulch or more. Alyssa, Josh, Calvin and I continued mulching and then removed the suckers growing from 6 hawthorne stumps. The area mulched flanked both sides of the trail just before it starts diving in elevation. We did the initial removal of blackberry and hawthorne from this site during fall and winter of 2007 and 2008. There is partial Alder Canopy and the soil has moderate organic matter. The entire site was previously occupied by blackberry and required walking sideways down the trail to avoid getting scratched.
This shot (taken in January) is from another 100 feet east on the trail headed in the same direction (East). The placement of signs is coincidental, but the ground cover we encountered was identical...100% blackberry. This picture shows the bramble after being cut to allow access to did the root balls. We are soon to sheet mulch around the the trees planted in the area shown in this photo. It was a small work party in attendance, but hauling 12-15 cubic yards of mulch 8oo feet down the trail was a significant accomplishment for a day's work and far exceeded my expectations.

Truman High School

It's raining today and not the typical misting but actual rain drops are falling out of the sky since at least 9 this morning. Truman High, Kenny, and Jazz came to 14th and Holly today. Jazz, Kenny and Heidi focused on removing Herb Robert (Stinky Bob) along the trail from the entrance to 150' North. Most of the purple-flowered invasive was along the West side of the trail. We have already removed tons of ivy and blackberry from this site and planted a few hundred plants and conifers, and have been routinely maintaining it since 2006. Stinky Bob does smell, but I don't find it horribly offensive and I didn't hear anyone else complaining. It is easy to identify from its purple flowers and carrot-like foliage that also looks very similar to the native Bleeding Heart. The flowers make it easy to identify from bleeding heart but mean the the plants are preparing to reproduce or have already produce seed. I think we beat it from seeding by removing it today. Even if it did set seed though, removing opened up growing space for the plants and trees we planted in spring 2007 and uncovered some other native plants that started volunteering themselves once the ivy and blackberry were removed. We have had a lot of luck along that trail with native plants filling in space formally occupied by invasives without having to purchase and plant them. After an initial invasive removal in 2006 and 3 or so maintenance sweeps in the time since, we have well established colonies of Salal, Indian Plum, Thimble Berry, Honeysuckle and native Blackberry.



We also did some maintenance digging in the shaded area further North on the trail on the East side. We did the initial Himalayan Blackberry and Evergreen Blackberry removal with Truman High just this past March and April. It wasn't an impenetrable bramble because there is limited light from the Red Alder Canopy. The were patches of both undesirable species of blackberry and native blackberry on site when we did our first sweep. the grow-back was surprising for all of the species. We found it easy enough to distinguish the species even from the young sprouts. the native blackberry has a waxy coating on a round stem making it recognizable from the invasives. Truman High was here to plant the 1 gallon hemlocks we planted this spring in this location. They are heavy with bright green new growth! Some of them have mulch sprinkled around the base, but no cardboard and no compost. It will be interesting to see how all of the different combinations of micro-habitat and planting techniques will play out in the work we've done throughout the Sound Way property.