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Fall Planting Review

This has been a busy fall planting season for Stream Team and our partners. Eight restoration plantings were scheduled, and as we go to press seven of those have been completed. Hundreds of volunteers have turned out to help plant, mulch, and remove invasive weeds along streams from Gig Harbor to Eatonville. To date, more than 200 volunteers have planted more than 2,200 native trees and shrubs.

Ohop
Continuing the larger restoration efforts in the Ohop Creek floodplain, Stream Team once again partnered with the Nisqually Land Trust and Nisqually Indian Tribe. At this planting event, 37 volunteers installed 700 plants along Ohop Creek in Eatonville.

Silver Creek
Stream Team volunteers were joined by REI and local Lions Club members in Puyallup to plant 400 cedar trees along Silver Creek and build 250’ of trail along Meeker Creek.

Murray Creek
With the help of 16 Army National Guard members, Stream Team volunteers planted 308 native trees and shrubs along Murray Creek in Lakewood. These plants expand the planting we began in 2004.

Box Car Planting
Fifteen hardy volunteers came out on a crisp Saturday morning to help plant and tube 700 conifers along a side channel to the Mashel River in Eatonville. This planting was undertaken with the Nisqually Tribe to re-establish native vegetation in an area cleared of blackberries over this past summer.

Bee Spit
With the support of grants from the Mountaineers Foundation and the Puyallup River Watershed Foundation, Stream Team continued restoration work at Bee Spit Honey in Orting. Volunteers planted 510 native trees and shrubs in an understory previously dominated by invasive knotweed. With the help of 22 Boy Scouts led by Spencer Stewart, who is earning his Eagle Scout rank and 8 Stream Team volunteers, we completed the work in just one hour!

Wilkinson Park
Harbor Ridge Middle School students joined Stream Team volunteers to plant 160 trees and shrubs in the pond outlet swale at Wilkinson Park in Gig Harbor to shade out invasive reed canary grass.

Tahoma Farms
Hot off the heels of Harvestfest, Tahoma Farms owner Dan Hulse brought PCC Farmland Trust, Terra Organics, Earth Corps, and Stream Team together to plant 860 native trees and shrubs in hedgerows on two sides of his property in Orting. Seventy-five volunteers showed up and had all the plants in the ground in only three hours! With energy left, the group began the task of installing tree protector tubes. Over the winter, we will continue adding tubes and mulch so the plants will be ready for the summer.

Garfield Gulch

As some of you may have heard, Garfield gulch was vandalized in October; vandals pulled up native plants installed by volunteers to restore the site and provide a healthy riparian area. Two stewards of the Garfield gulch restoration site are Stream Team volunteers Rob and Kellen Girvin, a father and son team who not only work to restore the site, but also monitor water quality and take the time to teach Kellen’s fellow students about water quality at Stadium High School.

After learning of this news, Stream Team provided one and two gallon plants donated from a cancelled REI restoration planting to assist the Girvin’s efforts to restore Garfield Gulch. We are glad we could help out in some small way. Way to go Kellen and Rob!

School Group Activities

Stream Team was very active this fall assisting with environmental education efforts in local schools. Through plantings, stream monitoring, educational games, and weed removal, many students learned about the environment while also having fun.

On September 23, Stream Team partnered with Stewardship Partners, Pierce County Educators, Pierce County Surface Water Management, and teachers and students from Karshner Elementary in Puyallup to install two rain gardens at their school. This event tied it all together by including lessons on the water cycle, salmon, stream insects, and the effects of stormwater.

First Creek Middle School held a Youth Environmental Summit on October 21 that brought natural resource focused agencies and organizations from around the area together to discuss everything from green building to salmon habitat restoration. One hundred and sixty students from several middle schools and high schools within Tacoma rotated through three 25 minute small group discussions of their choosing, followed by a town hall forum where students were able to report out ideas from the discussion to the whole group. Jeff Renner of King 5 TV was on hand to talk to the students about environmental stewardship and the importance of developing environmentally conscious habits. Later that afternoon, the students were able to turn their discussions into action through several organized projects on the school grounds. Students planted 25 native shrubs, removed invasive weeds, and learned about water quality and stream insects and their role in the stream ecosystem. It was a great example of putting their knowledge to good use and making a difference in their community.

