May 6, 2004
High school students work at Union Bay
The largest volunteer work party ever at the grounds of the UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture descended 150 strong
April 24 to weed out invasive species and help re-establish native plants.
Seattle area high school and college students with the Student Conservation Association, a national organization with a Seattle chapter and the motto of “changing lives through service to nature,” worked with UW students and faculty in sections of the Union Bay Natural Area, the grounds between the center’s buildings and Union Bay.
By the end of the day the students had covered troublesome reed canary grass with landscaping cloth and mulch and pulled five dump trucks-worth of invasives such as blackberries, scotch broom and a kind of deadly nightshade that grows in ponds at the site, according to Kern Ewing, professor of forest resources. They planted a couple hundred plants to help restore various areas.
Ewing and Professor Sarah Reichard have taught a number of restoration and invasives classes using the Union Bay Natural Area as a laboratory. The Student Conservation Association youths working along the University Slough, for instance, followed an invasive species management plan developed by one of Reichard’s classes.
So much was accomplished and the event went so well that the center and the Student Conservation Association may make the workday an annual event, according to Fred Hoyt, manager of facilities and grounds at the CUH/WPA.
