For the third year in a row, we were chosen by Phillips 66 Refinery Ferndale to work on their Good Energy day of community service. They continue to support our work in Fairhaven Park and the Hundred Acre Wood. In 2019, they supported our work and we celebrated with Fairhaven Park Native Plant Garden: Phillips 66 Bench Installed! in 2020. During Spring of 2021, Phillips 66 employee volunteers helped eradicate an area of invasive blackberries, clearing out a substantial portion of space at the intersection of our two trails. Also, with this group, we began composting on site- instead of hauling away the invasive plants. In 2022, they hosted their second Good Energy from Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery in Fairhaven Park.
For those of you familiar with our work parties, they all start with a brief “Trail Talk with Todd” giving a tour of the site and background of our work in the park.
Photo credits for 2023 Good Energy Work Party: Torie Wold, WWU Communications Intern
This group is always ready to get to work. With the space cleared two years ago of invasive English Holly, it was finally time to put native plants in the ground in their place to bring life back to this section of the forest.
Armed with manual tools, the volunteers hack away the the prickly invaders.
Yes, we like to have fun while we work. We enjoy our community partnership with Phillips 66! Good Energy!
Yes, The native plants come from Bellingham Parks Greenways Volunteer Program‘s Nursery.
Teamwork makes the Dream work!
Treehuggers!
All smiles!
Planting a Western Cedar in the abandoned roadbed corridor that we cleared of English Holly.
As part of our agreement with Bellingham Parks, we are given permission to transplant native Sword Ferns from nearby locations within the park. See the crew dragging the halved ferns on sleds to our project site…
Digging in for a new home for a young Sitka Spruce.
Handled with Care!
A young cedar finds a new home.
Wrapping Up for the day!
The Whole CREW from Phillips 66 Refinery, Ferndale gets together for an end of the day photo, celebrating a job well done in our Native Plant Garden.
The volunteer employees came out for a day of hard work helping to remove invasive species, plant native plants, and clean up our new classroom spaces. Employees selected to donate to us as part of their Good Energy day of service. The total for this year’s work party was $2,730. The leadership at Phillips 66 also recognize the value of our project and recently committed $10,000 to help build our structure. We appreciate their support and continued contributions.
Todd Elsworth is one of the many “Mossy-haired lunatics roaming the dripping peninsulas”, described in “I’m Here for the Weather” by Tom Robbins. As executive director, he works to fulfill our mission to teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play.