On October 25 a group of 16 students from Don Pruett’s Sumner High School class came out after school for a planting along Salmon Creek. The students planted 85 potted trees and shrubs, and made 25 live cuttings of willow trees to help establish shade along the stream. As they worked, there were plenty of salmon scurrying upstream to their spawning beds! Another group from Sumner High School also participated in stream monitoring training for their International Baccalaureate class.

Stream Team continued its environmental learning program with Elk Plain Elementary this fall at Clover Creek Reserve, as 58 students rotated through stations such as mulching, trail maintenance, and bird watching.

Rain Garden Wrap-Up

Another successful rain garden cluster installation event was held September 10 in Puyallup as five more rain gardens went in near DeCoursey Park. This was the last of three rain garden events put on by the City of Puyallup in 2011. To help promote the event, the ever popular Ciscoe Morris of King 5 TV’s “Gardening with Ciscoe” was on hand to broadcast his live radio show. Forty-one volunteers came out on a beautiful Saturday morning to help install the rain gardens, which are designed to help divert and filter storm water runoff from homes and roadways that would otherwise flow directly into Clarks Creek. At nearly 650 square feet, one of these five installed rain gardens is the largest of its kind in Puyallup to date.

In addition to the rain garden, one homeowner with property along Clarks Creek received a riparian planting. Volunteers helped plant approximately 30 native trees and shrubs, which will help provide important shade for the stream. For their participation, each homeowner also received a free rain barrel from Dan Borba of Down to Earth Gadgets and Gizmos. Borba also donated a rain barrel for a raffle that was held on the installation day.

Fall Fair Wrap-Up

Just as summer started to warm up, it was already time for the Western Washington Fair at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Fortunately, the good weather brought out a great crowd looking for ways to get involved in local outdoor activities.
This year we added a new watershed model to link Mt. Rainier National Park’s neighboring booth to ours. Stream Team volunteer Mike Viafore built the model over the summer, and it was a huge hit that drew people into the booth.
Thank you to the 19 Stream Team volunteers, Pierce Conservation District staff, and our partner jurisdictions who staffed our booth for the entire 17-day Fair!

Stream Team Receives Local and National Recognition Awards

For those of us working at the Conservation District, most days are spent nose-to-the-grindstone, working hard to develop projects and programs that will be interesting and informative to Pierce County residents. Our mission to educate and promote actions that protect our natural resources keeps us very busy! Every once in a while, if we do our jobs well, someone notices. In 2010, Stream Team received not one, but three important awards. We are honored to have received this recognition, but also quite humbled, because none of this would be possible without the amazing volunteers who participate in and support our program. To you we give our heartfelt thanks. So please, give yourselves a pat on the back and join us at any of the many activities available throughout the year!

Earth Team Regional Volunteer Award
The Pierce Stream Team was awarded the 2009 Regional Earth Team Volunteer Award from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for its work in streamside habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, and storm drain stenciling. “The Stream Team, headquartered in Puyallup, is one of only six groups nationwide to be honored with a regional award,” said NRCS State Conservationist Roylene Rides at the Door. Stream Team was officially presented with the award at the annual Washington Association of District Employees training in Leavenworth on June 14, 2010.

Some of the activities by Stream Team volunteers that contributed to this award include the following:

Installing a 100-foot buffer along a tributary to South Prairie Creek. Fifty-one volunteers planted 700 plants in an area cleared of invasive blackberry shrubs.
Partnering with the Nisqually Tribe to plant 1,200 plants on five acres along Tanwax Creek. Fifty-three volunteers took two days to minimize the impact of reed canary grass and improve habitat diversity.
Stream Team volunteers worked with the Nisqually Land Trust and the Nisqually Stream Stewards at Wilcox Flats to enhance a riparian buffer along the Nisqually River. Thirty-eight volunteers planted 1,400 native trees and shrubs in an area cleared of blackberries and other weeds.
Open lawn space was planted with native plants on the Foss High School property in Tacoma to further enhance the Snake Lake watershed. Thirty-five student volunteers planted 145 plants.
Stream, lake and creek water quality monitoring was conducted on an on-going basis by 90 volunteers on over 39 sites.
1,100 storm drains and catch basins were stenciled with “Dump No Waste – Drains to Stream” to educate the public about the problem of non-point source pollution caused by stormwater runoff.

Last year in Washington, Earth Team volunteers donated more than 5,700 hours to NRCS’ conservation efforts. “The monetary value of that effort is nearly $115,000,” Rides at the Door said, “but the benefit to the environment and to future generations is priceless. We’re delighted the Pierce Stream Team has been recognized with this prestigious award. And we’re delighted the Stream Team and so many other groups and individuals are helping us help the land as Earth Team volunteers.”

