Submitted by Nancy E. Henderson.
Hours before Super Bowl LIX began, with assurances of no precipitation, 27 energetic volunteers attended Steilacoom’s Super Work Party XIV. This was the 14th work party devoted to restoring habitat along a stretch of the Town’s 5th Street Waterway which has lacked native plants and adequate shade.
The 5th Street Waterway Habitat Restoration project is financed by a $2500 grant from the Pierce County Chambers/Clover Creek Watershed Council and is in collaboration with the Pierce Conservation District (PCD).
Eight Steilacoom Key Club members and three Soldiers from JBLM’s 62nd Medical Brigade joined local volunteers keeping a steady pace building wire cages, labeling plants, digging holes, hauling potted and bare root plants and tools, pounding metal stakes into the ground, and securing the stakes to the protective cages surrounding the plants.
Other participants included high school students and a father-son team, first-time local volunteers, and Steilacoom Mayor Dick Muri.
The focus was the culmination of hours of arduous work that preceded it. With removal of what seemed like an impenetrable wall of blackberry vines and much of the reed canary grass, a large section of the banks became ready for planting.
PCD and local native plant experts provided helpful suggestions on the selection of plants that would attract pollinators and provide food for birds and other wildlife. When spring awakens plants from their dormancy, 23 different native plants will hopefully have taken root.
Once mature, the plants will provide a kaleidoscope of color while shading the waterway, helping to cool the water that empties into Puget Sound.
While the weather prediction of 37 degrees at the 10 o-clock start time was correct, the assurance of no precipitation was not.
As the last plants were placed in the soil and “clean-up” had begun, nature decided it was time to hydrate the new plants not with rain, but with steady, intense hail, quickly transforming the environment into a showy whiteness.
It will be a work party that none of the participants will forget, thanks to Mother Nature.
Thank you.