Volunteer champions needed for Redmond’s forested parks | GUEST COLUMN

Published 2:00 pm Friday, April 17, 2015

Could you be the next community leader for great, healthy parks in Redmond?

Our forested parks and the green, tree-covered landscape of Redmond is a big part of what people love about living and working here. But the parks need your help. Every year, hundreds of volunteers dig in with the Green Redmond Partnership and help keep our urban forest alive by planting trees and removing invasive plants that threaten the forest’s health.

A small group of dedicated volunteer community leaders are the driving force behind a lot of this work, which transforms forested parks throughout Redmond from Viewpoint Park to the vast Watershed Preserve. By adopting a park they care about, these volunteers called forest stewards learn to lead their own environmental restoration projects and amplify their own efforts by getting others involved, too.

New volunteers are invited to become forest stewards at an orientation from 6-8 p.m. on April 20 in Farrel-McWhirter Park. No experience is necessary.

For many people, a nearby park is an oasis of calm and a place to recharge. Whether to take in the fragrant smells of spring, hike a short trail or relax under the shade of a massive tree, an urban park can be the only place where many urban dwellers connect with the natural world. Yet our urban forests and open spaces are often under threat of neglect, and need active care for the trees and other plants to survive.

Thanks to the labor (and love) provided by volunteer forest stewards in Redmond and six other Puget Sound cities, these urban oases are making a comeback. Stewards are young and old, mothers and fathers, students and retirees. They are residents concerned with improving their community—on a tangible scale and with their own hands. And they are having a big impact.

Collectively they contribute thousands of hours of work each year to care for the natural spaces we all cherish around the region. Stewards typically commit to two years of working with a specific park but many get hooked and end volunteering for longer.

The Green Redmond Partnership is a collaborative effort between the City of Redmond, nonprofit Forterra, and the volunteer community. Similar partnerships are also active in Seattle, Tacoma, Kirkland, Kent and Everett.

“Working in the forest is fun. You always find new things like the emergence of starflowers and trilliums, or the discovery of a Coopers Hawk’s nest,” said Lex Verhooeve, a forest steward at Carkeek Park in Seattle. “Of course my personal motivation is to have a good workout in the forest. What can beat that?”

Forest stewards’ work is essential to the health of our forested parklands and other public natural areas. Unless removed and kept at bay, aggressive invasive plants will take over—leaving no space for healthy trees to grow.

In addition to removing invasive plants, forest stewards improve forest soils and plant native trees and shrubs. They work on trails, remove trash and otherwise maintain the parks. Over time, sites filled with thorny blackberry patches and garbage are restored to welcoming, beautiful groves.

“We’ve transformed this once dying, garbage covered, overnight hangout into a forest making its way back to health that supports and nurtures the future forest stewards of the city—the children who play in the woods. It’s now being integrated into the school curriculum of neighboring Leschi Elementary,” said Janna Robbins, forest steward of Peppi’s Woods in Seattle.

More and more studies emphasize the importance of nature to people’s health and well-being. Just being outside under tree cover has proven to reduce stress and improve creativity, memory and cognitive function. As our cities rapidly grow, our few natural refuges are all the more critical.

Forest stewards’ work is amplified because they make it possible for many others to participate—their consistent presence leads projects forward and enables other volunteers to drop in for work parties. What results is a volunteer corps thousands strong that restores hundreds of acres of parks and opens spaces throughout the Puget Sound. The Green Redmond Partnership and your favorite forested parks invite you to join the effort.

To attend this year’s forest steward orientation, email greenredmond@forterra.org, or call (206) 905-6943.

To drop in and volunteer for just a few hours at an upcoming forest restoration event, or to learn more about the Green Redmond Partnership, visit www.greenredmond.org.

Norah Kates and Carrie Hawthorne are Forterra staff members.