Today, on Sat, Nov 2, 18 volunteers gather at the Douglas Fir Teaching Garden on the Red Alder Trail for our monthly Invasive Pull.
We began with a welcome circle and land ackowledgment. Our volunteer co-lead, Genevieve, invited each volunteer to introduce themselves, share their pronouns, and offer a stretch to the group. After stretching, everyone felt ready to get at some invasive removal!
We headed south, down the Red Alder Trail to the edge of the trail playground. There, underneath the black locust trees, there is a bed of invasive wild chervil. Our volunteers, from age 6 years to 70+ years old, all worked together to remove 360 L of invasive plant material. Our youngest volunteer enjoyed discovering big worms, wood bugs, and centipides.
We then took a break for tea, hot chocolate, juice, and snacks. It was a nice time to chat and connect with each other!
We then switched gears from removing invasive plants to replanting native plants. We had 46 plants from Nats Nursery, including sword fern, woodland strawberry, and low Oregon grape. We planted them on the Northern edge of the Douglas Fir Teaching Garden. It felt great to be able to restore native plants to the trail.
Thanks to our amazing volunteers: Ana, Anne (set-up), Asa, Barbara, Chloe, Cole, Elan, Ellie, Geneveive, Grace, Jeannine, Kimberly, Liam, Moira, Pierson, Rebecca, Robin, and Tom.