Additional information on the Earth Team Volunteer Program is available online at www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/volunteers.

Cascade Land Conservancy Educational Achievement Award
Since the spring of 2003, Pierce Stream Team has worked with the 4th grade teachers at Elk Plain School of Choice in the Bethel School District to introduce their students to the wonders of freshwater macroinvertebrates, remnant oak woodlands, prairie ecology, and salmon habitat. All of this learning has taken place in the outdoor classroom provided by the Clover Creek Reserve, a property owned and managed by the Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC) in Parkland, WA.

In recognition of the leadership and coordination required to maintain this relationship and direct the efforts of the Elk Plain students to the needs of the Clover Creek Reserve, Stream Team received the CLC’s John Stanford Educational Achievement Award on May 6, 2010. Held at the Washington State Convention Center, the CLC’s annual awards breakfast draws more than 1,800 people from the region’s environmental, business, and civic communities.

The award received by Stream Team, in honor of the late Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, celebrates the commitment to future generations and recognizes innovative projects that engender an appreciation for the natural environment through hands-on experience. Previous recipients of this award include Yakima WATERS Project and the Kittitas Environmental Education Network.

John Stanford Educational Achievement Award, celebrating our region's commitment to our future generations: Pierce Conservation District Stream Team for their stewardship, outreach and education of youth about streams and watersheds.

***Check out the YouTube video about this program!***

Coastal America Partnership Award
The Nisqually Land Trust and its partners received a Coastal America Partnership award for restoration efforts at Red Salmon Creek in June 2010. This is a tremendous honor that recognizes the efforts of multiple partners, education groups, and many volunteers in restoration of the Land Trust’s property and its relationship to restoration of the Nisqually Delta, the largest estuarine restoration project on the Pacific Coast. The Pierce Stream Team is happy to have been able to work on this project and to have been a partner in the efforts to improve salmon habitat along this stream.

All those who took part in or assisted with the Red Salmon Creek restoration efforts were invited to the awards ceremony and celebration on June 4 at Red Salmon Creek.


