MARYSVILLE — Grace Academy students Jeremiah Lee and Emily Van Dam spent their Saturday struggling to keep their footing in the mud, as they worked on the steeply sloping banks of Allen Creek.
Feb. 21 marked Van Dam’s first and Lee’s second volunteer outing for the Adopt A Stream Foundation. The 17-year-olds helped mentor even younger kids, such as 12-year-old Lynnwood residents Erin Martino and Clara Guyot, as they planted trees, shrubs and live stakes at Doleshel Park.
“You have to find the right equilibrium points for planting on the slopes,” Lee said. “You have to dig your holes deep enough. They can’t be perfect every time.”
Van Dam added: “Each plant needs a different type of soil. Depending on where you plant on the slope, you have clay soils versus more dry ground.”
Lee explained that the water quality of Allen Creek is being compromised because its temperature is too high. This is why he and Van Dam were part of the day’s 17 volunteers, led by five Adopt A Stream members. They planted 110 trees, 80 shrubs and 250 live stakes, to provide shade for the creek and its inhabitants.
“Even if the plants fall into the creek, they’ll provide cover for the young fish to swim under,” Lee said.
Van Dam added: “It gives them a more suitable environment.”
Lee praised the Adopt A Stream members for being knowledgable and personable, while Van Dam appreciated being able to lead Martino, Guyot and the other children of “Destination Imagination.”
Les Mead, of Adopt A Stream, was cutting stakes while volunteers planted them.
“That reed canary grass will out-compete everything if you don’t make the other plants tall enough,” Mead said, as he prepared stakes of red osier dogwood and willow.
Jacob Newman, also of Adopt A Stream, elaborated that the group had secured a $180,000 water quality grant from the Department of Ecology, plus $60,000 in matching funds, for its Allen Creek restoration work.
“This is a body of water that’s impaired in a number of ways,” Newman said. “This planting should increase the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, and filter the pollution and runoff.”
Newman expects Adopt A Stream will return to Doleshel Park this summer, to see if the invasive species need to be trimmed back, and to conduct other maintenance.
“It’s been great to see this place turned into a proper park over the past few years, and to see the creek progress toward a more natural state,” Newman said.
