Plant-A-Thon deeply rooted in salmon restoration

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On a rainy Saturday, a group of volunteers, from preschoolers to grandparents, helped plant a record number of trees and shrubs in what has become an anticipated tradition.

“It’s almost on par with a holiday,” said Jude Rubin of the Plant-A-Thon, which is now in its 11th season. “Everyone looks forward to it.”

Rubin, who is the director of stewardship for Northwest Watershed Institute (NWI), has coordinated the institute’s tree-planting program at the Tarboo Wildlife Preserve since 2005.

The event has become the largest environmental service project in East Jefferson County, she said.

Since 2005, more than 1,000 volunteers have planted more than 35,500 native trees and approximately 7,000 native shrubs.

This year, the event, staged Feb. 4, drew 140 volunteers from five schools, who planted 6,500 trees and shrubs. While the rain deterred some, the weather was ideal for planting the trees, which help to restore salmon and wildlife habitat and reduce climate change impacts, Rubin said.

Schools participating included Port Townsend School District’s OCEAN program, Port Townsend High School’s Students for Sustainability, Swan School, Jefferson Community School and Chimacum High School’s Pi Program.

The planting also draws kids from other schools, Rubin said, and has become a significant event for many who have grown up with the program.

“It’s become a rite of passage for some people who start young as tree planters and then become assistants and group leaders,” she said.

This year’s planting brought two college students, both of whom had participated as children and returned to serve as adult crew leaders.

Another crew leader, Charlie Hanson, has volunteered for many years.

“Each Plant-A-Thon nurtures the spirit as it nurtures Tarboo Creek,” he said in a press release. There is a timeline you can see, of seedlings growing into trees and kids maturing into adults.”

GROUP EFFORT

Volunteers helped out in numerous ways, from planting trees to helping the younger kids to bringing food.

“It’s fun to watch each person find their role,” Rubin said. “I love that everyone can find a way to share what they have to offer.”

Along with planting 2,500 native trees, volunteers tackled a half mile of stream bank dominated by reed canary grass by laying down cardboard and staking it down with 4,000 live stakes of willow and other shrubs along the creek.

The cardboard, which was donated by Sheets Unlimited in Renton, smothers the invasive grass until the willow has time to grow and prevent stream bank erosion while helping to shade the stream, said Rubin.

By the end of the day, the cardboard and stake-lined stream looked like a Vladimirov Javacheff installation, commented volunteer Lucy Congdon-Hansen, referring to that artist’s large-scale artwork.

Volunteers also planted trees in hollow log rounds and planter boxes, which function as nurse logs in wet areas where conifers otherwise have trouble growing, said Rubin. The logs, which were milled into planters and boardwalks and also were used as habitat logs in the creek, were donated by Port Townsend Paper Corp., Rubin said.

“It is empowering and motivating when a group of people comes together to plant trees, especially when the end goal is for permanent protection as a wildlife corridor, salmon habitat and restored watershed,” wrote youth crew leader Anna Wilke, a Chimucum Pi student in the NWI’s YES! (Youth Environmental Stewards) Program.

RESTORATION, EDUCATION

The Plant-A-Thon is part of a long-term effort by the institute and 40 partner organizations to protect and restore salmon and wildlife habitat from the headwaters of Tarboo Creek to Tarboo-Dabob Bay.

Since 2004, more than 2,000 acres have been preserved in the watershed, and more than 600 acres have been restored through rebuilding and replanting impacted streams, wetlands and marine shorelines, according to Peter Bahls, NWI executive director.

This year’s tree planting – which took place at a new 11-acre acquisition within the Tarboo Wildlife Preserve, a 500-acre refuge owned and run by the institute – is an important step in a restoration process that started last summer, the two said in a press release.

That restoration process began with the removal of a large earthen dam and farm pond from the site’s wetlands to create an accessible and much-needed habitat for young coho salmon. The crew also removed 5 acres of invasive plants that, if left to grow, would prevent native forests from establishing along streams, said Bahls.

Plant-a-Thon also has an education component.

During the fall before the tree-planting event, students from 11 K-12 classes study “how salmon grow on trees, and trees grow on salmon,” a classroom-based NWI program.

“Students learn many reasons for planting trees in the Tarboo Watershed,” Rubin said. “Trees enhance wild salmon spawning and rearing habitat; tree roots proactively prevent downstream sedimentation into the estuary – so they help to protect Jefferson County’s oyster beds – and trees sequester carbon and mitigate some of the future effects of climate change,” she said.

Among with the other schools participating this year, students in the Chimacum Pi Program learned about the watershed model.

“Having NWI share the watershed model in our classrooms allows students to predict, witness and analyze upland effects on downstream dynamics,” said Kit Pennell, lead science educator for Chimacum Pi Program, in a press release.

“And when our youth carry the intellectual authority and the leadership out there on the Plant-A-Thon site, the success of this community-wide effort feels all the more inspiring.”

A week before Plant-A-Thon, a team of 28 crew leaders – 18 high school students and 10 adult mentors – learned how to lead volunteers in planting and safety procedures. Students enrolled in NWI’s YES! Program and its affiliated watershed science and stewardship class earn elective high school credit for this and other stewardship projects.

Students also sell Plant-A-Thon Honorary Tree Cards prior to the planting. Cards can be personalized and sent to someone special, so that each tree is planted in honor of an individual. Funds from the cards, available for purchase on a sliding scale of $5-$10, support the schools. Since 2005, students have earned $140,000 for their schools, Rubin said.

FUNDING SUPPORT

Funding for the Plant-A-Thon varies each year. The 11-acre property was acquired by NWI through a National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and administered through the state Department of Ecology. The restoration work is sponsored in part by the Coastal Wetlands grant and cost-share funding from the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service. Funding for trees and field supplies was provided by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Aquatic Lands Enhancement (ALEA) program, while educational programming and staff support was provided in part by presenting sponsors: Kitsap Bank, Port Townsend Food Co-op and the Northwest Watershed Institute.

Local businesses supporting the Plant-A-Thon included SOS Printing, Henery’s Hardware, Port Townsend Paper Corp., Sheets Unlimited and Goodman Sanitation. Other businesses such as San Juan Taqueria, Pane D’Amore and Marina Café donate food. NWI, Port Townsend High School and the PTHS Students for Sustainability funded, and the OCEAN Program provided, transportation.