	News & Highlights				Close Window
	Fall Planting Review This has been a busy fall planting season for Stream Team and our partners. Eight restoration plantings were scheduled, and as we go to press seven of those have been completed. Hundreds of volunteers have turned out to help plant, mulch, and remove invasive weeds along streams from Gig Harbor to Eatonville. To date, more than 200 volunteers have planted more than 2,200 native trees and shrubs. Ohop Continuing the larger restoration efforts in the Ohop Creek floodplain, Stream Team once again partnered with the Nisqually Land Trust and Nisqually Indian Tribe. At this planting event, 37 volunteers installed 700 plants along Ohop Creek in Eatonville. Silver Creek Stream Team volunteers were joined by REI and local Lions Club members in Puyallup to plant 400 cedar trees along Silver Creek and build 250’ of trail along Meeker Creek. Murray Creek With the help of 16 Army National Guard members, Stream Team volunteers planted 308 native trees and shrubs along Murray Creek in Lakewood. These plants expand the planting we began in 2004. Box Car Planting Fifteen hardy volunteers came out on a crisp Saturday morning to help plant and tube 700 conifers along a side channel to the Mashel River in Eatonville. This planting was undertaken with the Nisqually Tribe to re-establish native vegetation in an area cleared of blackberries over this past summer. Bee Spit With the support of grants from the Mountaineers Foundation and the Puyallup River Watershed Foundation, Stream Team continued restoration work at Bee Spit Honey in Orting. Volunteers planted 510 native trees and shrubs in an understory previously dominated by invasive knotweed. With the help of 22 Boy Scouts led by Spencer Stewart, who is earning his Eagle Scout rank and 8 Stream Team volunteers, we completed the work in just one hour! Wilkinson Park Harbor Ridge Middle School students joined Stream Team volunteers to plant 160 trees and shrubs in the pond outlet swale at Wilkinson Park in Gig Harbor to shade out invasive reed canary grass. Tahoma Farms Hot off the heels of Harvestfest, Tahoma Farms owner Dan Hulse brought PCC Farmland Trust, Terra Organics, Earth Corps, and Stream Team together to plant 860 native trees and shrubs in hedgerows on two sides of his property in Orting. Seventy-five volunteers showed up and had all the plants in the ground in only three hours! With energy left, the group began the task of installing tree protector tubes. Over the winter, we will continue adding tubes and mulch so the plants will be ready for the summer. Garfield Gulch As some of you may have heard, Garfield gulch was vandalized in October; vandals pulled up native plants installed by volunteers to restore the site and provide a healthy riparian area. Two stewards of the Garfield gulch restoration site are Stream Team volunteers Rob and Kellen Girvin, a father and son team who not only work to restore the site, but also monitor water quality and take the time to teach Kellen’s fellow students about water quality at Stadium High School. After learning of this news, Stream Team provided one and two gallon plants donated from a cancelled REI restoration planting to assist the Girvin’s efforts to restore Garfield Gulch. We are glad we could help out in some small way. Way to go Kellen and Rob! School Group Activities Stream Team was very active this fall assisting with environmental education efforts in local schools. Through plantings, stream monitoring, educational games, and weed removal, many students learned about the environment while also having fun. On September 23, Stream Team partnered with Stewardship Partners, Pierce County Educators, Pierce County Surface Water Management, and teachers and students from Karshner Elementary in Puyallup to install two rain gardens at their school. This event tied it all together by including lessons on the water cycle, salmon, stream insects, and the effects of stormwater. First Creek Middle School held a Youth Environmental Summit on October 21 that brought natural resource focused agencies and organizations from around the area together to discuss everything from green building to salmon habitat restoration. One hundred and sixty students from several middle schools and high schools within Tacoma rotated through three 25 minute small group discussions of their choosing, followed by a town hall forum where students were able to report out ideas from the discussion to the whole group. Jeff Renner of King 5 TV was on hand to talk to the students about environmental stewardship and the importance of developing environmentally conscious habits. Later that afternoon, the students were able to turn their discussions into action through several organized projects on the school grounds. Students planted 25 native shrubs, removed invasive weeds, and learned about water quality and stream insects and their role in the stream ecosystem. It was a great example of putting their knowledge to good use and making a difference in their community. On October 25 a group of 16 students from Don Pruett’s Sumner High School class came out after school for a planting along Salmon Creek. The students planted 85 potted trees and shrubs, and made 25 live cuttings of willow trees to help establish shade along the stream. As they worked, there were plenty of salmon scurrying upstream to their spawning beds! Another group from Sumner High School also participated in stream monitoring training for their International Baccalaureate class. Stream Team continued its environmental learning program with Elk Plain Elementary this fall at Clover Creek Reserve, as 58 students rotated through stations such as mulching, trail maintenance, and bird watching. Rain Garden Wrap-Up Another successful rain garden cluster installation event was held September 10 in Puyallup as five more rain gardens went in near DeCoursey Park. This was the last of three rain garden events put on by the City of Puyallup in 2011. To help promote the event, the ever popular Ciscoe Morris of King 5 TV’s “Gardening with Ciscoe” was on hand to broadcast his live radio show. Forty-one volunteers came out on a beautiful Saturday morning to help install the rain gardens, which are designed to help divert and filter storm water runoff from homes and roadways that would otherwise flow directly into Clarks Creek. At nearly 650 square feet, one of these five installed rain gardens is the largest of its kind in Puyallup to date. In addition to the rain garden, one homeowner with property along Clarks Creek received a riparian planting. Volunteers helped plant approximately 30 native trees and shrubs, which will help provide important shade for the stream. For their participation, each homeowner