Washington Conservation Corp - Week 1

What a week! This was my first official week on the job for the WCC. If I had 2 words to characterize the week they would be: rewarding and tiring.



Monday
Introductions and Elliot Bridge Mitigation Site

This was a day to get to know each other. We spent most of the day doing ice breakers, going over paper work, getting our gear, going over paper work (again), and finally we headed out to the Elliot Bridge Mitigation Site for maintainance.

My shiny new helmet!

The Mud Room

Elliot Bridge Mitigation Site

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The 154th St bridge that links the Maple Valley Highway to the Renton Highlands was replaced a few years ago. Due to the amount of disturbance required to construct the new bridge, a mitigation site was established to offset the disturbance. We spent the rest of the day removing noxious weeds (mostly Himalayan Blackberry) and clearing up the site.

Lesson learned: Dead blackberry vines are more dangerous than the live ones!

Tuesday
Our sponsor and Horseshoe Lake

We explored the operating structure of the WCC and learned about our sponsor: King County DNR. Paul Adler from the Water and Land Resources Division is our main liaison. After hours of a barrage of information we headed to our project for the day:

Horseshoe Lake

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The city of Black Diamond will be expanded with a new development. Our work involved the removal of black fabric (protected planted trees and prevents growth of weeds in the soil), removal of blackberries again, and culminated in the planting of ~45 trees. (I think they were all Red Alders [Alnus rubra].)

Planted my first tree!

Hugs!

Wednesday
Native Plant Salvage Program and Taylor Creek

Our first full day in the field!

Native Plant Salvage (NPS) Program at Duthie Hill Park

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Essentially the NPS Program will remove native plant species on land that is waiting to be developed. The plants are held at holding site for a growing year and then sent/sold to be planted through out the county. After a few hours identifying plants we collected 700+ ferns for a project.

Populus balsamifera aka Black Cottonwood was my plant to present.

Cindy Young (center) runs the NPS Program

Taylor Creek


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Taylor Creek is a project that is about 5 years old. The creek used to be a roadside ditch that flooded the roads often. It has now be channeled and is flows to the Cedar River. We spend the rest of our day staking Willows, removing fencing (to prevent beavers from damming the creek), along with the dam they had created.

A male and female Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) spawning.

Taylor Creek

Thursday
POWER TOOLS and Green River Levee debris clearing

Ah finally we were properly introduced to the power tools that we would be using: chain saw, brush cutters, augers, and the Billy Goat aka brush mower.

First station - Chain Saw

Next up - Brush cutters

Then... Augers! Very finicky...

Last but not least - The Billy Goat

Green River Levee




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After lunching we headed to a site along the Green River Levee in Tukwila to perform brush removal. The Howard Hanson Dam has been on the brink of potential failure the past and present year. In preparation for that possibility the levee has been sand bagged for miles in the Tukwila Industrial Zone. Our brush removal involved clearing the land side (vs river side) to allow the county to inspect the levee for leaks.

Trekking down the levee to find areas to clear.

Finally after the work for the day was finished, we found out the crew that we would be working with for the remainder of the year.

TEAM SOCKEYE!!!

For the sake of organization I did not add too many photos into the above summaries. Here is the link to the entire album. Now here are some of my favorites that were not posted above.

Click here and then press the right key 4 times to see the sequence of a salmon fighting its way up the creek.

A dead Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

My boots after 4 days. I topped out in them as well. (Water over the top of the boot.) On the plus side, waterproofing works!

WCC in a nutshell

Prepping the brush cutters

Thanks for reading! I hope to keep a weekly updated on my time serving in the WCC. Posts should not be too intricate as our crew will be working on several project for days at a time. =)