On Saturday, March 11th, The Brio Laundry Crew came out to our first Recreation Northwest Fairhaven Park Work Party of the year. We set out to remove invasive blackberries from our work site in Fairhaven Park.

After a brief Trail Talk with Todd (that’s me) we joined together at the work site.

We gathered under the tent to discuss the task at hand- invasive blackberry removal in our special section of the park. We are currently in the Phase 2 segment of our trail project and invasive species removal and mitigation planting are part of the package as we move forward to build another segment of trail and a wetland boardwalk.

The eager Brio Laundry Crew and our volunteers joined together and set out on their shared mission of clearing the landscape. The Brio Crew were adorned in hoodies and signature white caps. “You clean up pretty well,” is one of their fun sayings at Brio.

As the founder and Brio Crew leader, Colleen also developed the Brio Laundry – 4 Principles to guide the business and her staff. The 4 Principles- Time Is Precious, Environmental Responsibility, Let’s Make It Pleasant, and Provide Real and Lasting Value. Brio sponsored this work party and got her staff out for a day of “dirty work” to support her commitment to the environment and support of parks and trails.

There was quite a pile of brambles to tackle! The crews methodically went after the pile and worked in teams to remove all evidence of the invasive blackberries.

We like to have fun in all that we do. Committed volunteer, Nick Hartrich, goes after his task with vigor! Not to mention, with style…

After cutting, hauling, digging and more hauling, we were left with a patch of mud! We removed the blackberry stalks and dug out all the root balls to help rid the area of the prickly, pesky vines. Proud of our work, we gathered together for the parting shot.

A little closer in…to see the smiling faces and the satisfaction of my daughter, Violet, leading the pack (and playing in the mud).

What was a patch of bad blackberries is now a big muddy space. We’ll be tending to this as the year progresses and this will be a part of our staging for the trail work in the fall.

We thank our Fairhaven Park Work Party sponsors, Brio Laundry and our partners at Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association for the use of their tools to make this event a success.

Our next Fairhaven Park work parties:

Thursday – March 16th – 1:30-3:30pm
We are looking for a small team of volunteers to help us put in fence posts. 
We are also looking for a couple people to be trained on proper planting techniques who will then lead a planting team at the March 25th work party.

Saturday – March 25th – 10:00am – Noon
Planting & mulching

Please sign-up and let us know you are coming. 
Work parties will be capped at 20 volunteers