Thanks to our dedicated board member, Krissy Moehl, we had a great turnout of folks who came out on a Saturday to help remove invasive blackberries from our Upland Meadow Buffer Native Plant garden. This garden has Douglas Fir, Paper Birch, Oso Berry, Sitka Willow, Snowberry, Western Crabapple, Western Red Cedar and Red Alder. The blackberry encroaches and can smother the plants, so we work to keep them OUT!

As Race Director of the Chuckanut 50K race, Krissy implemented a recommended Volunteer Day for participants. We had people from Canada, Seattle and around Belligham. We also had others who volunteered out of the kindness of their own hearts (and hands). 

Below is the fearless crew who came out to tackle the brambles. They are standing a space that was covered a couple hours earlier!

Here’s Bill Converse, one of our regular volunteers coming out and tackling the invasive, albeit yummy, blackberries. 

The garden is one of our four mitigation sites for the installation of the bridge just up the path.  The area where Bill is standing is the abandoned trail alignment above. Yes, this is the muck people used to trudge through. Below in the foreground is part of the group pulling up the young sprouts in and around our plants, while another contingent tackles the briar patch. 

There’s Krissy below, showing off her Recreation Northwest pom hat! You can get one too. Become a monthly donor today! (and get a hat)

fun fact: I used to write for Basecamp Bellingham.com. This story/interview with Krissy is one of my favorites: Krissy Moehl – Ultramarathon. She is a world class athlete and human! It was great to have a fit crew of folks out to eradicate the nuisance of vines. 

With eyes on the prize, our volunteers went after the small shoots coming up through the buttercup. 

With loppers and mulch rakes, we systematically made our way into the mess. Cut, rake, pull, trim, stack, drag!! REPEAT. 

Getting after it!

Once the tarps were loaded, they were dragged (or in the case below, carried) down to the city dump truck. 

We moved through the different stations, finding our special place to own and add value. Taking turns and passing on the approach to the next volunteer. 

Carl came dressed for the occasion! He’s fit as a fiddle underneath those Carhartt overalls! He’s on the the gang that is running in the Chuckanut 50K in March. He later confessed that he simply likes beer and that training for such an event and coming out to help us for a couple hours is a great compliment to a cold pint! 

We had to do it! 

Thank you to the Chuckanut 50K volunteers and our community members who came out to tackle the thorns. Our plants especially thank you. They can see the light! Thanks to Ferndale Refinery Phillips 66 support of our Fairhaven Park Stewardship work, our next steps for this special space is to install a park bench and gate for the public to be able to enter the space and enjoy Getting a Dose of Nature! with our Parkscriptions program.