The Port of Everett, People For Puget Sound and 60 goats are forging an alliance that they hope will be good for everybody.
The unlikely team got together this week on behalf of the environment when volunteers for the environmental group joined a herd of goats hired by the port to attack Scotch broom and other undesirable weeds in a restored wetland along Union Slough south of Marysville.
It’s not the first time that the environmental group has worked in the area. It regularly conducts work parties to restore native plants. Stewards trained by the environmental group also check the area regularly to clear trash and keep things in order.
The goats are an experiment of sorts and will be here until the end of the week. Another group of volunteers with join some middle school students on Friday to continue the effort.
Graham Anderson, the port’s environmental director, said the port is paying $6,000 to rent 60 goats, their owner and seven days and nights of eating. The goats will be herded around with a portable fence and will be encouraged to eat up all the Scotch broom and knotweed that they can find.
“There’s a sloped area that’s wet where we think they will be particularly effective,” Anderson said.
In addition to spending $6,000, the port needs to keep the goats in water and pay for a portable restroom for the volunteers.
He said the effort “really fits the partnership with the People From Puget Sound because it’s the environmental way to do things.”
Port director John Mohr said his agency views its work with the group as a true partnership because it could never afford to provide the workers and the money required to tend port areas such as Jetty Island and Union Slough. Both are public access sites and require regular maintenance.
“If we put signs out asking for volunteers, people would say, ‘Oh, the port’s just looking for free labor,’ ” Mohr said. “We’re able to leverage our resources and put them into something that makes it a bigger project.”
Noting that Jetty Island is increasingly popular, Mohr said he worries that “we will love it to death.”
People For Puget Sound is also dealing with invasive plants on the man-made island and his recruited area kite boarders to help create trails to keep the delicate areas from being trampled.
“With their stewardship program, they have people out there every week,” Mohr said. “It’s great. And we certainly benefit from it.”
Keeley O’Connell, of the 16-year-old environmental group, said working with the port “really is a great partnership” because it’s a way that such agencies can “give back to the community.”
She said her group could never afford to hire 60 goats, so teaming up with the port is a natural.
In addition to working at Union Slough and Jetty Island, the group also has adopted Kayak Point and Picnic Point parks. It’s been working with the port since early last year.
Union Slough is a favorite of mine, mostly because it’s a beautiful area for a walk. I also enjoy it because the area was dedicated to the late Jack Olson, the port engineer in charge of the project. Olson was one of the few people in government who always spoke the truth as he believed it, and I miss him for that.
O’Connell told me that Olson’s daughter, Lynda Olson Rudolph, and his granddaughter, Elle, have become stewards with the organization through their work on the Union Slough project.
I talked to Olson’s other daughter, Tara Stormo, last week, and she said she was very appreciative of the volunteers and their diligent efforts on behalf of an area that “has a special place in my heart.”
She told me that after Olson retired from the port, he had a five-acre plot on which he kept goats to clear out the brambles.
“It’s goats revisited,” she said when I told her about this week’s Union Slough project.
Environmentalists, the port and 60 goats.
He might have had to think about it a bit, but I’m sure Jack would approve.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com
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