Volunteers are eradicating invasive plants that are suffocating Forest Park
Published 10:19 pm Saturday, March 15, 2008
EVERETT — Enemy aliens are attacking the city’s oldest and most popular park.
The exotic life forms have names like Hedera helix L., Rubus discolor and Cytisus scoparius.
They are strangling the life out of Douglas fir and alder trees, stealing sunlight from native plants and weakening the ecosystem.
If the Washington Native Plant Society has its way, these invasive plant species will soon be eradicated — at least from an acre patch at the entrance of Forest Park.
“They’re hogging the playground and not letting the natural processes happen,” said Donna Gleisner, the Snohomish County coordinator for the Native Plant Society.
The nonprofit group is offering a free eight-week course in Everett aimed at turning ordinary people into educated stewards of the environment.
Take warning.
While you don’t have to be a botanist to enroll, the series isn’t for shrinking violets or lily- livered plant lovers.
The course requires significant time in the classroom and in the field and a pledge to volunteer at least 100 hours. Prepare to get your hands dirty.
“It’s kind of intense,” Gleisner said.
The program is from April 4 to June 6. Most classes are held on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a few Saturday field sessions thrown into the mix.
Students will learn how to identify and propagate native plants, and how to remove invasive weeds, shrubs and vines.
They’ll hear about salmon, soils, rare plants and endangered species.
There will be lectures on the ecosystems of the state, wildlife habitat, wetlands and stream bank restoration. Ethnobotany classes will discuss plants used by American Indians.
Anyone curious about native plants could benefit from the course, Gleisner said. Many people who attend courses are retired; however, Gleisner said, students as young as 14 have participated.
“It’s exhaustive in what it tries to cover,” said Barbara Smith, who helped bring the Native Plant Society stewardship program to the county several years ago. “People find their heads just swimming after a couple of weeks.”
“But it’s exciting and something that people get involved with that makes a difference.”
The Native Plant Society’s work will dovetail with ongoing efforts at the 111-acre wooded park on Mukilteo Boulevard southwest of downtown Everett.
Kerry Neijstrom formed a volunteer group, Stewards of Forest Park, last year.
Through regular work parties, volunteers have cleared about 8,000 square feet of invasive English ivy, holly, laurel, herb-robert and Himalayan blackberries.
Neijstrom started the stewardship group as an AmeriCorps volunteer working on urban forest restoration projects with Seattle’s Cascade Land Conservancy.
It was her required community service project for AmeriCorps. The Everett resident, who said she finds respite in Forest Park, kept it going after her yearlong stint with the federally funded national service organization.
“You can go down Rucker or Evergreen and you could be anywhere in the U.S,” said Neijstrom, a native of New York.
Forest Park is different.
“It really feels like what I thought the Pacific Northwest was like,” she said.
On Friday, the Everett City Council approved a partnership with the Washington Native Plant Society.
Under the agreement, the city will provide the group with classroom space at Legion Memorial Park hall in north Everett. In exchange, the plant society promised to spend at least 300 volunteer hours at Forest Park in the next year.
City officials say it’s exactly the type of partnership called for in the city’s 10-year parks strategic plan.
The city also regularly recruits volunteers for spring flower plantings, beach cleanups and trail improvement projects.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Native planting program
Application deadline: March 21
Cost: Free
For more information: 206-527-3210 or www.wnps.org