also received a free rain barrel from Dan Borba of Down to Earth Gadgets and Gizmos. Borba also donated a rain barrel for a raffle that was held on the installation day. Fall Fair Wrap-Up Just as summer started to warm up, it was already time for the Western Washington Fair at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Fortunately, the good weather brought out a great crowd looking for ways to get involved in local outdoor activities. This year we added a new watershed model to link Mt. Rainier National Park’s neighboring booth to ours. Stream Team volunteer Mike Viafore built the model over the summer, and it was a huge hit that drew people into the booth. Thank you to the 19 Stream Team volunteers, Pierce Conservation District staff, and our partner jurisdictions who staffed our booth for the entire 17-day Fair! Stream Team Receives Local and National Recognition Awards For those of us working at the Conservation District, most days are spent nose-to-the-grindstone, working hard to develop projects and programs that will be interesting and informative to Pierce County residents. Our mission to educate and promote actions that protect our natural resources keeps us very busy! Every once in a while, if we do our jobs well, someone notices. In 2010, Stream Team received not one, but three important awards. We are honored to have received this recognition, but also quite humbled, because none of this would be possible without the amazing volunteers who participate in and support our program. To you we give our heartfelt thanks. So please, give yourselves a pat on the back and join us at any of the many activities available throughout the year! Earth Team Regional Volunteer Award The Pierce Stream Team was awarded the 2009 Regional Earth Team Volunteer Award from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for its work in streamside habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, and storm drain stenciling. “The Stream Team, headquartered in Puyallup, is one of only six groups nationwide to be honored with a regional award,” said NRCS State Conservationist Roylene Rides at the Door. Stream Team was officially presented with the award at the annual Washington Association of District Employees training in Leavenworth on June 14, 2010. Some of the activities by Stream Team volunteers that contributed to this award include the following: Installing a 100-foot buffer along a tributary to South Prairie Creek. Fifty-one volunteers planted 700 plants in an area cleared of invasive blackberry shrubs. Partnering with the Nisqually Tribe to plant 1,200 plants on five acres along Tanwax Creek. Fifty-three volunteers took two days to minimize the impact of reed canary grass and improve habitat diversity. Stream Team volunteers worked with the Nisqually Land Trust and the Nisqually Stream Stewards at Wilcox Flats to enhance a riparian buffer along the Nisqually River. Thirty-eight volunteers planted 1,400 native trees and shrubs in an area cleared of blackberries and other weeds. Open lawn space was planted with native plants on the Foss High School property in Tacoma to further enhance the Snake Lake watershed. Thirty-five student volunteers planted 145 plants. Stream, lake and creek water quality monitoring was conducted on an on-going basis by 90 volunteers on over 39 sites. 1,100 storm drains and catch basins were stenciled with “Dump No Waste – Drains to Stream” to educate the public about the problem of non-point source pollution caused by stormwater runoff. Last year in Washington, Earth Team volunteers donated more than 5,700 hours to NRCS’ conservation efforts. “The monetary value of that effort is nearly $115,000,” Rides at the Door said, “but the benefit to the environment and to future generations is priceless. We’re delighted the Pierce Stream Team has been recognized with this prestigious award. And we’re delighted the Stream Team and so many other groups and individuals are helping us help the land as Earth Team volunteers.” Additional information on the Earth Team Volunteer Program is available online at www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/volunteers. Cascade Land Conservancy Educational Achievement Award Since the spring of 2003, Pierce Stream Team has worked with the 4th grade teachers at Elk Plain School of Choice in the Bethel School District to introduce their students to the wonders of freshwater macroinvertebrates, remnant oak woodlands, prairie ecology, and salmon habitat. All of this learning has taken place in the outdoor classroom provided by the Clover Creek Reserve, a property owned and managed by the Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC) in Parkland, WA. In recognition of the leadership and coordination required to maintain this relationship and direct the efforts of the Elk Plain students to the needs of the Clover Creek Reserve, Stream Team received the CLC’s John Stanford Educational Achievement Award on May 6, 2010. Held at the Washington State Convention Center, the CLC’s annual awards breakfast draws more than 1,800 people from the region’s environmental, business, and civic communities. The award received by Stream Team, in honor of the late Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, celebrates the commitment to future generations and recognizes innovative projects that engender an appreciation for the natural environment through hands-on experience. Previous recipients of this award include Yakima WATERS Project and the Kittitas Environmental Education Network. John Stanford Educational Achievement Award, celebrating our region's commitment to our future generations: Pierce Conservation District Stream Team for their stewardship, outreach and education of youth about streams and watersheds. *Check out the YouTube video about this program!* Coastal America Partnership Award The Nisqually Land Trust and its partners received a Coastal America Partnership award for restoration efforts at Red Salmon Creek in June 2010. This is a tremendous honor that recognizes the efforts of multiple partners, education groups, and many volunteers in restoration of the Land Trust’s property and its relationship to restoration of the Nisqually Delta, the largest estuarine restoration project on the Pacific Coast. The Pierce Stream Team is happy to have been able to work on this project and to have been a partner in the efforts to improve salmon habitat along this stream. All those who took part in or assisted with the Red Salmon Creek restoration efforts were invited to the awards ceremony and celebration on June 4 at Red Salmon Creek.
	Stream Team 5430 66th Avenue East P.O. Box 1057 Puyallup, WA 98371 Phone: (253) 845-2973 Toll Free: (866) 845-9485 streamteam@piercecountycd.org