Riverfront Park: Then and Now | Project 7 of 30

Riverfront Park: Then and Now

Riverfront Park is a 35 acre property situated at the banks of the lower main-stem of the Skagit River in south Sedro-Woolley. The park was developed in 1984 and now includes a dog park, several sports fields, and a place for RV’s and campers to settle in for the night.

Funding from the Rose Foundation and Washington State Department of Ecology has allowed SFEG to restore 7 acres of the city park property over the past few years. You wouldn’t know when visiting the park now but the restoration site, adjacent to the dog park, was covered in a swath of Himalayan blackberry and reed canary grass. These invasive species do not promote a healthy and balanced ecosystem, as they create a monoculture, by out-competing all other species that could potentially grow and thrive in the area.

Blackberry before SFEG restoration

Riverfront after restoration and plantings

Throughout 2018, the site was prepped for the first stage of restoration. Once the invasive species were removed by chemical and mechanical means, volunteers came out to the park alongside SFEG staff to take part in a number of tasks during the fall of 2019 for Make a Difference Day. Trails were built and a variety of native species were planted to promote a more healthy and stable ecosystem. Further, interpretive signs were installed at the site to inform the community of the purpose and importance of the project and how it enhances salmon habitat.

The side channel that runs through the restoration site

Olivia Hubert leading the pink group section during the Fall 2020 planting

Since the first plantings, vegetation surveys have been conducted to determine the survival of the plants. Staff and crews have weeded, mowed, and mulched to maintain the space around the plants in the summer. While in the Fall of 2020, another volunteer planting occurred in conjunction with the celebration of Orca Recovery Day, to replace the trees that didn’t survive the first season. The trickling stream running through the site is slated for passage barrier restoration in the future. When salmon do return, they will find a healthy riparian buffer that will help provide them with clean, cold, and clear water. This work is just the beginning of making Riverfront Park a bountiful land for all kinds of native species and people to enjoy.

Riverfront Planting Volunteer Interview

Sowing the Seeds of Hope | Project 6 of 30

“He who plants a tree, plants a hope”

-Lucy Larcom, from her poem “Plant a Tree”

SFEG’s native plant nursery sprouted from humble beginnings way back in the 1990s, on borrowed land at the Northern State Campus with help from the Cascades Job Corps program headquartered there. Thousands of donated or cheaply acquired trees and shrubs were heeled in to await planting at restoration sites. Our current Stewardship Coordinator, Bengt Miller, was our Washington Conservation Corps member at the time, and helped start our nursery with a donation from San Juan Conservation District. In spring 2000, a potted nursery was started there, with plants salvaged from nearby properties, rescued from the rejects pile at area plant sales, or gotten by some other cost-effective means. A dozen years of trial and error happened there with the help of so many volunteers, under the watchful guidance of late SFEG Board Member Jim Thomas.

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In late 2012 the nursery was moved to its current location, and the Samish Tribe has been a great partner in this endeavor. The nursery is nestled between Burlington and Sedro-Woolley on the banks of Thomas Creek. Through an agreement with the Samish Indian Tribe, SFEG rents tribal-owned land for the purpose of growing native plants for future restoration projects. At maximum capacity our nursery holds about 10,000 plants, and anyone who has attended a potting party or weeded over the summer has seen it in its full glory!

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We’ve battled snow, ice, flooding, and wandering cows over the years, and often have the company of assorted wildlife onsite. Oh, and a global pandemic. Never a dull moment, for sure. If you are one of the hundreds of volunteers who’ve helped out at our nursery over the past two plus decades we thank you! You are helping us grow the plants that will shade the salmon, feed the macroinvertebrates, stabilize the banks, and provide riparian habitat for countless species in the Skagit Watershed. THANK YOU!

-Lucy DeGrace, Outreach Manager

Remembering our Last Field Trip from March Last Year

March 9, 2021/in From the Field /by Oncorhynchus

It’s hard to believe, that it has been exactly one year since the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group’s last field trip with students. I remember this field trip well as it was with 8th grade Junior Stream Steward students from Edison School. We took them on a stewardship field trip to SFEG’s Native Plant Nursery. This field trip was memorable, as my son just happen to be one of the students on this field trip. It was a great field trip for me to be on, as I knew most of the students from outside of the Junior Stream Stewards world. My son has attended Edison School since Kindergarten, and this field trip involved all the 8th graders at Edison, many of which he had been in school with since Kindergarten. It was fun to be on a field trip and be on a first name basis with so many of the students.

It was a beautiful day, and the students were having a wonderful field trip to our Native Plant Nursery potting up new seedlings for future habitat restoration projects. Students were applying what they learned in the classroom, they were giving back to the greater habitat restoration effort in the Skagit Valley, they were working hard, they were working together, and they were having FUN! Students were crowded around potting tables (something that two days later would be unheard of!) getting their hands dirty learning about the native species they were potting.

Once a collection of potted plants started to accumulate, the students quickly learned that creating a human “conga line” to pass the plants was the best way to get the new plants into the nursery beds. Students passed each plant down the line “inspecting” it to make sure it was planted properly with enough soil and calling loudly out “good” as it passed down the line of students. If a seedling wasn’t planted satisfactorily, the student conga line rejected the pot sending it back up the line to a waiting “ambulance” (AKA wheelbarrow) where the plants needing more care were transported back to the potting benches for emergency treatment, before being placed into the nursery beds. It was wonderful to see them all working as a team to make hard work easy and fun.

The 8th graders were very efficient in their planting of hundreds of seedlings, so many students started weeding some of the older plants that were already in the nursery beds. Again, being 13-year-olds, they quickly turned this mundane activity into fun by turning on some tunes from someone’s phone, and singing and dancing as they weeded the native plant beds.

When they were all said and done, we gathered all the students together to talk about the field trip and how it connected back to what they are learned in Junior Stream Stewards. In addition to the learning experience, they talked about what a fun field trip it was. I believe this was because it was all 8th graders from the entire school working together to make good work happen in our community.

We gathered them together for a photo…all 40 of them. And again, they had fun trying to capture of photo of them jumping and suspended in mid-air. Who knew at that time, that it would be their last photo together as Edison School students, likely the last time they were all together in one place. The next day, all schools were closed, Friday March 13th. Yep…Friday the 13th was the last day that these students attended school. That group photo from their Junior Stream Stewards field trip was used as their “class photo” for 8th grade and shared for their 8th grade “moving up” ceremony at the end of year. Because as you all know, there were no end of the school year celebrations last year. These 8th graders, now freshman in high school, have yet to return to school. They have yet to set foot at Burlington-Edison High School. We hope it happens soon. And Skagit Fisheries hopes to return to offering these fun and educational field trips to local school students again. While we don’t anticipate this happening soon, our staff and volunteers are looking forward to the day when we can interact with live students again, learn their names, and engage them in hands on activities in the field. While our staff is doing an amazing job creating interactive “virtual” lessons, like our school teachers we can’t wait to see students again in person!